Bears End Divisional Losing Streak 12-10

When it was over and a bunch of silly Vikings laterals sideways, backwards and forward wound up in Josh Blackwell's hands, the Bears could finally claim an NFC North victory for the first time in two years.

If this is what they need to do to win games, then there probably won't be many more any time soon.

Cairo Santos' 30-yard field goal went through Monday night with 10 seconds left after Justin Fields overcame two lost fourth-quarter fumbles with a big completion of 36 yards to DJ Moore and the Bears escaped with a 12-10 win over the Vikings.

"I really just wanted to prove to my teammates that I had their back," Fields said. "The way the defense was playing all game I had to come back and at least give us a chance at the end.

"I mean it felt great. Those two fumbles, adversity is hitting. After the second one, I was sick to my stomach, I'm not going to lie to you all."

A game totally dominated by the Bears defense with four interceptions—similar to the previous game with Detroit—seemed destined to end like that Lions game after Fields lost the ball the second time trying to run in a tight game.

They blew a 9-3 lead when they were on the verge of going ahead at least 12-3 on Fields' first lost fumble. When he lost it again at the Bears 43 with 2:45 left, it looked like they had lost.

Instead, the defense had one more stop to go and forced a punt, then Fields directed a drive 61 yards in 2:19 to the Vikings 8, the key gain a third-and-10 completion over the middle on a deep in-cut to Moore. Fields stepped up into the pocket and drilled it from near midfield to Moore, who plowed forward a few more yards and set up the winning field goal.

"Like I said the guys did a great job of executing at the end of the game when we needed to execute," Fields said.

Fields completed 27 of 37 for 217 yards, the Bears outgained the Vikings 317-242 yards and had the ball 35 1/2 minutes while winning the takeaway battle 4-2. They still sweated out a win because of their inability to produce more than three points off the takeaways.

"Obviously we would like to capitalize on those, and that's what momentum is," coach Matt Eberflus said. "When you get those takeaways on defense momentum is created there, and the momentum is either finished there by the defense returning it into the scoring zone or scoring themselves or the offense getting that takeaway and moving into the scoring zone.

"And we have to do a better job of that. We have to capitalize on those and that's going to be a big part of our success moving forward."

Cairo Santo was responsible for one missed opportunity with a missed 48-yard field goal early but did make four field goals after his miss. He hit from 25 yards in the second quarter, broke a 3-3 tie with a 39-yarder in the third quarter and then matched his career long with a 55-yard field goal 45 seconds into the fourth quarter for a 9-3 lead. Then we made the game winner.

"We know we can play a complete game, without a lot of penalties, without turnovers," said Moore, who had 11 catches for 114 yards. "We gotta figure out that first and then we've got the finish part down. We've got to continue to really touch on it and grasp it."

However, the Vikings took the ball after Fields' first fumble and Danielle Hunter's recovery at their 23 and went 77 yards for the touchdown no one seemed capable of achieving and a 10-9 lead.

QB Joshua Dobbs (22 of 32, 185 yards) finally put together a series of completions and hit T. J. Hockenson for a 17-yard TD in front of Eddie Jackson and the Vikings led 10-9 with 5:54 left.

The second Fields fumble followed while scrambling and the Bears defense, which had interceptions by Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker and TJ Edwards, made another stop. A three-and-out led to a shanked Vikings punt and Fields began the final drive of 10 plays, including runs he made of 5 and 8 yards with a 16-yarder to Moore before the key 36-yarder.

The Vikings blitzes and Bears offensive inconsistency kept them from pulling away despite the four interceptions.

"They had all those guys up and they're all a threat to come, right?" Eberflus said of the blitzes. "So you've got to be mindful of that and you have to have ways to get the ball to the perimeter or onto the second level of the field.

"We didn't hit some of those today but we're certainly looking to get more of those."

It's not the kind of wasteful effort teams can give and expect a win.

However, Fields had the answer for his first game-winning drive in the fourth-quarter of the year and third overall.

After two years without a win against an NFC North team, this one with all of its warts will have to do.

"We got better from last week, learned from last week and finished the game how we wanted to finish," Fields said.

Or at least they finshed with a win rather than a blown game.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven