Bears and Vikings In-Game Blog

Fourth Quarter

Montgomery with a tremendous play on a short throw for a first down but then Fields completes a pass to Smith-Marsette against his old team and has it yanked out of his hand at the Vikings 39 by Cameron Dantzler and the Vikings can run out the clock. Smith-Marsette could have and should have gone out of bounds at that point with two tacklers waiting for him at the sideline. Instead, he was focused on more yardage and Dantzler came up behind him and stripped him. Needless turnover. Vikings 29, Bears 22 Final
Za'Darius Smith sacks Fields and he fumbles but it's recovered by Bears.
They need one nice gain to get into plus territory and make this final drive possible.
Two passes for Montgomery nets a first down. TWO-MINUTE WARNING!!!
Bears are 75 yards away with 2:26 left.
Bears have enough time that Fields scrambling is still fine. They have one timeout remaining and also the two-minute warning.
Cousins sneaks in on the 17th play of the drive with 2:26 left. The first touchdown given up in the second half this year by the Bears defense and it couldn't come at a worse time. Vikings go for two and Jefferson catches a toss at the goal line going in at the pylon. Vikings 29, Bears 22
Cook comes free off the left side but Eddie Jackson reaches out and shoe-strings him at the 1. Third-and-goal and the Bears spend their second timeout.
Play-action pass on first down incomplete. Saves the Bears from using another timeout.
The Bears leave Mattison too much room underneath and he catches it short, then gets the first down inside the 5. Bears use a timeout.
Third-and-8 at the Bears 13.
With 2:50 left big pressure on Cousins forces an incompletion. Then Cook commits a stupid mistake and runs out of bounds with 2:45 left.
On second down Thielen gets one for 6 going out of bounds and Cousins then gets the first down by scrambling on third down. First down at the 14.
Angelo Blackson misses a tackle on Cook and Vildor gets him after 11 yards and almost strips the ball loose.
Cousins finds Smith over the middle again and his yards after the catch takes it to the Bears 35.
The leave way too much room for Jefferson underneath on a catch and he gets back 10 yards to make it third-and-4.
Mattison blasts ahead for 3 yards. Then on first down, the Bears run blitz and stunt and Trevis Gipson with a TFL on Mattison for a 4-yard loss.
Screen works for 5 to Cook. Roquan Smith was off balance or he had Cook in the backfield.
Cook for 4 on a cutback as the clock hits 8 1/2 minutes left.
Vikings with good execution on the play-action post by Irv Smith at the 36 for a first down.
False start on first down and Vikings back it up. First-and-15 at their 20.
Brilliant TD run of 52 yards wiped out or it would be Bears 26, Vikings 21 or 27-21. Still not convinced that was an illegal block. A block on the side is legal. Smith-Marsette is the former Vikings player who wanted to make a mark against the team that cut him right before the season, but not that kind of mark.
Santos drills a 51-yard field goal. Bears 22, Vikings 21
Getsy tries to get cute on third-and-3 with a run up the middle against the blitz and it doesn't work.
No gain on first down run up the middle and the Bears are behind the chains again. Then Fields makes a neat throw around the rush to EQ for 7.
Fields sees the blitz and quickly hits Kmet for a first down at VIkings 40.
It was 50-50 penalty. He was on the side with the block.
Fields scrambles all the way 52 yards for a TD but they called an illegal block on Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
Vildor with his first career interception on the bootleg pass to Thielen coming out of his zone. And then his 18-yard return gets the Bears the ball at their 48. Vildor peeled back off his landmark and beautifully came away with the ball in the open field. Third interception by a Bears cornerback in the last three years.
Bears bring late blitz and they get a completion but it's fourth-and-4. Vikings leave the offense on the field O'Connell gambles and gets away with it as Jones is called for a hold on a ball badly overthrown. Didn't look like a hold. First down for Minnesota.
Flea-ficker throw to Mundt, the tight end, and Gordon makes a brilliant ankle tackle in the open field to snuff it out after a gain of 2.
Cousins gets patient and throws for 7 to Osborn over the middle. Second-and-13.
Bears backs have been held to 30 yards on 13 carries, and Fields has added 35 yards but it's been Fields' running and 145 yards passing that have made this a close game.

Third Quarter

Dalvin Cook breaks a run to midfield but then on another Cook run Johnny Mundt holds and Vikings face first-and-20 from their own 37. Quarter ends. Vikings 21, Bears 19
Vikings break one up to the 34 on the return.
Cairo Santos with a 43-yard field goal. Vikings 21, Bears 19
Fields on scramble drill throws to Mooney in the end zone who gets open but Harrison Smith recovers and breaks it up at the end.
Bears go with a two-back attack, Trestan Ebner and Herbert and Fields runs it on RPO for 3. The Bears have third-and-4 at the 24.
Fields scrambles up the middle for the first down. Braxton Jones had someone else pick up Za'Darius Smith for him at the start of the play and then still didn't block him after on the pass rush, forcing Fields to scramble. Poor play by the rookie
Kmet takes on three tacklers on a short pass and leaves the Bears in fourth-and-4. Instead of a 55-yard field goal they go for it.
Bears get a 2-yard dump-off to Ryan Griffin a 6-yard Khalil Herbert run so they face third-and-12.
Teven Jenkins called for holding as pass blocking breaks down and Fields scrambles for a first down. Didn't see much to call holding on the play. Braxton Jones looked like he held more.
Fields to Mooney for 13 as the passing game clicks on third-and-6.
Second down hurting the Bears. Montgomery with a 6-yard run on first down, then a TFL. This has been a trend this year.
Replay shows it was actually another rookie, Dominique Robinson who got the ball. It got past Gordon.
Trevis Gipson blindsides Cousins as he throws and the ball goes to the ground. Kyler Gordon comes off the edge and deflects the 51-yard field goal. Bears with the ball at their 20 going for the lead.
Textbook Tampa-2 run stuff on first down for no gain. Everyone stayed in their lane and penetrated. Second-and-10 and Roquan Smith with a delayed blitz and pressures Quinn into an incompletion.
They leave Jefferson wide open, 6 yards short of the coverage and he catches it and takes it to the Bears 33 for the first down.
Vikings start at the Bears 48 and Cook bursts for 7 off left tackle, then a 1-yard gain and Vikings face third-and-2.
Bears try an onside kick but can't come up with it. Nice thought. But they just spotted the Vikings about 30 yards o field position.
Eight plays and 67 yards for the drive
Velus Jones takes it in for his first TD. It will go as a pass since it was a jet sweep toss forward. Jones with a 9-yard TD catch. Then the Bears go for two and the throw to Pettis is caught but he is taken straight down by Cameron Dantzler. Vikings 21, Bears 16
Montgomery slugs it ahead for 5, refusing to go down, and has looked good considering his injury. Then Fields wheels out of the pocket and away from Danielle Hunter to scramble to the 9-yard line.
After Fields scrambles to get back the yardage lost on the TFL, he drills it to Kmet against the Blitz wide open in a zone for the first down and Kmet rambles inside the 25.
Starting from the 30 after a short kickoff, Fields hits EQ at the 46 of Minnesota, but on first down after that Za'Darius Smith gets a big TFL. Montgomery stuffed for a 5-yard loss with no one blocking him.
With 26 yards rushing and 69 passing, the Bears somehow have 10 points and will be trying to pull back within 21-17 on the first drive of the second half.

Second Quarter

The Bears were outgained 307 yards to 95 in the first half. Vikings 21, Bears 10
Joseph missed wide right from 53 yards as the half ends. Vikings 21, Bears 10
Minnesota out of timeouts at the Bears 45 with 15 seconds left. They then complete one at the Bears 35 and kill the clock with three seconds left.
Vikings get a first down and stop the clock with 31 seconds remaining at the Vikings 40.

It looked like an RPO but it seemed like Fields never had an intention of taking it himself. He didn't even look first to see if the run blocking had developed. He just handed it to Montgomery out of the shotgun and then carried out the fake well around left end. Almost like a fake RPO. What's good is Fields' faking on the play. He hasn't been very good at this and can do so much with his speed if he starts to fake better.

Montgomery powers straight up the middle for a 9-yard TD on an RPO. It opened wide up. Vikings 21, Bears 10

Fields flushed out and tries to throw but Jordan Hicks knocks it down as he tries to get one in the back of the end zone when no one was open anyway.

Mooney actually had the play without needing a jump ball. He got behind the coverage out of the slot but Fields threw it wide and Mooney came up with it at the 11. Then Montgomery burrows between center and guard for 2.

Jump ball to Mooney and he one-hands it for 39 to the 11.

Shanked punt by the Vikings and they also held covering the punt which is pretty hard to do. So the Bears will get their best field position of the game at the 50. A net of 5 yards on the punt.

Finally interior pressure and Justin Jones gets good pressure for a sack of Cousins on third down and 4 to go. The Bears have forced a punt for the first time this game.

Finally, Bears pressure, Robert Quinn comes straight upfield on a short boot and Cousins has to throw it away for his first incompletion to avoid a sack.

Simple toss to Cook and Gipson plays it well but the interior is pushed inside and he cuts it back for 15.

Trevis Gipson came too far inside and let Cook run around right end for a first down at the 31.

This wide open passing attack is all the result of the Bears being unable to stop the run for four weeks. Now they're way too worried about the run and the Vikings are picking their zone apart on fakes and play action.

Cousins back on and is 17 of 17 for 176 yards. Jefferson has eight catches for 122 yards already.

Blackwell gets downfield and has a great shot at downing a punt at the 1 but it slips into the end zone. Vikings ball at the 20.

Dante Pettis with his second drop of the game and third straight, but Sam Mustipher had held anyway. They take the incompletion. Next week they should be able to get N'Keal Harry back and won't need to see Pettis dropping passes.

Fields has to scramble again for 4 on first down, then Herbert smashed down for a TFL of a yard. So they face third-and-7. Fields and OC Luke Getsy didn't like something and need to call a timeout.

Fields scrambles on the third-and-5 after breaking a tackle and has the presence of mind to slide before the executioner, Harrison Smith, can arrive.

Bears try to find some sanity and go back to something they've been able to do in the past and hand it to Khalil Herbert for 4 yards.

Bears fans were irritated with play calling and not using Justin Fields right and thought that was the end of the world. A defense that can't stop run or pass is the end of the world. Sadly, this is how Alan Williams' defense was in Minnesota when he was a defensive coordinator in his second season.

Mattison runs twice to the 1 and fumbles the second one but the ground caused the fumble. Then they run a trick end jet sweep to Reagor for the 1-yard TD. Typical of Kevin O'Connell. Thinks he's Sean McVay and has to be a genius when a simple 1-yard TD dive would have worked. That goes as a TD pass of 1 yard to Reagor. Cousins is 17-for-17 in three drives. Vikings 21, Bears 3

Razzle dazzle play with a wide receiver screen to Jefferson, then a screen back across the field to Cook and he takes it inside the 10-yard line. It's easy to come up with fakes and trick plays when everything else is working.

On third-and-5 at the 27, Osborn moved so Vikings face third-and-10.

K.J. Osborn open in the middle of the zone and they got back the holding penalty to face second-and-10. The defense needs to come up with a big play to get the ball back. It's just pick and choose for Brisker.

Irv Smith Jr. called for holding against Al-Quadin Muhammad on a pass rush that was pretty obvious so the Bears get a little relief. First-and-20 at the Bears 42.

A 1-yard loss for Dalvin Cook as Mike Pennel and Angelo Blackson get penetration. Cousins takes a short pass to set up a third-and-2 and JEfferson gets deep for a play-action 31-yard gain against Vildor and Eddie Jackson.

Jalen Reagor fumbles on the punt return but again, like last week, the Bears can't come up with it and he gets it back. A strip by both DHC and Jaylon Jones on the tackle but no one could get it. A holding penalty sets the Vikings back 10 yards anyway. First down Minnesota as the Vikings come on for their next scoring drive.

Somehow on second down Fields lucks out. He throws behind Mooney and Harrison Smith is right there for an easy pick but doesn't get it. Danielle Hunter then sacks Fields on third down.

Fields isn't ready for the snap as he changes something walking up toward the line and it hits his knee. He recovered it but because it was snapped as he was stepping forward it was illegal motion. It didn't matter because he recoveredit but it's a loss of 1.

Velus Jones gets a kick return chance and no blocking as the Vikings snuff it out inside the 15. They are one of the better coverage units in the league.

Cook goes outside for an easy TD and Vikings have two drives and two TDs. A 5-yard TD run. An 11-play drive. Vikings 14, Bears
Cousins 13 of 13 for 125 yards as the second quarter starts.

TICKETS TO SEE JUSTIN FIELDS AND BEARS AVAILABLE FROM SI TICKETS

First Quarter

Good pressure inside for once on Cousins and he steps up to avoid the rush and finds Jefferson at the Bears 5 as the quarter ends. That's 13 straight completions by Cousins. Someone might need to blitz him to get him off his mark. Vikings 7, Bears 3
They are running Jones all around the field. Thielen on the opposite side of the field catches a short first down throw and goes OB at the Bears 20.
Armon Watts with a TFL, but it doesn't slow down the Vikings as the Bears still have problems on the interior and can't get heat on Cousins. He completed his first 11 for 102 yards and teh Vikings have third-and-2 at the Bears 28.
Cousins getting some inside heat finally and has to check it down to Mattison and Brisker makes a textbook tackle in the open field for 1 yard. But no problem, Jefferson with his sixth catch on play-action fake. First down.
Alexander Mattison gets a first down as the Bears linebackers and safeties all got caught up inside and he ran off right tackle.
Jefferson goes to the other side of the line and gets wide open for 6 on a boot pass. At some point maybe they will realize he's out there.
One encouraging thing from that drive to a field goal was the catch and run by Montgomery. He had real burst on that catch for a big gainer. That was a concern after his ankle injury but doesn't appear to be affected.
Santos makes it anyway. Bears score on first drive for the fourth time this season. Vikings 7, Bears 3
Dante Pettis with his second drop in two games. Now it leaves Cairo Santos with a 50-yard field goal try.
Borom jumpy now, comes up out of his stance and pushes Bears back farther to edge of field goal range.
Larry Borom beaten on a TFL by Hunter, then Darnell Mooney gets open but Fields' pass in the end zone is back too far and low. Fields needed to wait a second before throwing that. He had plenty of time.
Fields then to Cole Kmet for 4 in the flat. Not a really good throw. But on second down Darnell Mooney was hit downfield by Patrick Peterson for pass interference at the Vikings 26.
David Montgomery on a quick screen with QBs blocking breaks it for 30 yards.
Bears penalized for delay of game before the first drive.
No change in offensive line this week from the way they ended last week.
Dalvin Cook for 1 yard and a TD and Brisker had him in the backfield for a 3-yard loss but couldn't hang on. Vikings 7, Bears 0
Replay took the TD away and Minnesota gets it at the 1.
Bears defend bootleg nicely and he checks down to Adam Thielen for 3 at the 9, but then Cousins finds Jefferson for his fourth catch on the drive and a TD from 9 yards as he drags in Jones.
Run defense looks only slightly better than last week. Then they bootleg to Jefferson for his third catch on the drive and he catches a first-down pass at the 13. Jaylon Jones beaten again.
Nick Morrow popped outside nicely on second down run to stop Cook and leave the Vikings facing third-and-2. But then K.J. Osborn catches a first-down slant. The Bears had no inside pass rush. That's the key to stopping that play.
Watch for Vikings to try to go deep on play-action. Bears have brought Jaquan Brisker into the box to stop Dalvin Cook twice.
Vikings run no-huddle after a bootleg pass only goes for 5 as Kindle Vildor peels off and makes a nice tackle but again the play-action goes for a first down to Jefferson, this time against Kyler Gordon. The 14 yards puts them at the Bears 48.
Play-action freezes up the Bears on second down and they pick on undrafted rookie Jaylon Jones right away for a first down completion to Justin Jefferson.
Bears with nice special teams coverage and Josh Blackwell, as usual, down with the tackle as VIkings are pinned back at their 14.
The Bears might enjoy seeing the Packers lost in London because well, No. 1, it's the Packers, and No. 2, the loss to the Giants doesn't look quite so bad. But the Vikings enjoy it more because they'll be in first place still whether they win or lose today.

TICKETS TO SEE JUSTIN FIELDS AND BEARS AVAILABLE FROM SI TICKETS

Pregame

As expected, David Montgomery is playing against a team he has burned in the past. The Bears may watch how much they use him because they have a game coming up again Thursday already. It was apparent Friday the Bears were optimistic he would play from Matt Eberflus' press conference.
Ryan Griffin makes his return this week. The Bears haven't been getting much out of the tight end position, and it's possible he can provide a spark.
Jaylon Johnson did some running on the field prior to the game. They have to be hoping he'll be available Thursday at Soldier Field against the Commanders. In the meantime, it's three rookie secondary players trying to stop Justin Jefferson.

Inactives

Bears

CB Jaylon Johnson

S Dane Cruikshank

LB Kingsley Jonathan

TE Jake Tonges

Vikings

CB Andrew Booth

OLB Luiji Vilain

C/G Chris Reed

T Vederian Lowe

WR Jalen Nailor

DL Esezi Otomewo

DL Khyiris Tonga

#Bears CB Jaylon Johnson is moving very well in warm ups.
— Mark Grote (@markgrotesports) October 9, 2022

Chicago has to get one of these. It's time. pic.twitter.com/M6XOmQR11h
— Mark Potash (@MarkPotash) October 9, 2022

Where have I seen this before??? Oh, maybe for 7 years at Colts practices and games. Marvin Harrison Jr. doing some pretty incredible things today for Ohio State in East Lansing. I have to say I’m not surprised. 😄 pic.twitter.com/Vg5nGc2RKf
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) October 8, 2022

I hope George McCaskey brought his notebook today.

This is how a state of the art stadium should look. https://t.co/aidNZK7spF
— Greg Braggs Jr. (@GBraggsJr23) October 9, 2022

Bears GM Ryan Poles to @WBBMNewsradio: "There's going to be ups and downs through a season when you have a new staff, new scheme and a lot of young players. ... We're going to keep fighting to get better."
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) October 9, 2022

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