The Vikings lost a game and perhaps their season in Chicago yesterday. The Vikings, now with a 3-6 record, lost to the Bears in a game that last week Minnesota players were describing as “huge” in determining their fate.
Running back Toby Gerhart’s comments last Thursday were typical. “We need this win. …This is an NFC North opponent. We’re trying to make a run halfway through the season now. Make a run and establish ourselves and try to win the NFC North and get into the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl.”
By 3:15 p.m. yesterday the Vikings were looking up in the NFC standings at not only the 6-3 Bears but also the 6-3 Packers who come to Minneapolis next Sunday. On KFAN Radio’s postgame show reporter Greg Coleman told coach Brad Childress the Vikings’ loss puts the team in “a tough hole to dig out of.”
“No question,” Childress said. “Weren’t good enough today. …Hats off to the Bears. They were able to do things we weren’t.”
Those “things” included moving the ball on offense and scoring points. After trailing 14-10 at the half, the Vikings produced only three more points in a 27-13 loss.
It was nothing new but again in this game Vikings problems were exposed including an ineffective offensive line that neither run blocked or pass blocked enough to sustain drives and help generate points. Adrian Peterson ran for only 51 yards and quarterback Brett Favre was often under pressure, seldom able to throw long.
Favre’s receivers had no better a day than the linemen. Dropped passes characterized part of the problem and so too did receivers slipping to the ground leading to two Favre interceptions.
By game’s end Favre was working with a second string group of receivers because Percy Harvin was injured in the second half and Bernard Berrian (seldom reliable this season) sat out the game with a groin injury. Sidney Rice, out all season after hip surgery, might be back to face the Packers but the Vikings missed him yesterday when they finished the game with Greg Lewis, Greg Camarillo and Hank Baskett.
In the we have seen this before “file” were pass coverage problems by the secondary. Among those struggling was rookie cornerback Chris Cook who was criticized by Coleman in the second quarter. “His confidence is shot,” Coleman said.
By late yesterday afternoon you wondered if the team’s season, with seven games to play, was shot, too.