Winners and losers: 5 takeaways from Vikings wild win over Bears in Week 12

For roughly 58 minutes on Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field, the Minnesota Vikings dominated the Chicago Bears and were seemingly set to cruise to their fourth straight victory after John Parker Romo's 26-yard field goal gave them a 27-16 lead with just 1:56 to play.

But the Bears had other plans.

Following a 55-yard kick return from DeAndre Carter, Caleb Williams led an eight-play, 40-yard drive that culminated with a one-yard touchdown pass to Keenan Allen and a two-point conversion to D.J. Moore, thus bringing the Bears within three.

And after Chicago successfully executed an onside kick, Williams then drove the Bears 27 yards in 22 seconds to set up a 48-yard field goal from Cairo Santos, tying the game at 27-27 as time expired.

Thankfully for the Vikings, that momentum didn't carry over to the extra period. The defense got the stop it needed, and Sam Darnold capped off his big day by leading a 68-yard drive to set up a game-winning 29-yard field goal from Romo.

With the 30-27 victory, Minnesota improved to 9-2 on the season and kept pace in the NFC North, remaining just one game back of the Detroit Lions, who improved to 10-1 with an easy win over the Indianapolis Colts, and one game up on the Green Bay Packers, who improved to 8-3 with a victory over the injury-plagued San Francisco 49ers.

Here's a look at some winners and losers from the Vikings' wild win over the Bears, who they'll see again in just three weeks at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Winner: Sam Darnold

From an overall standpoint, this was one of Sam Darnold's best games of the year.

For starters, he hit the 300-yard mark for the first time, completing 22 of 34 passes for a season-high 330 yards. So, there's that.

Plus, he was interception-free for the second straight game and failed to commit a turnover of any kind for the first time in exactly a month. As Darnold still leads the league in that department, that's always an added bonus.

But what stood out the most was the poise he showed in the overtime period. Given what happened in the final two minutes of regulation, it would have been very easy for Minnesota as a whole just to shut down and give this game away.

But Darnold didn't let that happen.

Despite taking a sack on the first play of the drive and getting back up multiple times due to penalties, Darnold kept his cool and completed six of six passes for 90 yards to set up Romo's game-winner.

Winner: Jordan Addison

With Justin Jefferson facing double- and triple-teams all afternoon, the other Vikings pass-catchers needed to step up, and nobody did so more than Jordan Addison.

Targeted a season-high nine times, Addison caught a career-best eight passes, one of which went for a career-long 69 yards, and ultimately ended his day with a career-high 162 yards and a touchdown.

If that's not a winner, we're not sure what is.

Winner: T.J. Hockenson

After getting just three targets and catching only two passes for 13 yards in last week's win over the Tennessee Titans, T.J. Hockenson was much more involved in the offense against the Bears.

Tying Addison with a team-high nine targets, Hockenson had his best game yet since returning to action, catching seven passes for 114 yards, none bigger than his 29-yard reception in overtime that set up Romo's game-winning kick.

With Jefferson getting limited touches, Kevin O'Connell has to feel great knowing guys like Addison and Hockenson can keep the Vikings' passing attack moving.

Winner: Aaron Jones

The Minnesota offense wasn't all through the air, though, as Aaron Jones had a big day, just as we predicted he would.

For just the second time this year, the former Packer hit the 100-yard mark on the ground, carrying the ball 22 times for a season-high 106 yards and scoring his first touchdown since Week 7. He did lose a fumble for the second straight week, but it ultimately proved not to matter as the Minnesota defense forced a Chicago punt on the ensuing possession.

In addition to his 106 yards on the ground, Jones added another 23 yards on three receptions. Outside of the fumble, of course, this was an encouraging performance as he looked fully healed from the rib injury that seemingly caused his worst game of the year a week ago against Tennessee.

Loser: Vikings' 4th-quarter defense

If we're being honest, we were all set not to have any losers here, as the Vikings' defense put forth a fantastic effort for most of this game.

After giving up a first-quarter touchdown to Roschon Johnson, Minnesota held Chicago to just three points over the next two quarters, forcing several three-and-outs in the process.

But the fourth quarter was a completely different story. And those last two minutes were just atrocious.

As we ran through some of what happened above, we won't rehash all of it. But the Bears should have in no way, shape, or form had a chance to win this football game.

As aggressive as Brian Flores' unit has been all season and had been for most of this game, watching the Vikings go into far-too-soft coverage was quite surprising. Caleb Williams certainly deserves a little credit for making some plays. But Minnesota gave him a lot.

The onside kick obviously can't be pinned on the defense, as Chicago got lucky that the football grazed Johnny Mundt's leg. But the defense can be blamed for allowing D.J. Moore to get to where he did on the field to catch the bullet thrown by Williams, which set up the game-tying kick from Santos.

To their credit, the Vikings stepped up in overtime after the Bears won the coin toss.

Andrew Van Ginkel, who had another fantastic game, and Jonathan Bullard shut down a Williams run on first down, and Jonathan Greenard notched his second sack of the day on second down to force a long third-down attempt. Minnesota stopped Chicago there as well, of course, thus giving Darnold the chance to do what he did.

The Vikings were genuinely fortunate to walk away with a victory here. In those last two minutes of regulation, the Minnesota defense wasn't playing to win. It was playing not to lose, and we all know there's a difference. They got the win this time, but they might not be so lucky next time.