The theme to this Chicago Bears’ season has been a tale of two halves. That was the case today as the Bears drop a heartbreaker in Minneapolis 29-22 to the Vikings. The Bears will be kicking themselves when they look at the tape on Monday as this game was there for the taking after a horrendous 1st quarter.
Vikings QB Kirk Cousins started the game by completing his first 17 passes. You heard me correctly – 17 consecutive completions to start the game. He picked on a Bears secondary that was once again missing Jaylon Johnson with simple passes in the flat and finding receivers in the soft zone of the Bears 4-3 defense. The front 4 of the Bears defensive line couldn’t generate any pass rush which led to long, sustained drives ending in touchdowns. The 1st three Vikings drives looked like this:
- 12 plays, 86 yards, 6:45 minutes
- 11 plays, 75 yards, 6:11 minutes
- 9 plays, 71 yards, 6:17 minutes
The Vikings were able to find Justin Jefferson all throughout the 1st half as he had 10 receptions for 138 yards.
The Bears started their rally late in the 2nd quarter when they got the ball at midfield thanks to a Vikings penalty. The very first play of the drive saw Justin Fields hook up with Darnell Mooney for what only can be described as a Catch of the Year candidate:
Three plays later, RB David Montgomery runs in for the TD and the Bears went into the half only trailing 21-10
The Bears opened the 2nd half with an 8 play, 67 yard TD drive courtesy of a flip pass from Justin Fields to Velus Jones, Jr. for a 9-yard TD run to cut the lead to 21-16. Coach Matt Eberflus elected to go for 2 even though that TD drive barely took 5 minutes off the clock in the 3rd quarter. The 2-PT attempt failed and then Eberflus put all of his chips in and went for an onside kick. The attempt failed and Bears fans had the sinking feeling the Vikings would march right down the field and score another touchdown. To the Bears credit, the defense stiffened and Greg Joseph’s 51-yard FG attempt was blocked by Dominique Robinson.
The Bears would put together two more scoring drives to take a 22-21 lead midway through the 4th quarter only for the Vikings to respond with a soul-crushing, 17 play, 75 yard, 7:00 minute drive that culminated with a 1-yd Kirk Cousins rush for a TD to put the Vikings up 29-22.
The Bears would have one last gasp to tie the game. After a 1st down sack, Fields found David Montgomery for a 21-yard play. The very next play Fields found Ihmir Smith-Marsette in the flat for a pass. The young man made a tackler missed and got the 1st down but instead of trying to get out of bounds he tried to pick up extra yardage and ended up having the ball stripped from him at the Minnesota 39-yard line. Ballgame.
The play by Smith-Marsette was a boneheaded way to have the game end which is why the Bears and Bear fans will be feeling a certain kind of way heading into Week 6.
The Good, Bad & Ugly
- The Good: Justin Fields easily played his best game of the season so far. After a rocky 1st quarter, Fields appeared calm and in control of what was happening on the field. He was able to extend drives with his legs and his arms. He was reading blitzes much better and make sound decisions with the football. The game didn’t look too fast for him and more importantly it looked like he belonged on the stage. Fields finished 15 of 21 for 208 yards and 1 TD with a 118.8 passer rating. He also added 8 carries for 47 yards. As the game went along, Fields seemed to gain more composure and confidence. I really liked the way he played today. His best play was a play that was called back because of a phantom block in the back penalty.
- The Bad: Roquan Smith’s stat line will read 8 tackles (5 solo tackles) but Roquan did not have a good game. There were moments when Roquan had chances to make plays in the backfield and simply missed tackles. The most egregious one was the 3rd & goal play from the 1 when Cousins flipped the ball to Jalen Reagor for the TD. On that play Roquan overcommits to one side and got caught on skates as Reagor made a juke move and waltzed into the endzone. Outside of the Texans game, Smith has not been a factor for a defense that is in dire need of a leader. Dante Pettis also had a game he’ll want to forget. While Pettis only had 2 targets, he dropped both passes, one of those drops was an opportunity to extend a drive.
- The Ugly: The secondary once again had its struggles with eye discipline and being unable to contain the Vikings pass attack for much of the 1st half. As stated earlier, Justin Jefferson had 10 catches for 138 yards in the 1st half. Kirk Cousins picked on Jaylen Jones and Kyler Gordon all throughout that 1st half. The Vikings had over 200 passing yards in the 1st half and the secondary players were either beaten to the spot where the ball was or were out of position. The defensive line looked meek and feeble while offering little to no resistance for Cousins. The last drive for the Vikings that resulted in a touchdown took 7:00 minutes off the clock. There were 4 times the Bears had a chance to get off the field with 3rd down stops but on each opportunity the defense failed to make a play to get off the field. And then of course there’s Ihmir Smith-Marsette’s boneheaded play that killed the Bears’ last gasp of hope.
This game wasn’t on Justin Fields. This game was on a defense that allowed the Vikings 21 1st half points and then couldn’t get off the field and secure a 1-point lead. Dropped passes, missed tackles and poor decision making are why the Bears are now 2-3.
Up next: No rest for the weary as the Bears have 4 days to prepare before their Thursday night game at home against the 1-4 Washington Commanders. Any chance this game can be flexed to Sunday?
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