Vikings’ quest gets a boost

MINNEAPOLIS -- If the Minnesota Vikings want to be this season’s Cinderella team in the NFL, maybe they needed a game like this.

Maybe they needed the turnovers, the botched extra point, the jitters that can come with playing before a national television audience.

They also needed the win.

So their come-from-behind 20-13 victory over the Chicago Bears at the Metrodome on Monday night accomplished two things.

First, it showed they possess a quality that can be vital down the stretch -- the ability to survive an off day.

It also put them at 8-6, a game ahead of New Orleans and Washington for the final NFC wild-card playoff spot with two games to go.

“It’s a big win,” quarterback Tarvaris Jackson said. “It shows people, it shows ourselves, that we can win all types of ways.”

Fittingly, the deciding touchdown came on a broken play in the fourth quarter. Jackson had left the game because of a leg cramp and replacement Brooks Bollinger struggled to hand the ball to Adrian Peterson.

But the rookie running back --the one player who has made the biggest difference for Minnesota -- bounced outside, froze a defender with a blinding cut and scored on an eight-yard run.

As Chicago defensive end Adewale Ogunleye had said earlier: “He’s a man-child right now. When you can get a guy who runs like that, it makes everyone else look better.”

Monday night’s game was a study in contrasts -- two teams headed in opposite directions.

The Bears, less than a year removed from a Super Bowl appearance, have slumped to 5-9 and are reduced to talking about playing out the schedule for pride. With a number of top players becoming free agents, they have been glancing around the locker room, wondering who might be gone by next fall.

The Vikings, meanwhile, appear headed for the postseason on the strength of five consecutive victories, remarkable for a team that not so long ago stood at 2-5.

The reason for the turnaround? The short answer is a league-leading ground game fueled by Peterson, who ranks third among NFL rushers with 1,278 yards and set a single-game record with 296 yards against San Diego in early November.

But the Vikings also have Chester Taylor, a change-of-pace back who led the team past San Francisco last week, a game in which Peterson ran 14 times for three yards.

And, on defense, Minnesota came in ranked No. 1 in the league at stopping the run.

Defense proved crucial Monday night. The Vikings’ offense turned the ball over in its territory on its first two possessions, but the defense held Chicago to six points.

It was a 6-3 game until late in the second quarter, when Nathan Vasher intercepted Jackson’s ill-advised pass over the middle and returned it to the Minnesota 12-yard line, setting up Chicago’s only touchdown two plays later, good for a 13-3 lead..

But that was all the Bears would get. Jackson -- who completed 18 of 29 passes for 249 yards but had three intercepted -- bounced right back, driving his team for a field goal to make the halftime score 13-6.

The turning point came late in the third quarter with Chicago holding a 13-12 lead and moving past midfield. On fourth and one, quarterback Kyle Orton overthrew an open receiver.

Minnesota took possession and took control. Peterson burst through the left side for 16 yards. Then Taylor ran for nine. Jackson mixed in a pass completion and a timely scramble before Peterson, the game’s leading rusher with 20 carries for 78 yards, scored on his nifty touchdown run.

Although it’s probably too early to be entirely convinced of the Vikings’ revival, their hot streak has included impressive performances against the Chargers and New York Giants, mixed with wins over lower-rung teams such as San Francisco, Detroit and Chicago.

Jackson, who’d looked more consistent in recent weeks, showed signs of his former shaky self Monday.

But Minnesota survived the type of game good teams need to survive.

“Once you start winning, it becomes contagious,” offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie said. “Everybody starts liking it.”

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david.wharton@latimes.com