{"id":98035,"date":"2020-11-15T17:36:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T22:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=98035"},"modified":"2020-11-15T17:36:16","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T22:36:16","slug":"vikings-monday-night-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/11\/15\/vikings-monday-night-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Night Football a Must-Win for the Minnesota Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams\/vikings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Vikings<\/a> need to beat the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams\/bears\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Bears<\/a> on Monday Night Football. Heading into the bye at 1-5 meant that Minnesota had a very small chance of making the playoffs. Things can change pretty quickly in the NFL, though. After two-straight wins against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams\/packers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Green Bay Packers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/nfl-teams\/lions\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Detroit Lions<\/a>, the Vikings now have a shot at making the postseason.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">The Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football<\/h2>\n<p>Before the Detroit game, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VikingsGazette\/status\/1326169603450482688\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Minnesota had a 14 percent chance of making the playoffs<\/a>, per FiveThirtyEight. After beating Detroit, <a href=\"https:\/\/projects.fivethirtyeight.com\/2020-nfl-predictions\/?ex_cid=rrpromo\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Minnesota\u2019s chances jumped to 24 percent<\/a>. While these percentages are encouraging, Minnesota must continue playing well.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago usually presents a difficult challenge for the Vikings, especially at Soldier Field. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CousKi00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kirk Cousins<\/strong><\/a> has yet to beat the Bears since coming to Minnesota. Even worse, <a href=\"https:\/\/purpleptsd.com\/three-keys-minnesoa-vikings-chicago-bears\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cousins is 0-9 in his career on Monday Night Football<\/a>. History suggests that Minnesota won\u2019t do well tomorrow night, but there is reason for optimism.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the aforementioned two-game winning streak offers some hope. Perhaps even more encouraging is the way that Minnesota is winning. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CookDa01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Dalvin Cook<\/strong><\/a> is playing at an MVP level. Against Green Bay, Cook had 163 rushing yards, 63 receiving yards, and four touchdowns. Last week against Detroit, Cook had 206 rushing yards, 46 receiving yards, and two touchdowns. Cook, who has scored in every game he has played this year, needs to deliver a similar performance against Chicago.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">DALVIN COOK. 70 YARDS. UNSTOPPABLE. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SKOL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SKOL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DETvsMIN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#DETvsMIN<\/a> on CBS<br \/>\ud83d\udcf1: NFL app \/\/ Yahoo Sports app: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MXkgo0fhcN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/MXkgo0fhcN<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/objwLHTktz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/objwLHTktz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL\/status\/1325536876866854912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 8, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Apart from Cook, the key likely rests in Cousins. The Vikings have won three games this season; Cousins hasn\u2019t turned the ball over in all three games. The Vikings have lost five games this season; Cousins has turned the ball over in all five games. The trend, a simple as it may be, illustrates an important reality: the Vikings simply aren\u2019t good enough to overcome turnovers from Cousins. He will need to be smart tomorrow night.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Chicago\u2019s Struggles<\/h3>\n<p>The Bears have essentially taken the opposite path as the Vikings. They began 5-1 but have now lost three games in a row. <strong>Matt Nagy<\/strong> has handed off play-calling duties. Things have gotten so bad with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FoleNi00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Nick Foles<\/strong><\/a> that the Bears now want <strong>Mitch Trubisky<\/strong> to start again. The issue, of course, is that Trubisky is injured.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Minnesota\u2019s defense has struggled this year. There are a variety of reasons why, foremost among them being the myriad of injuries. Nevertheless, they should be able to slow Chicago. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MontDa01.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>David Montgomery<\/strong><\/a> won\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagobears.com\/news\/injury-update-who-s-in-who-s-out-for-vikings-game-monday-night-football\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">be able to play<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RobiAl02.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Allen Robinson<\/strong><\/a> is questionable. This is a game that favors the Vikings.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota\u2019s defense is in a good position to succeed against Chicago. The being said, fans shouldn\u2019t get overly confident. The special teams\u2019 units are going to need to be much, much better. Last week\u2019s two blocked punts, missed PAT, and lackluster returns certainly leave a lot of room for improvement. The offense will likely have some difficulty moving the ball against Chicago\u2019s defense. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=SmitIr01,SmitIr00&amp;search=Irv+Smith&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Irv Smith<\/a><\/strong> had two touchdowns last week, but he won\u2019t be able to play on Monday night. There is some pressure, then, on <strong>Mike Zimmer<\/strong>\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>Beating Chicago on Monday Night Football means the Vikings will have completed an impressive feat: back-to-back-to-back wins against divisional opponents. Given their unimpressive start to the season, Minnesota essentially needs to win this game to keep their playoff hopes alive. If Minnesota pulls off the big win against Chicago, then it may be time to start looking ahead to what could be an impressive turnaround for the Vikings.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"HgQLpNdiQ-ll6t15H6QYkw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1285157418\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'HgQLpNdiQ-ll6t15H6QYkw',sig:'Ea2_gZj-9nEJP3N_WrwYjsmg82eO8bJbuvSc47H5EdA=',w:'594px',h:'407px',items:'1285157418',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Vikings need to beat the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. If they do, Minnesota will keep their playoff hopes alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3613,"featured_media":98057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,26],"tags":[1586,61,403,3385,802,142,40,970],"class_list":["post-98035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-vikings","tag-dalvin-cook","tag-football","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-matt-nagy","tag-mike-zimmer","tag-monday-night-football","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}