The Bears lose another tough game and now have lost 4 of their last 5 games, and fall to 8-5 after the 21 to 14 loss to the Vikings. The offense struggle to get in a groove in the first half and the team was put in a hole they had to dig their self out. Also, drop passes and 2 costly interceptions hurt this Bears team in the end. Overall, the offense didn’t get off to the fast start they needed on the road and there wasn’t any balance on the offense side of the ball. The defense had their hands full with Adrian Peterson, who continued his torrid pace in pursuit of a 2,000 yard season off his miraculous comeback from a late December knee injury last season.
Lovie Smith after the game
“Coming into this game, we know we needed to play our best football, especially going on the road. We know it’s going to be a hostile environment. We talked an awful lot about starting fast; you have to do that on the road. That opening drive really put us on our heels and we never recovered. We had a lot of injuries during this game. Robbie Gould, before the game, was out kicking and hurt his calf muscles, so in the end it didn’t really affect us that much; we didn’t have to kick a lot of long field goals, but it is some concern. Shea McClellin had a knee injury, Craig Steltz injured his chest, (Sherrick) McManis his knee, and Jay Cutler, there late, hurt his neck. All the injuries affect the game a little bit, but late we got ourselves back in it, after getting down 14-0 on the road, we got ourselves back in the game. Missed a couple opportunities – we dropped some balls there late – but we did finish, and just kind of ran out of time. Like I said earlier, we knew it was going to be a race to the finish, and that’s what we’re going to have. That window of opportunity, for us, is a lot smaller, but we still control what happens with us.”
One major bright spot on the offense side of the ball was Brandon Marshall. Who hauled in 10 catches for 160 yards and a TD. Marshall now has 101 receptions and 1,342 yards and 9 TD’S.
As for the defense, who were without key starters including their captain Brian Urlacher, the defense had their hands full with Adrian Peterson who broke off a 51 yard rush on the first drive. In the end, Peterson finished the game with 31 rushes for 154 yards 2 TDs. The defense knows they haven’t played well in the last couple games, but still know they control their own destiny and players still remain confident that they can still get things turned around.
DE Israel Idonije
“At the end of the day I don’t know what the silver lining is. I think it is that we are focused on Green Bay, our next game, and playing our best in this game coming up.”
Safety Chris Conte
“It’s frustrating. We’ve had some injuries, but ultimately we have to come and play better. I think after that opening drive we played a lot better as a defense. We can’t give up points and that many yards. We need to create some plays and get our offense in some better field position.
At the end of the day the Bears still control their own destiny but they need to do a better job of capitalizing on their opportunities. Also, the defense must get back to sacking the quarterback and taking the ball away like they did earlier in the season. As for the offense, they must put points on the board and players must step up to take some of the pressure off Cutler. To get back on the winning track the Bears must beat their next opponent, which is the Packers who are 9-4 following a win over the Lions. If the Packers beat the Bears next week they will be NFC North Champs. The Bears will need a big performance to prevent that from happening.
