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Week 6 Game Recap: Minnesota Vikings 34, Chicago Bears 31
What you need to know
| Minnesota Vikings |
In a game marked by big plays, rookie Adrian Peterson made one after another in leading the visiting Vikings over the Bears by a 34-31 margin. Peterson finished with touchdowns from 35, 67 and 73 yards out on a day where he amassed 361 all purpose yards, including a 53 yard kickoff return to set up the game winning field goal in the final two minutes of the game. Peterson split carries with Chester Taylor, but finished with twenty carries for 224 yards. Taylor carried the ball 22 times for 83 yards, but did not find the end zone. Fullback Tony Richardson added one attempt for four yards.
While the Vikings had a great deal of success running the ball, they struggled most of the day through the air, with the exception of a sixty yards touchdown pass from Tavaris Jackson to Troy Williamson. Jackson completed nine of 23 passes for 136 yards with just that one touchdown, though was not intercepted by the Bears in his return from injury. Williamson caught one other pass on the afternoon, and ended with two catches for 69 yards. Bobby Wade led the team in targets, but caught just three balls for thirty yards. Robert Ferguson saw action in the spread offense and caught two balls for fifteen yards, while Sidney Rice added thirteen yards on one catch. Running back Adrian Peterson added one reception for nine yards.
| Chicago Bears |
Brian Griese showed the ability to make smart decisions in completing the pass to the running back out of the backfield as well as the ability to complete the ball downfield, throwing three touchdowns of 33, 39 and 81 yards in length. Overall, Griese compiled 381 yards by completing 26 of 45 yards, though was intercepted twice. The Bears primary target on the afternoon was Bernard Berrian, who caught five balls for 78 yards and one touchdown. Muhsin Muhammed was quiet most of the afternoon, but came up with a big play to put the Bears back in the game late, and ended with two catches for 44 yards and one touchdown. In addition to returning a punt 89 yards for a touchdown, Devin Hester entered the game as a receiver late and burned past the defender to catch a perfectly thrown ball for an 81 yard touchdown on his only reception. Rashied Davis added two catches for 12 yards while Mark Bradley caught one pass for nine yards.
Griese made good use of his tight ends and running backs in this game as well. Greg Olsen was targeted often and caught five balls for 63 yards, while Desmond Clark hauled in three passes for 48 yards. Adrian Peterson caught five balls for 28 yards out of the backfield for the Bears, while Cedric Benson pulled in two passes for 18 yards.
While the Bears had good success through the air, they were unable to get things going on the ground, with Cedric Benson carrying the ball eighteen times for 67 yards. Used primarily on third down and passing situations, Adrian Peterson added eleven yards on two carries. On his only rush of the game, Jason McKie fumbled to end the first half following a six yard gain, while Garrett Wolfe entered briefly to add one yard on the ground. Devin Hester was used on one end around and lost three yards. Officially, Brian Griese gained one yard on one attempt, though lost the ball trying to gain the first down.
What you ought to know
| QB Tarvaris Jackson, Pass: 9 - 23 - 136 - 1 TD / 0 INT |
In his return from injury, Jackson handed off the ball 43 times to passing 23 times. As it turned out, the Vikings averaged 5.9 yards per passing play, while gaining 7.2 yards per rushing play, so this was the right move, especially considering that Jackson completed just 39% of his passes. In leading the Vikings to a division victory on the road, he didn't turn the ball over. If not to include a sixty yard touchdown to Troy Williamson, Jackson averaged less than 3.5 yards per passing play.
| RB Chester Taylor, Rush: 22 - 83 - 0 |
Taylor was not utilized in the passing game as he often found himself staying back to protect their young quarterback. While he did not put up the huge numbers of his teammate, Taylor still averaged 3.8 yards per carry and wore down the Bears defense, though he did lose one fumble.
| RB Adrian Peterson, Rush: 20 - 224 - 3, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (2 targets) |
Peterson put on a performance rarely seen, showing tremendous ability to make defenders miss, and quickly build to top speed and get past even the Bears quickest defenders. On his 67 and 73 yard touchdowns, he bounced the play back in the opposite direction, and broke through tacklers attempting to take him out low as he was changing direction, finishing the play with breakaway speed that even Charles Tillman could not catch him on either play despite having the angle. On his 35 yard touchdown late in the game, he broke to the outside and seemed to gracefully avoid the Bears defenders and tiptoe down the sideline untouched for his third touchdown. Still, his biggest play may have been his 53 yard kickoff return in the final two minutes to set up Ryan Longwell's 55 yard field goal as time expired.
| WR Bobby Wade, Rec: 3 - 30 - 0 (7 targets) |
Wade was the most targeted Vikings receiver, though was used primarily on short passes over the middle and along the sideline.
| WR Troy Williamson, Rec: 2 - 69 - 1 (5 targets) |
Williamson's big play came on a deep pass which he converted for a sixty yard touchdown, though was not used on deep routes after this early touchdown, with teammate Robert Ferguson seeing the majority of such routes as the game went on.
| WR Sidney Rice, Rec: 1 - 13 - 0 (3 targets) |
Rice tantalized Vikings fans with a tremendous catch, showing very strong hands on a ball most would not have caught, however had just dropped a ball that hit him square in the hands minutes earlier.
| TE Visanthe Shiancoe (1 targets) |
Shiancoe was utilized primarily in a blocking role in this game against the Bears pass rush and to help set up the running attack.
| PK Ryan Longwell 2 - 2 FG, 4 - 4 XP, 10 points |
Longwell connected successfully on all four extra points, in addition to field goals of 48 and 55 yards, the latter which won the game as time expired.
| MIN Rush Defense |
The Vikings held the Bears to just 83 yards on the ground, and caused two fumbles, giving up less than 3.5 yards per carry.
| MIN Pass Defense |
The secondary came up with two interceptions and helped to force one sack, but gave up 381 yards through the air including three long touchdown passes.
| QB Brian Griese, Pass: 26 - 45 - 381 - 3 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 1 - 1 - 0 |
Griese completed passes to nine different receivers and completed 58% of his passes for an average of 8.5 yards per passing play, but could not overcome the deficit created by the Vikings strong rushing attack. Griese threw a perfect pass to Devin Hester late in the game to tie the score up at 31, and had threaded the ball into Muhsin Muhammed and Bernard Berrian earlier in the game for long touchdown passes.
| RB Cedric Benson, Rush: 18 - 67 - 0, Rec: 2 - 18 - 0 (4 targets) |
Benson was utilized out of the backfield more than in previous weeks, but continued to exit the game in favor of Adrian Peterson on third downs and obvious passing situations. On the ground, Benson was able to break a few tackles and run with power, but averaged just 3.7 yard per carry and was kept out of the end zone.
| RB Adrian Peterson, Rush: 2 - 11 - 0, Rec: 5 - 28 - 0 (8 targets) |
Peterson saw exclusive action on screen passes out of the backfield, and was a key contributor in the Bears game plan versus the aggressive Vikings defense.
| WR Bernard Berrian, Rec: 5 - 78 - 1 (8 targets) |
Berrian got behind the defense on a 39 yard touchdown reception in the second quarter, though this amounted for half of his production on the day, as the Vikings tried to keep the ball away from him.
| WR Muhsin Muhammad, Rec: 2 - 44 - 1 (7 targets) |
Muhammed came across the middle late in the game to catch a well thrown ball and broke away from his defender for a 33 yard touchdown.
| WR Devin Hester, Rush: 1 - -3 - 0, Rec: 1 - 81 - 1 (1 targets) |
On his only target of the game, Hester ran a deep route down the right sideline, in which the linebacker let him go on Brian Griese's pump fake, and the deep safety had no chance to catch Hester's blazing speed as he ran underneath a perfectly thrown ball to tie the game with under two minutes remaining.
| TE Greg Olsen, Rec: 5 - 63 - 0 (7 targets) |
Olsen made a number of nice catches, including a basket catch down the left sideline as he slipped behind the linebacker on a well executed timing pattern.
| TE Desmond Clark, Rec: 3 - 48 - 0 (5 targets) |
Clark and teammate Greg Olson both served effective roles in the Bears game plan against the Vikings. Clark saw more action early in the game and in situations where the Bears were trying to establish the run.
| PK Robbie Gould 1 - 1 FG, 4 - 4 XP, 7 points |
Gould connected from 32 yards out on his only field goal attempt, while successfully connecting on all four extra point attempts.
| CHI Rush Defense |
The Bears struggled stopping the run, giving up three long touchdowns and over 300 yards on the ground. Even without including three long touchdown runs by Adrian Peterson, the Bears still gave up 136 yards on forty other attempts, and simply were worn down by an effective Vikings game plan.
| CHI Pass Defense |
Though the pass defense didn't come up with a turnover, and the rush defense had a very poor day, the Vikings gained only 136 yards through the air and completed just 39% of their passes. Still, the Bears gave up a long touchdown pass of 60 yards at the end of the first quarter, even before Adrian Peterson got going.
