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 But even they realized the eventual, 21-13 victory over the
Minnesota Vikings hardly meant that they had turned their season
around. It was the seventh consecutive win at Soldier Field for the
Bears over the Vikings.
"We've got to keep winning, keep playing better," said quarterback
Jay Cutler, who threw for three touchdowns while completing 31 of 43
passes for 330 yards.
"We haven't performed the way the fans think we should perform. We
haven't performed the way the players think we should perform,"
Cutler said.
Whether it was due to snow flurries that lasted through the first
half, the freezing temperature or the 3-6 record coming into the
game, there were about 7,000 empty seats at Soldier Field for
Cutler's first victory at home in more than a year.
"We've got to play better," Cutler conceded. "As soon as we start
playing better, they'll start becoming better fans."
 Chicago dominated the game but trailed early, 10-0, and didn't
assure itself of victory until an end zone interception by safety
Ryan Mundy with 42 seconds to go. The Bears had a 17-minute
advantage in time of possession, outgained the Vikings nearly 2-to-1
and ran off 28 more offensive plays, but the difference in the game
was the three touchdown passes, all of them scored on one-on-one
coverage battles that Cutler's wideouts won.
Brandon Marshall caught two of the touchdown passes, including a
nifty 44-yarder in the second quarter, and Alshon Jeffery, who
finished with 11 receptions for 135 yards, caught the other. The
Bears took advantage of big height mis-matches with the 6-foot-4
Marshall and 6-foot-3 Jeffery against 5-10 corner Josh Robinson.
"The most important thing is when they're one-on-one, we give them a
chance to make a play," said Marc Trestman, the Chicago coach.
Trestman's aggressive play-calling also figured into the victory for
the Bears, who converted a pair of fourth down plays on their third
touchdown drive.
"We did what we had to do to stay on the field and scored," Trestman
said.
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, whose team would seem to have bigger
issues than the scoreboard clock at Soldier Field - which
malfunctioned repeatedly throughout the game -- complained afterward
that "The clocks here are bulls---."
"It's another new experience," Zimmer said. "It's hard to know
because no one is telling you how much time is left. The clocks here
are bulls---. The whole day the whole is going out so it's just
another thing. Excuse my language."
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But with an offense that produced just 10 first downs and a defense
that permitted 6.3 yards a play to the Bears, it would seem that
Zimmer has to have some other priorities than clock-watchinsg.
The Bears' offense used a lot of rollouts and that helped to keep
Cutler from being sacked by a Vikings' defense that had 30 sacks in
the previous nine games and was among the best in the league at
sacking the quarterback. Zimmer said his defensive linemen left
lanes too wide open for Cutler to escape. It was the first game all
season in which Cutler was not sacked, even though he threw his
second-highest number of passes.
The Bears, who in the previous two games had become the first NFL
team in 91 years to allow 50 points in successive games, limited
Minnesota to a single touchdown, and it took a 48-yard run by backup
safety Andrew Sandejo on a fake punt to set that one up.
But the game remained close because of the Bears' mistakes, which
included four early penalties, a missed, 47-yard field goal by
Robbie Gould, a drive that essentially ended when Cutler was
penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, two interceptions by Cutler
and another drive that died at the Vikings' one-yard line when
Cutler failed to score on a fourth down bootleg.
"We've got a lot of work to do," Trestman conceded.
NOTES: Because of injuries, the Bears used a different combination
of starters on the offensive line for the sixth game in a row. It
was their seventh O-line combination of the season. ... Minnesota
scored a first-quarter touchdown for the first time in six games.
... The game began in light snow flurries which abated by halftime.
... The Vikings suffered injuries to two wide receivers -- Greg
Jennings (ribs) and backup Darius Wright (hamstring). ... RB Matt
Forte's 32-yard run on the last play of the third quarter was the
Bears' longest rush of the season.
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