Aaron Jones grateful Vikings didn’t ‘fire’ him during win over Bears

Some say players get coaches fired. But early in Sunday’s 30-27 overtime win at Chicago, Vikings running back Aaron Jones thought he’d gotten himself terminated.

Minnesota drove 72 yards on its opening possession, thanks to gashing 13- and 41-yard runs by Jones. So when Sam Darnold handed off to Jones again on second-and-goal from the 1, no one expected anything other than an early Vikings lead. No one, that is, except Chicago’s Jonathan Owens.

The Bears’ safety stripped his former Packers teammate and recovered the fumble to thwart Minnesota’s momentum. Jones and the Vikings (9-2) weren’t any happier when Chicago took a 7-0 lead later in the first quarter.

“I tried to keep it together on the sideline,” Jones, who played his first six NFL seasons in Green Bay, told Stacey Dales on the field after the game. “It’s hard because I want to get into the end zone so bad. You lose the ball, those are things that get you fired.”

Rather that firing Jones, head coach Kevin O’Connell opted for a human-resources intervention. His resources were Darnold (22 of 34, 330 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions), Jordan Addison (eight catches, 162 yards, one touchdown) and T.J. Hockenson (seven catches, 114 yards). And when the Vikings called gave Jones another chance near the goal line, this time he punched it in to give Minnesota a 24-10 lead late in the third quarter.

“I can’t do that; I’ve got to be better than that but I’m glad I got a chance to make up for it,” said Jones, who racked up 106 yards on 22 carries. “I told Coach, ‘Thank you for sticking with me.’ It means the world to me.”

Minnesota’s world nearly imploded after Chicago erased a 27-16 deficit in the final two minutes, recovering an onside kick before a Cairo Santos field goal sent it to overtime tied at 27.

That’s when Darnold showed he can be the leader who can guide Minnesota deep into January. Chicago won the overtime toss and got the ball, but the Vikings forced a three-and-out. Darnold then converted a critical third-and-10 with a pass to Addison, and moved the chains again on a 20-yard strike to Justin Jefferson. But the quarterback’s biggest weapon was Hockenson, who had three catches for 48 yards on the game-winning march, including a 29-yard dagger to set up John Parker Romo’s 29-yard sudden-death field goal.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, they compete in a brutal division. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the NFC North is the NFL’s first division since the league expanded to 32 teams in 2002 that has three teams with at least eight wins through 12 weeks. And Minnesota’s remaining schedule includes those other two clubs in the North (Green Bay and Detroit in Weeks 17-18) as well as Arizona, Atlanta and Seattle – each of which own at least a share of their division leads. If the Vikings can somehow survive, that Jan. 5 season finale at Detroit might very well decide the No. 1 seed in the NFC. They’ll start that stretch on Sunday at home against the Cardinals (6-5).

For more information on the Vikings and Bears, visit the Minnesota and Chicago team pages at ProFootballPost.com.