Chicago Bears avoid embarrassment but still fall to the Vikings

After looking hapless early in the game, the Chicago Bears made a huge comeback. Ultimately, though, they dropped another game.

This is going to be a heart-stopping season for Chicago Bears fans. With a lack of talent, the team relies on playing hard for the entire game. That intensity will keep them in a lot of games, but they will ultimately lose many of them.

Such was the case in Week 5 when the Chicago Bears took the road to face the Minnesota Vikings. The Bears were looking to win their first road game of the season. They left Minnesota without it, falling 29-22.

Chicago Bears make a comeback, but to no avail in loss vs. Vikings

This was another one of those grinding games by Chicago. however, it did not look that way early. The Vikings won the coin toss and decided to take the ball instead of deferring to the second half. They proceeded to march 86 yards on 12 plays, taking an early 7-0 lead.

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins went 7-7 for 68 yards on the drive. Five of those went to Justin Jefferson. In fact, the duo had a big day. Cousins completed 33 of his 42 passes for 312 yards. Of those, 12 completions for 154 yards went to Jefferson. Jefferson was supposed to be a decoy, but he was running all over the Bears, especially in the first half.

The Bears answered Minnesota’s first drive by getting a field goal. However, things got very ugly very quickly. Before they knew it, the Bears faced a 21-3 deficit as Cousins completed his first 18 passes.

It looked like the Vikings were on their way to a blowout win. After the Green Bay Packers lost their game in London to the New York Giants, Minnesota looked like a lock to take over the NFC North lead.

When you play the Chicago Bears, though, you have to keep your foot on the gas. The Vikings didn’t and it almost cost them.

Late in the second half, the Chicago Bears defense made a stop. The offense got the ball and tried to score before the end of the half. They got the ball to start the second half so if they could score on both series then they would be back in the game.

Well, the Justin Fields/Darnell Mooney showed up. Fields threw a 39-yard bomb and Mooney made an incredible, one-handed catch. It will be on everyone’s highlight reel for the rest of this season.

A couple of plays later, David Montgomery ran it in for a touchdown to make it a 21-10 deficit. Considering how bad the Bears looked on both offense and defense, an 11-point deficit wasn’t too bad.

Then, to start the second half, Fields was able to move the ball. The Bears ended up with another touchdown. That was significant considering they hadn’t scored a touchdown in nearly seven straight quarters. Now they had touchdowns on consecutive series.

Bears head coach Matt Eberflus decided to go for two but the conversion failed. Suddenly we had a game. Chicago was down 21-16.

The Chicago Bears’ defense again stood tough in the second half. They entered the game allowing just 18 points, all of them field goals, in the second half. After looking hapless in the first half, Chicago’s defense all of a sudden looked elite.

The defense still had its struggles, though. The Vikings were able to convert 12 of their 15 third downs in the game. That especially hurt on the Vikings’ final drive, when they went 75 yards on 17 plays. They converted on five third downs. Even on the one in which they failed to convert, they went for it on fourth down and a Bears penalty kept the drive going.

Fields went 15/21 for 208 yards and a touchdown. The shovel pass was his first touchdown pass since Week 1. He had a cleaner pocket, only getting sacked twice in the game. However, there were a few key penalties committed by linemen that hurt the offense. Right tackle Larry Borom had two key penalties on third down.

Fields made some good throws but still missed on some when he felt pressure that wasn’t really there. He did add 47 yards on 8 carries as well.

His receivers let him down at times, however. Dante Pettis had two targets, both on third down, and he dropped them both. He also had a key dropped pass on third down last week as well.

After being among the lead leaders in rushing, the Bears only had 78 yards rushing against Minnesota. However, being down big early on had an impact on that stat.

After a Cairo Santos 51-yard field goal, the Bears came all the way back and actually had a lead, 22-21. After all the claims by fans on social media of an embarrassing effort by the team, having the lead with half of the fourth quarter left was an amazing feat.

However, Minnesota moved the ball and milked the clock beautifully on that final drive. That series took seven minutes and left the Bears with 2:26 to try to make another comeback.

After Fields completed a couple of passes to move the ball downfield, he got sacked and fumbled the ball. Left guard Lucas Patrick was there to recover it though.

Then Fields completed a pass to Montgomery for 21 yards, they had some momentum. Fields then completed another pass to Ihmir Smith-Marsette for 15 yards. He tried to gain more yards instead of going out of bounds. While fighting for more yards, Cameron Dantzler yanked the ball away from Smith-Marsette. It was the Bears’ first turnover that cost them a chance at tying the game.

Speaking of Montgomery, it was great to see him back. He missed last week’s game and most of Week 3’s game after he injured his knee and ankle. While he didn’t run the ball well, gaining 20 yards on 12 carries (again, mainly because of the early deficit), he was the team’s leading receiver with 62 yards on 4 catches. It was good to see him play well again and hopefully he has a terrific season.

As mentioned earlier, this is what we should expect from the Chicago Bears for the rest of the season. They don’t have the talent to have very many blowouts and their intensity and high motor will wear down a lot of teams and keep them in some games. Unfortunately, like the Week 5 loss, the Bears will lose more of them than they will win.