Vikings rip Bears, improve to 10-1
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MINNEAPOLIS (MCT) — Say this much for the Chicago Bears. They didn’t let Adrian Peterson have another monster game against them.
The Minnesota Vikings running back had rushed for 554 yards with eight touchdowns in four career games against them entering Sunday, and Chicago wasn’t going to let that scenario repeat itself.
Problem was the Bears didn’t account for the fact this is a far superior Vikings team to any they have faced in recent years, and it can beat an opponent in a variety of ways. The Vikings proved this again by putting together their second dominating performance in as many weeks in a 36-10 victory at the Metrodome.
The victory gave the Vikings a sweep of their three-game homestand, moved them to 10-1 and put their magic number for clinching the NFC North at two. The Vikings, 5-0 against the division, can wrap up the North as early as next weekend with a victory at Arizona on Sunday and a Green Bay loss against Baltimore at Lambeau Field a week from Monday.
But winning the division seems like a formality. The more you watch the Vikings, the more it becomes clear that the only comparable team in the NFC is the New Orleans Saints (10-0), who play visiting New England tonight.
“This is the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here, and I’m excited,” said versatile offensive lineman Artis Hicks, who joined the Vikings in 2006 and started in place of injured right guard Anthony Herrera on Sunday. “I’ve been on a Super Bowl-caliber team before (in Philadelphia with 2004) and I know the feeling, I know the talent level, and this team has got it. I’m not counting the chickens before they are hatched, don’t get me wrong, but when you have it you kind of know it, and I think this team has it.”
The Bears became the latest team to discover this. Chicago “held” Peterson to 85 yards and even forced two fumbles by him. It mattered little. The Vikings scored 30 or more points for the seventh time this season — their 342 points are second only to the Saints — and dominated the Bears in just about every statistical category.
Quarterback Brett Favre threw for a season-high 392 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions — he has 24 scoring passes and only three interceptions — as the Vikings accumulated 537 yards, most in a game since Brad Childress took over as coach in 2006.
Thanks in part to rookie Percy Harvin’s six catches for 101 yards, the offense converted 12 of 18 third-down attempts, a season-best 67 percent success rate, and held the ball for 40 minutes, 55 seconds.
The defense was just as impressive. The Bears’ 169 yards were the fewest the Vikings have given up this season and came a week after the Seahawks accumulated only 212 yards in a 35-9 loss. One of the few negative stats: The Vikings were assessed 10 penalties.
The Vikings had two interceptions against Jay Cutler, giving the quarterback 20 on the season, and sacked him four times.
The Bears offense shouldn’t have bothered taking the field in the second half. They generated a total of 2 yards on 12 plays. That is not a misprint.
“They see blood in the water and they go get it,” Bears defensive end Alex Brown said. “They’re a good team. A very good team, and we get to play them again in a few weeks. Hopefully we can play better.”
Childress, typically, refused to get overly excited about what his team accomplished. “You know what, we took care of the month of November,” Childress said, referring to the fact the Vikings went 4-0 in this month. “It just kind of springboards you into December. Good teams play good in November and December. You want to be ascending, and I think we can continue to climb.”
