The Vikings maul the Bears

Vikes own top spot in NFC North

With sole possession of first place on the line, the Chicago Bears (6-6) failed to seize the moment Sunday night versus the Minnesota Vikings (7-5) losing 34-14. Things were looking promising for the Bears early in the game, jumping out to an early lead, but later just fell apart and couldn’t get back into the flow of things.

After setting a franchise record for consecutive passes without an interception, Kyle Orton threw three picks in Sunday night’s contest and finished the game 11of 29 for 153 yards and two touchdowns. Due to being sacked three times by Pro Bowl defensive end Jared Allen, Orton never really got into a rhythm throwing the ball, but did manage to connect with Devin Hester in the first quarter for a 65-yard touchdown, which put Chicago up 7-0. Besides the performance of rookie Matt Forte, the Bears really didn’t have anything else going for them throughout the remainder of the game. The 6-2, 216 pounder finished the game with 125 total yards from scrimmage—96 yards rushing and 29 yards receiving. With his rushing performance, Forte became only the fourth rookie in the history of the Bears’ franchise to rush for 1,000 yards. But overall, the turning point came when Chicago got the ball to the goal line in the second quarter and after three attempts to score a touchdown, decided to go for it and was unsuccessful on fourth down.

The ensuing offensive play by the Vikings from their own one-yard line resulted in a 99-yard touchdown pass from Gus Frerotte to former Bear Bernard Berrian, who had 122 receiving yards. Despite sacks by Alex Brown and Tommie Harris and an interception by Kevin Payne, this momentum swing was something that the Bears defense couldn’t recover from. Chicago allowed Minnesota to rush for 178 yards and three touchdowns. One of those touchdowns came from the league leading rusher Adrian Peterson, who also had 131 of the Vikings’ rushing total. Chester Taylor and Frerotte also had a rushing touchdown each.

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As the dust settled from Week 13, the Chicago Bears are now in second place; one game behind the Vikings in the NFC North. Only having one more divisional opponent left in the season, it seems as if Chicago will need to win games and rely on the Vikings and the Green Bay Packers to lose some games in order to clinch a playoff spot. The next three games for the Bears are at home, which should give them a boost of confidence through the home-stretch of the regular season.

Brad Berreman

ProFootball-fans.com Vikings corespondent