I cautioned Viking fans against getting too excited at the prospect of going into Chicago and beating the Bears. Why?
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Because the Vikings still have a lot of issues on offense and the Bears still have a lot of explosive playmakers.
Both those factors showed up in Sunday’s 21-13 Bears win over Minnesota at Soldier Field.
The story in the first half was Jay Cutler working the outside to Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery against a badly overmatched Josh Robinson.
With no pass rush in his face, Cutler was able to tear up the Vikings’ coverage for big plays, including a pair of TD passes before halftime.
The Bears easily erased an early 10-0 deficit. The Vikings had gone ahead early thanks to a Blair Walsh field goal followed by a Teddy Bridgewater TD pass set up by a beautifully conceived and executed fake punt.
The Vikings came out in the second half needing to make something happen, either on offense, defense or special teams.
The big play seemingly came their way when Harrison Smith picked off Jay Cutler and ran it back to set up good field position. But another lame duck offensive series was followed by a Blair Walsh field goal miss.
The Vikings’ failure to capitalize on Cutler’s interception was killer. The Bears would come back on their next offensive possession, drive the ball down the field and cash in with another TD pass from Jay Cutler to Brandon Marshall against Josh Robinson’s coverage.
That gave the Bears a 21-10 lead. The Vikings would give themselves a chance at a late rally, driving for a field goal and then forcing the Bears to punt.
With no time outs and the clock under two minutes, Teddy Bridgewater led the Vikings into Bears territory but put the last nail in the coffin by throwing an ill-advised deep pass into the end zone for a game ending interception.
The story of the game was largely told in the trenches. The Vikings failed to get pressure on Jay Cutler, which allowed the Bears to crank up their passing game. Minnesota would struggle to protect Teddy Bridgewater and without pass protection was unable to move the ball down the field.
The run game was largely non-existent for the Vikings. In fact, Andrew Sendejo would wind up their leading rusher on the day after his 48-yard fake punt play.
Teddy Bridgewater’s stats looked bad but he avoided the big mistake for most of the day. The Bears’ mistakes opened the door for the Vikings on more than one occasion but Minnesota failed to capitalize.