Vikings at Bears: Snap Counts, Stats, And Observations

For the first time since 2007, and only the third time this century, the Minnesota Vikings traveled to Soldier Field in Chicago and came home victorious, by the score 0f 23-20. It was a game that for 55 minutes the Vikings had no business winning, as the offense sputtered and stopped, and the defense gave up a long scoring drive that put the Bears ahead with only 4:55 remaining. But in the last five minutes of the game they put together two scoring drives, first to tie, and then to win the game, as time expired.

The Vikings lost the turnover battle, lost the time of possession battle, especially in the second half, played just okay defensively, but won special teams decisively, and that turned out to be the difference. Let's take a look at some snap counts and stats, courtesy of the NFL's Game Statistic and Information System.

Offense:

On the offensive line, four of five starters played all 58 offensive snaps. Let's take a look:

I'll admit, when Clemmings went down, I thought it looked a lot worse than it turned out to be, but he only missed 10% of game time, which is good. It appears that although the Vikings line was hit hard with injuries earlier in the year, they've found comfort with the current starting five guys, and as a unit, I think they played their best game of the season against the Bears. According to Pro Football Focus, the Vikings did a pretty good job in giving Teddy Bridgewater a clean pocket. Kalil gave up three hurries, one hit, and one sack. Fusco had five hurries, Clemmings four, and Berger just one.

In the running game, the Vikings line played well, consistently opening up running lanes for Adrian Peterson. The Vikings as a team ran for 147 yards on 25 carries, and averaged 5.9 yards per rush, with Petersonleading the way with 103 yards on 20 carries. But Peterson only carried the ball six times for 28 yards in the second half, as the Vikings seemed to really move away from what was working well in the first half, and the Bears dominated the time of possession in the second half, to the tune of 19:28 to 10:32. Let's look at snap counts and stats by the running backs.

Kind of interesting to me that Jerick McKinnon is seeing so little playing time, but making the most of his limited opportunities when he's in there. Asiata is a decent enough receiver out of the backfield, but he's not a guy that has breakaway speed like McKinnon does. According to PFF, of Zach Line's 14 snaps, he was tasked to run block on 13 of them, and finished with a +3.1 grade in that department.

Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater's day was quite a mixed bag. He had one of the more forgettable first half's in recent memory, to include the Christian Ponder era. Bridgewater was a paltry 7/14 for 41 yards and an interception in the first half, as the Bears completely shut down the Vikings through the air. The interception was a poorly thrown ball right before halftime, and the Bears immediately turned that into a touchdown with 49 seconds left, and the teams went into the locker room tied 10-10. So to me it makes his final stat line even more remarkable: 17/30 for 187 yards, 1 TD, 1 interception, and a QB rating of 72.5. Not great numbers by any stretch, but he had a rather remarkable last 4:55 to close out the game, and literally saved his best for last.

On the last two scoring drives, Bridgewater went 6/8 for 105 yards and the 40 yard catch and run TD by Diggs. He also had a 19 yard run on second and 18 after being sacked for the first and only time that day. So to put it in perspective, Bridgewater accounted for 208 yards of total offense passing and running the ball during the game. 60% of his total yards (59.6%, to be exact) came in the last 4:55 of game time.

Vikings receivers and tight ends also had a mixed bag, except for WR Stefon Diggs. Let's take a look at the playing time and stat line for the receivers:

Diggs has quickly become the Vikings #1 wide receiver, both in terms of throws targeted, receptions, yards, and pretty much everything. For tight ends, Rudolph had one more offensive snap than Diggs had as a WR, but MyCole Pruitt is getting more and more playing time. His 28 snaps were a season high, besting his previous snap count of 16 back in week three. Interestingly enough, on Charles Johnson's 35 yard grab that helped set up the game winning field goal on the final drive, he wasn't even supposed to be in. Diggs hurt his knee on the previous play and had to come out of the game, and Johnson made the most of his opportunity.

The emergence of Diggs has been bad news for Jariius Wright and Cordarrelle Patterson, as they're seeing the field less and less with each passing game.

Defense:

The defensive line has been beset with the injury bug, as DT Shariff Floyd missed his second game, and DE Justin Trattou was also deactivated  for the second straight week with an injury, but the Vikings still dressed seven defensive linemen. I thought they would harass Jay Cutler and manhandle an injury depleted Bears offensive line all day, but Cutler was only sacked one time. Let's look at the line stats:

According to PFF, Hunter made the most of his 22 snaps, registering one QB hit, one hurry, and the Vikings only sack of the day. the normally reliable Tom Johnson struggled against the run, registering a -4.9 PFF rating, but overall, the Vikings were respectable against the run, allowing 97 yards on 25 carries, an average of only 3.9 yards per carry, and the longest run they gave up was 14 yards to Matt Forte. The Bears leading rusher was Jeremy Langford, who ended up with 46 yards on 12 carries, and finished out the game after Forte left with a knee injury in the second half. Forte finished with 41 yards on 10 carries.

For the linebackers, it's truly become the UCLA mafia, as Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr saw almost all the snaps Sunday:

Collectively, the Vikings defense only registered three tackles for loss all day; Hunter's sack, Linval Joseph had one, and Brian Robison had the other. PFF tells us that Barr had the best overall pass rush grade with a +2.1 rating, while registering three hurries and one hit on Cutler.

The secondary was kind of a mixed bag. Alshon Jeffery torched the Vikings again, this time with 10 catches, 116 yards, and the TD right before halftime. And it didn't seem to matter who the Vikings put on him, as everyone struggled trying to cover him. Before we get to that, let's look at the snap counts:

Now, back to Jeffery. PFF broke down his game, and on his receptions, Newman was responsible for five catches on eight targets for 74 yards, and Rhodes gave up five receptions on six targets for 42 yards and the lone receiving TD. Overall, Jay Cutler had a good day, again, like he always does, going 22/33 for 211 yards, one TD, and no interceptions.

I'm kind of surprised Trae Waynes hasn't seen the field a little bit more, and the most disappointing stat for me is seeing that Andrew Sendejo played all the defensive snaps at SS. Woof.

It wasn't the prettiest of wins for the Vikings, but it was a huge win nonetheless.

This is something we'll try and do every week, as we've gotten a fair amount of emails and comments asking for something like this. I hope you enjoyed it, and if there's something else you's like us to talk about here, let us know, and we'll try to accommodate. Thanks for reading, and we'll be back with another snap count next Tuesday or Wednesday.