Bear Digest

Bears and Vikings In-Game Blog: Vikings 24, Bears 16 4th

Reporting and analysis from Soldier Field, where Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears try to end a four-game losing streak against Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings.

Gene Chamberlain

Aaron Jones breaks off a 41-yard run against the Bears defense early in Sunday's Bears-Vikings game.
Aaron Jones breaks off a 41-yard run against the Bears defense early in Sunday's Bears-Vikings game. / Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images
In this story:

Fourth Quarter

Mullens leaves and Darnold returns.

  • Mullens throws short to Aaron Jones and he turns it into a first down on third-and-13. Then the Vikings keep the clock running with an 11-yard run by Jones to the Bears 48. That could have been a turning point.
  • Vikings possession starts at their 30. A 3-yard loss on first-down run and an incompletion caused by Gervon Dexter's pass rush leaves it at third-and-13. Nick Mullens in at QB after hit by Dexter.
  • More screens, this to Odunze to the 10. Tackled illegally but no call. On second down Williams out to Moore for a screen and a TD with 7:22 left. They go for two and the pass sails beyond Allen, who complains he was held but the official shakes his head. With 7:22 left the 10-play drive in 4:45 could have brought them within seven. But why go for two???? Vikings 24, Bears 18
  • Byron Murphy with a great open-field tackle for a 2-yard loss and Bears have to gamble on fourth-and-4. Somehow Williams escapes the pocket for the first down on a scramble to the 13 but clock is now down to 8:17.
  • A dart in the zone to Kmet at the 26. Williams then checks down to Kmet at the 18. The Bears go to no-huddle, which frankly, they should have been using and Allen drops another one. He raised his hand to indicate it was his fault. We know. We all saw.
  • Keenan Allen runs backwards out of bounds and the clock keeps running after a 5-yard completion. They need to think about preserving time better.
  • It's time for letting it fly. They're still running. Williams takes it on an RPO for 4, then a QB draw for a first down at the Vikings 49. Officials, of course, mark it a yard back at the 50.
  • Vikings go for a fourth-and-1 at the Bears 36. Kind of a dumb gamble. The pass is knocked down by Kyler Gordon and the Bears get good field position and the ball with 12:07 remaining.
  • An official throws a flag on the Vikings? Wow. A hold on second-and-4 and now it's second-and-14. Second penalty for 20 yards on the day for Vikings. Must be nice.
  • Another Bears pass interference and the Vikings are in the Chicago end of the field at the 45.

Third Quarter

  • Bears face third-and-6 at their 34 after a short Swift run and short pass to Moore. A pass to Allen is incomplete as he's ridden like a horse but no call.
  • Not quite as dramatic but the Bears are finding ways to lose. And it has nothing to do with Caleb Williams. In fact, he has played a strong game to this point.
  • Vikings face third-and-5 at the 10. Addison catches a hitch for 7 to the 3 and a first down, then Jones pounds it for a yard. Jones scores on a 2-yard run on second down. Vikings 24, Bears 10
  • Tremaine Edmunds knocks away the third-and-3 pass and the Bears will receive a punt. Special teams cost the Bears again. D'Andre Carter let it hit his leg and the Vikings' Jonathan Greenard recovered at the Bears 15.
  • Vikings net a first down with two runs as the clock ticks inside six minutes in the third quarter. It's a crucial drive for the Bears to stop.
  • Vikings face third-and-3 after a near interception by Jack Sanborn and a late pass interference call against Jaylon Johnson trying to stay with Justin Jefferson. A 9-yard penalty. He may have interefered but they threw the flag after every one was getting ready to bring the punt team on. Good job with efficiency there too.
  • Consecutive dropped passes by Swift and Kmet and the Bears are forced to punt on fourth-and-4. Eberflus was willing to gamble earlier on fourth-and-4 but not from his 41.
  • Pass rush amps it up on first and second down but not third down. However, a pass to Nailor hits the ground and a three-and-out gets the Bears the chance to return a punt.
  • Williams' fourth-and-4 pass to Keenan Allen sails high off his hand and the Vikings get the ball at their own 28. Not sure that was desperation time. A field goal might have been fine.
  • DJ Moore's screen breaks for a big gainer and the wide receiver pass by Moore to the end zone is incomplete on an obvious pass interference that the officials didn't call.
  • Minnesota comes away with a 41-yard Parker Romo field goal. A five-play drive. It was a gift for Vikings after Addison obviously stepped out of bounds after his catch running up the sidelines near the 40. Vikings 17, Bears 10
  • Byron Cowart's TFL and DeMarcus Walker's sack leave Vikings back at the 22 facing third-and-goal.
  • Eberflus is now 0-for-4 on replays for this season and 2-for-11 with the Bears. That replay was at least as obvious as the other two if not more, that he had gone out of bounds. Someone needs a lesson in how to look at a replay.
  • A 69-yard pass to the Bears 8 to Addison and it appears he stepped out of bounds way back upfield. Eberlfus has challenged it. So far the officials keep ruling against them on replay at the sidelines, even when there is evidence to the contrary. Either way, Jonathan Owens didn't wrap him up and let him escape all the way up the sidelines after the initial hit. Again, the replay gives it to the Vikings when it's apparent he stepped out. First and goal at the 8.
  • Good sign when the Bears special teams get a good break to start the half. A muffed kick return in the end zone has to be brought out and Vikings are stopped at the 23.

Half

  • Introducing a bunch of area Olympians and Para-Olympic athletes. The last one to run onto the field, Owens' wife Simone Biles.
  • Williams 16 of 22 for 176. He looks like a different passer with Shane Waldron gone. Allen has six catches for 76 yards. The Bears need some rushing yards. The Vikings haven't lost when they outrushed opponents this year.
  • Santos ends a 10-play drive with a 49-yard field goal. No block on this one. Vikings 14, Bears 10
  • Williams takes way too long to get the play off with the clock running after a 3-yard completion and Bears face third-and-12 at the 36. They move it up to the 31 on a Kmet pass and will try for another blocked field goal.
  • After an excellent job picking up the blitz, Kmet catches a tipped pass for 14-yard gain. Williams didn't panic and held steady, looking to find another target. And then the killjoy. Darnell Wright false-starts and pushes the Bears out of field goal range back to the Vikings 40.
  • After a 6-yard pass over the middle to Moore for the first down, they actually got the swing-screen to work by throwing it to Odunze for 12. After another completion for 6 to the Vikings 49, they use a timeout. Now 57 seconds left. Williams with 153 yards passing in the first half.
  • The first play was a screen to Moore and he had Cole Kmet blocking and everything appeared set up but Moore ran right into the tackler. The Bears can't time up that play right. Kmet was busy waiting to throw the block but should have engaged the defender quicker on it when he had the chance. The second play was Swift with nowhere to go outside and then gaining 4 straight up the middle. He ran it hard but there wasn't much room.
  • Williams has 3:09 left and all of his timeouts. First two plays net 7 yards. TW0-MINUTE WARNING!!!
  • Darrell Taylor gets a QB hit after Darnold held the ball forever then scrambled out of the pocket. So It's third-and-6. The pressure nearly gets Darnold again and he completed a pass over the middle for about 4 yards but the Vikings must punt and it goes out at the 20. Another official's mistake. I'm sitting right over the 20. The ball landed between the 21 and 20 so it had to have crossed out of bounds around the 21 or up farther. He marked it at the 20. Nose of the ball on the 20, about 1 1/2 yards too far back.
  • Vikings drive to begin at the 27. So far Bears have kept Justin Jefferson in check but Addison hurt them and the pass interference call on Johnson was devastating.
  • Swift breaks outside for 8. First impact run he has. Then Williams is sacked but not on a blitz. He held the ball too long. Third-and-9 at the Bears 31. His streak of passes without a pick continues after a near pick by Camryn Bynum diving. The Bears punted and nearly got that one blocked. On the return officials missed an obvious block in the back in the open field.
  • Bears at the 30 with 6:29 left in the half. Lots of weird sideline plays and replays that are definitely not conclusive but all going against the Bears in this one.
  • Nailor was trying to stretch the ball and if he had been worrying about getting his foot down he'd have been fine. But officials say he did get it down for the touchdown. Questionable. Not a good use of the replay at all. His foot was out but they give him the TD. A six-play, 53-yard drive. Vikings 14, Bears 7
  • Nailor catches a 5-yard TD pass at the sidelines ahead of Gordon's coverage. Play is under review. Nailor may have touched the sidelines with his second toe.
  • Vikings get a first down at the Bears 42. Then a pick by Owens on a throw to Jalen Nailor is ruled pass interference by Jaylon Johnson at the 6.
  • That's the kind of play that can break a team. I still think that catch was made by Allen. The last replay they made available after the decision showed his foot in bounds. Either way, Tillery blocked that kick in the same place on the line where the Packers blocked it from last week. And this time they had it on the right hash mark.
  • Incredibly, the Vikings block the field goal. Tillery blocked it. Vikings have it at the 48.
  • The challenge is upheld and Bears will try a 48-yard field goal. They showed a replay after the decision was made and the last replay looked like he had an inch of space between his foot and the sidelines.
  • A 24-yard throw down the sidelines to Allen and he gets his feet down somehow at the Vikings 6. The Vikings challenged the catch. It looked like he may have been out. But it's hard to tell. Camera angles all bad.
  • Swift had room for a 10-yard run but was too busy looking around for a hole instead of running on second down and left the Bears in third-and-6.
  • Maybe it's just the Vikings Allen likes playing against. He had that 218-yard receiving game against them last year. He catches a 2-yarder on first down after the 25-yarder. Then Allen on third down catches it for a first down at the Vikings 36, a 7-yard gain on a hitch. Williams has to scramble and slides and looked to gain 5 yards but the officials marked the slide starting 3 yards back. Poor spot.
  • The Bears keep trying to run Swift wide and keep losing ground. It's tough to run a back on a toss laterally against a blitzing defense. He loses yardage on two straight runs but then Williams bails them out with a rifle shot over the middle to Allen at the Vikings 46. A 25-yard completion.
  • The pass rush has not been there other than the near sack by Sweat. Darnold had plenty of time to throw the bomb to Addison and then to throw the 2-yard TD to Addison. It doesn't appear as if the "reset" by the Bears defensive line is working.
  • Addison beats Owens for the 2-yard TD catch. It took the Vikings three plays and 59 seconds to tie it up. Bears 7, Vikings 7
  • The Bears defense is giving up big plays like they're playing with their helmets on backwards. Minnesota would have had 7 points already if not for the big Jonathan Owens strip of the ball. Ivan Pace is questionable to return with a hamstring injury.
  • Quarter ends with Darnold hitting Addison for a 45-yard bomb straight up the middle of the field at the Bears 2. He beat Terell Smith but still needed to make a leaping catch and hold it hitting the turf.
  • Vikings have Cam Akers as a backup back and he broke a 15-yarder right up the middle. More poor run defense. Then they jump offsides on first down after the run. But this time they have two guys jump offsides, Darrell Taylor and DeMarcus Walker both were offsides.
  • Another poor coverage play allowing a 32-yard kick return. It continues both on kicks and punts.
  • Roschon Johnson scores from a yard out, first time this year the Bears have scored first and their first touchdown in the first quarter since they beat Carolina. Bears 7, Vikings 0
  • Swing pass to DJ Moore gets to the 2. A 10-yard catch and run. Then Roschon Johnson plows for the first down at the 1.
  • Pure brilliance on the part of Williams, scrambling to get away from the blitz, hits D'Andre Swift on the dead run for 30 to the Vikings 11. First down. But then he's sacked, forced OB by Andrew Van Ginkel for his ninth sack of the year.
  • Keenan Allen with his longest catch, a needle threaded by Caleb Williams for a 40-yard gain to the 39 of Minnesota.
  • Sweat forces an incompletion on third down with a poor throw as he hit Darnold. One step faster and the ball is coming out on a strip sack. So the Bears get to receive a punt on the three-and-out. The key play was the second down incompletion. They threw it to Justin Jefferson over the middle and Kyler Gordon made an outstanding PBU. Bears start their drive at the 21 after a hold on the punt.
  • One good drop deserves another. Darnold's pass in the flat looked like it hit stone and bounced off the hands of Jordan Addison. Looked like Allen's hands earlier but at least on Allen's at least he was led a little too far. Cam Robinson, Vikings left tackle, got injured on a second-down incompletion. That's a tough blow. They just brought him to Minnesota to replace injured Christian Darrisaw.
  • Vikings drive starts at the 23 with 5:36 left in the second quarter. Mike Singletary the sideline interview today during the first quarter got a big fan response.
  • Another poor punt coverage for 15 on the return but the Vikings get called for an illegal block in the back. The Bears were fortunate they didn't get called for a late hit out of bounds. Return man Brandon Powell took a big shot out of bounds from Daniel Hardy but no call.
  • Keenan Allen has one bounce off his hands on second and 10 and then the wide receiver screen to Allen is fumbled but he recovered it but the drive ends at the 27 and Bears punt.
  • There's more than one way to run against the NFL's top rushing defense. DJ Moore goes for 13 on a toss play from the backfield as if he's a running back.
  • On third-and-8, Caleb Williams scrambles for the first down at the 13 and is hit out of bounds but no call. Was fortunate he didn't hurt his Achilles the way he landed on the ground.
  • Ivan Pace Jr., the top Vikings tackler, is injured and limps off gingerly with trainers after a Bears 2-yard first down run. That would be a big blow for Minnesota. He's a good blitzer, as well.
  • Even though the drive ended well for the Bears defense, they looked horrible on it trying to stop the run. Huge gaps up front.
  • On second-and-goal from the 1, Jonathan Owens strips Aaron Jones of the football and has it at the Bears 2-yard line. Bears ball. Owens is the sub for Elijiah Hicks this week. He's a good fit in their red zone defense because of his physical style. Another red zone victory for the league's No. 1 red zone defense.
  • A third-down 10-yard pass to Jordan Addison and the Vikings beat the pass rush and the coverage. Then Jones springs a 41-yard run off left tackle that is stopped by Kevin Byard at the Bears 7.
  • Bat-down by Gervon Dexter on first down after a Vikings first down run by Aaron Taylor. Bears need a big game from Dexter as much as they need one from Montez Sweat.
  • Tory Taylor outkicks the coverage and they allowed a 13-yard return. It happens way too much. And it's not Taylor's fault but the poor coverage usually. This one was a low punt, though, so put it on him.
  • Vikings getting the ball back as a result of a third-and-5 bat down. The Bears made a nice recovery from the penalty but still a three-and-out.
  • Penalties are definitely not something the Bears can have and D'Andre Swift called for a hold to wipe out a completion on the first play. If it's any consolation to him, it was a terrible call.
  • Bears lost the toss and receive. After the touchback, they start at the 30.
  • Kyler Gordon must be entirely healthy as he did the flip and Spider-Man pose during introductions. When he had hamstring issues he wasn't doing it.

Pregame

  • For those who wonder who 24 is on special teams, they gave that number to Adrian Colbert upon his return to the team this week. He used to be 25. But 25 belongs to practice squad running back Darrynton Evans.
  • Perfect conditions for late November football in Chicago, sunny, 46, 5 mph wind. Shouldn't bother the dome-home Vikings too much.
  • Kevin Byard giving a talk to the team on the field as they break warmups. He's become a real leader for them. One of Poles' good free agent signings.
  • Of Interest on the ESPN AM-1000 pregame was GM Ryan Poles with some compliments for the job Thomas Brown did last week in his first game as an offensive coordinator. Maybe more interesting was mentioning that defensive line coach Travis Smith and defensive coordinator Eric Washington doing a "reset" with the D-line for this game. What does this constitute? This was brushed on by Washington on Thursday when talking about the pass rush and Montez Sweat in particular.

"Sometimes you just need to re-set and re-establish what we have to do from a fundamental standpoint and to put ourselves in position to win one-on-one," Washington said.

To hear Sweat tell it, the real problem is chipping and double-teaming.

  • It's getting very close to the fateful mini-bye after the Thanksgiving game, a perfect time to fire a head coach. They have an extra few days to get organized if someone is put in charge as an interim head coach. After that, if something happened in-season there is another mini-bye after the Seahawks game but the next game is the finale at Green Bay. That late in the season, what's the point of firing the head coach before season's end? There is one other option. The Dec. 8 49ers game is followed by a Monday night game at Minnesota, so there is at least one extra day of preparation involved then.
  • Darnell Wright, Braxton Jones, Coleman Shelton, Matt Pryor and Teven Jenkins wasn't the starting Bears offensive line when the season began but quickly became the starting group when it became apparent Nate Davis wasn't serious about participating. The Bears will have them together for the first time since the Washington game and sixth time this season. Pryor does well as a starting alternative at right guard but the Bears really need to upgrade at guard next season and also have a serious center candidate to groom for the future if they choose to keep Shelton. They might have one in practice squad player Ricky Stromberg if they don't think Doug Kramer is an option.

According to Pro Football Focus grades, Shelton is the 10th best center in the league this year and is the fourth-best pass blocker. This probably stuns people who call for a center in the draft. But the Bears do struggle in short yardage and goal line and a center around 290 pounds can't be a help in those situations. Yet, Shelton's run-blocking grade isn't low, either.

  • An offensive-minded head coach makes so much sense for the Bears but when you say this, they always manage to come up with the worst options of those available. NFL Network's Tom Pelissero discussed some of the best coordinator options for head coach. In that case, the key hire for the Bears would be a defensive coordinator who has a 4-3 base system. If you decide to take it back to the 3-4 with a two-gap, it's going to mean an extra year of rebuilding because this roster doesn't have those types of players on it. They'd need bigger, types for the line's interior and stand-up players on the edge who are not as big as the ends are now.
  • Caleb Williams' last interception came in the second quarter of the Hail Mary game. It's been 146 straight passes without one. But he also has failed to throw a touchdown pass in the games since then.
  • Watch the above video and catch Doug Buffone out throwing punches at the Cowboys when the offense was still on the field and not the defense.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.