The Chicago Bears took a big step towards playoffs in the Sunday Night game. In a 25-20 win over Minnesota Vikings, Bears defender Kirk Cousins showed his limitations and punished him on several occasions. On the other side Mitch Trubisky was the better playcaller, but he was far away from playing flawlessly.
The Bears were the leaders of NFC North in the divisional duel, but had not yet proved their ability to win against any strong teams. But against the Vikings they were the better team from the beginning, and this was due to a highly attractive game plan. With an enormously high speed and a lot of movement before the snap, one of the best defenses of the league caused a lot of confusion. And because the Vikings played very good coverage on Trubisky’s drop backs, Chicago’s number 10 punished Minnesota time and again with his fire-threatening runs.
Trubisky (20/31, 165 YDS, TD, 2 INT) made a mistake when he threw a downfield pass in Triple Coverage and Anthony Harris caught a great interception. Otherwise, however, both departments of the Bears won the first half. Winning is even more friendly. Defensive dominated Chicago formally. Minnesota’s run-heavy approach was quickly destroyed, and as the Vikings moved to the pass, one of the league’s strongest rush passes took over. Disappointingly, the Vikings had no answers to these questions.
Kirk Cousins was not able to cope with the high pressure at all and showed by far the worst game of his actually strong season. His catastrophic interception into the hands of Adrian Amos was the negative climax of a game marked by inaccuracies and bad decisions. And at the same time his defense actually made sure that some things were possible. Two Bears-Turnovers in successive Drives in great field position ended however only in two Field Goals.
The game seemed already decided by a terrible Pick Six from Cousins, whose pass attempt towards Laquon Treadwell was read early by Eddie Jackson. However, Chicago took out a lot of aggressiveness and allowed the Vikings a fast touchdown drive to create a one-possession game. Here the Vikings would have needed only one more stop with all the timeouts available, but in this game they also afforded too many defensive penalties. Bears kicker Cody Parkey finally finished the game with his third successful kick after he missed four more times the week before.
The Bears are one and a half games ahead of the Vikings and the easier remaining schedule than Minnesota. Chicago will play Detroit on Thanksgiving on Thursday, while Minnesota will play Sunday Night Footbal against the Packers again next week.
Terrible day for Minnesota’s Run Game. Dalvin Cook and Latavius Murray turned 13 runs into 17 yards. Both backs ran for exactly 1.3 yards per attempt.
The Bears’ entire Pass Rush managed to generate pressure through the game. Mack, however, was once again outstanding and that because he was too often defended one against one. Riley Reiff had no chance to stop the force of nature Mack and so this cousin always had a big visor in front of him. Mack started the game with a forced fumble and later came to an important bag.
Cousins (30/46, 262 YDS, 2 TD, 2 INT) had an evening to forget and played the worst game of his season. He began the evening with an overthrow of Stefon Diggs free in the Enzone. Then he showed big problems against the high pressure the Bears-Rush generated. His passports were falsified at the Line of Scrimmage or were often inaccurate. But none was as inaccurate as the inexplicable interception into the hands of Adrian Amos at the end of the first half.