Grading the Bears: No Cause for Celebration

A team and quarterback badly in need of making a very loud statement settled instead for a reasonable substitute Monday night in Minneapolis.

A belch.

"Relief, relief," was how QB Justin Fields described his feeling after a 12-10 Bears win, one eerily similar to their loss against Detroit except for all of those touchdowns, or lack thereof.

The Bears dominated play like in their game with Detroit, then failed to prove they left all the scars behind from that blown 26-14 lead against the Lions by squandering four interceptions and chance after chance to put away this win over Minnesota.

Fields had a good opportunity to convince someone he's the player to go with at his position in the future instead of Caleb Williams or Drake Maye, yet he couldn't hang onto the ball at the most critical time in the game.

Ultimately, he got the job done with a 61-yard drive to the winning points and no one can take this away from him, but only through his own foul-ups did this even need to happen.

"If you clean up my two fumbles, we're probably not even in that situation," Fields admitted, showing his honesty to be greater than his ability to hang onto a football.

The Bears went 0-for-2 in the red zone, committed more penalties than their opponents and nearly found a way to lose a game despite interceptions by Kyler Gordon, T.J. Edwards, Jaquan Brisker and Jaylon Johnson.

There should be no pats on the back for this, only a loud, resounding expression of relief over making 12 consecutive division defeats history.

Here are Bears grades for nearly being able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Running Game: C+

With Minnesota crowding the line and blitzing, neither Khalil Herbert nor Roschon Johnson could gain traction and Fields' 59 yards on the ground had to serve as the brunt of the rushing attack. He made two nicely planned quarterback sweeps, including a 14-yarder to start the second Bears drive, but fumbled on one scramble and on another attempt to scramble. The best thing they did well on the ground was run it 28 times at 4.2 yards a carry because it built up possession time. Much of their run blocking occurred against stacked fronts, which earned linemen commendation, and some came on the edge when they could get the ball out there, which earned receivers and tight ends the same respect. In short, not their best effort running the ball but effective enough if not for two turnovers on plays meant to be passes.

Passing Game: C-

Fields avoided big sack totals with his own scrambling and by throwing it away but created sack possibilities using the same means. He held the ball and was indecisive under pressure. But at other times he was brilliant in his escapes from the pressure. DJ Moore and Cole Kmet constituted 18 targets as Fields again locked onto main targets without seeing Darnell Mooney. Getting five targets to Roschon Johnson displayed a much-needed attempt to check down against the pressure. Pass blocking on the road against a team which blitzes so often most was acceptable considering how often they had the ball in scoring position. They were able to achieve 8 of 18 on third downs, which should have been enough for an easier win when their own defense was allowing only two third-down conversions. The end result of all this should have been much better than four field goals.

Run Defense: B+

For only a brief time early in the second half did the Vikings enjoy any success running, as Alexander Mattison broke a 21-yarder. Maybe the thing they did best was keep Joshua Dobbs from`scrambling for big yardage like he did against other opponents both with the Vikings and earlier with Arizona. This is on both the linebackers for being able to come up quickly and the linemen for maintaining their gap integrity while pass rushing, as he had only two attempts for 11 yards.

Pass Defense: A

Only twice did they really break down in the secondary, one a slight mis-step by Eddie Jackson and Elijah Hicks resulting in T.J. Hockenson's 17-yard TD catch and the other when Kyler Gordon got beat deep but was bailed out both by an overthrow and Jordan Addison's inability to realize he was standing out of bounds as he went up for the throw. Zone pass coverage by linebackers and defensive backs alike might have been the best it has been all year and they could have actually had two other interceptions, including one for a touchdown by Johnson. Minnesota had only 15 first downs and needed the official's flags to get four of those. The entire key to this defensive effort was Montez Sweat laying down the law on the first possession with a third-down sack from behind of Dobbs for an 8-yard loss. Sweat finished with 1 1/2 sacks against Dobbs for the second time this season, the other coming in the opener while both played for different teams. The memory of an early takedown from behind had Dobbs in panic mode the rest of the night, as his shaky, rushed throws came out too hard or with too much air under them, allowing defenders to rally to the ball, break them up or pick them off. Special commendations for Edwards with two huge open-field tackles in pass coverage, including one to force a punt before the game-winning drive.

Special Teams: B-

Cairo Santos didn't let a missed 48-yard kick early deter him from matching a career-best 55-yarder later to pad a 6-3 lead. His four field goals provided the offense on this night. Punter Trenton Gill missed on a second-quarter attempt to pin the Vikings back and had a touchback. The difference in field position with the touchback helped jump-start Minnesota's drive to a tying field goal before halftime. As usual, the league's worst punt coverage unit came up with one poor effort on a 15-yard Brandon Powell return. Velus Jones Jr. was active and returned the opening kick a respectable 28 yards. But he started 5 yards deep so they'd have been better off with the touchback.

Coaching: C+

Eberflus' approach to stopping Dobbs worked perfectly to prevent scrambling and big plays, but also the takeaways. They varied coverages enough to keep the "Passtronaut" confused. He had that long stare, sort of to infinity and beyond, as he looked at their secondary and the rush closed in on him. The Vikings stacked up shorter pass plays as Bears linebackers and DBs rallied repeatedly to the ball. Luke Getsy's attempts to get the ball to the outside on wide receiver screens against the blitz nearly resulted in disasters a few times. When Fields stood and fired downfield at game's end to DJ Moore, it only underscored how they should have been attacking more with maximum protection and fewer players in routes than laterally, as they did most of the game. Plays were there to be made but the Bears offensive play calling was again focused on trying to play guessing games with the Vikings blitz instead of attacking, it. This all looked exactly like the first game in Chicago.

Overall: C+

This should have been so much more, possibly even a resounding affirmation of Fields as the guy or even confirmation the coaching staff should stick around. Instead, it seemed more like a repeat of the Lions game except with a different end result and a huge sigh of relief.

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