Defense could lead the Minnesota Vikings to the Super Bowl

The Minnesota Vikings proved once again that their defense is for real on Sunday.

It is not a secret that the Minnesota Vikings have a really, really good defense, but they proved it again on Sunday afternoon. Granted, the Vikings were playing a Chicago Bears team that lacks some offensive weapons, but the defense still played so impressively that the team could ride the unit all the way to the Super Bowl next month.

The Vikings defense only allowed their divisional rival to score three points on Sunday and that was only on a fourth quarter field goal that Mike Nugent had to hit from 55-yards. The other score for the Bears came on some special teams trickery when the boys from the Windy City juked who was returning the punt and easily scampered into the end zone when the Vikings special teams unit ran to stop the wrong Bear.

It was virtually a flawless game on the defensive side of the ball. Multiple times the Vikings made the Bears go scoreless when they had the ball in the red zone. It was such a stout showing that a conspiracy theory could be had that the Vikings wanted to let the Bears get the ball in the red zone so the Vikings could test out some things in their red zone and goal line defensive schemes.

Harrison Smith and Ben Gedeon led the way for the Vikings both registering six tackles each with Andrew Sendejo and Anthony Barr right behind them with five tackles. The purple only registered one sack, a great one from Brian Robison, but that does not show the havoc the team was causing the Bears offense and their quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

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While some concerns might revolve around the Vikings offense and their lack of power the past couple of weeks, it was shown on Sunday afternoon that the Vikings might not need an explosive offense to succeed in the playoffs. The Vikings defense is playing so well that the team only needs some basic scoring from the offense for the team to be successful.

It might not be the most exciting way for a team to win a championship, but if any team can win a Super Bowl based off their defense this season, well, it sure looks like that team would be the Vikings.

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The Vikings with the win clinched a first round bye in the playoffs, so they won’t play this upcoming weekend. Minnesota does know when they next play. The Vikings will play the last game of the Divisional Round on Sunday, January 14 at 3:40 Central.