Play-by-play of the likely penultimate game of Lovie’s Bears tenure from a guy who will be watching a lot of old NBA games in the coming weeks

Current drive

So my girlfriend got me the NBA Dynasty Series on the 90s Bulls. Also, the Ultimate Jordan and 1990-91 Chicago Bulls DVD collections. There’s some overlap, but that’s a lot of awesome basketball games in their entirety that I get to watch where the Bulls actually win, rather than whatever it was they did last Monday with me in attendance.

And that’s not the only crappy sports team in town. Folks, I give you the 2009 Chicago Bears. And you give them right back to me. Twenty-five of Jay Cutler’s passes this season have wound up in the hands of the opponents before they hit the ground. That alone cancels out the 24 takeaways by the Bears’ defense. You know, Lovie Smith’s “high-risk, high-reward” defense designed to take the ball away from the other team that has the Bears tied for 20th in the NFL. Cutler has thrown eight picks in three games against the Vikings and Packers. The Vikings and Packers have thrown 14 picks combined for the season. I’m sure there are many other ways to illustrate how bad the Bears are. I’ll spare you.

But hey! All is not completely healthy in Vikingland! Brad Childress dared question the gunslinger’s prowess last Sunday and got roundly spanked for it. The vote of confidence article has been written. And even the “But Did Childress Have A Point” article. Aw, but that’s just the Chicago media attempting to sow insurrection among the opponent’s ranks. The Minny media has no problem with the Vikes, right? Oh no! The once-vaunted Vikings defense also has a weakness. It appears that three-step drops and timing routes can counteract the unstoppable force that is Jared Allen’s mullet.

Unfortunately for the Chicago faithful, Jay Cutler usually throws those to the other team. Of course, the receiver ran the wrong route. And all for the low, low price of never picking in the first round of the draft ever again!

A couple people at ESPN pick the Bears, but they’re broadcasting this so they have to suggest that it might be interesting. No one at The Sporting News believes in the Bears and one guy at CBS Sports picks them, but they pick on the spread and he doesn’t have his own analysis page so who knows if he actually picked them to win.

It’s supposed to be clearing up tonight but still cold. Last time Favre played in a cold Soldier Field, the Bears picked him clean. But Kyle Orton was the Bears’ quarterback then, not whoever the Bears have now, which appears to be Rex Grossman after he learned some pocket presence. Football around 7:30 CST. I will be, as usual, reading the comments and the Twitters. And my New Year’s resolution will be to post more, since I’ve applied to grad school, gotten through my first non-working holiday season in eight years and received a pile of business cards from my best friend and his wife with this site on them. So actually having something on the site might help.

FIRST QUARTER

So Da Coach is the only Monday Night Countdown employee that picks the Bears, and the SportsNation poll on ESPN shows that only the folks down in the Bayou think the Bears will win tonight. Every other state, including Illinois, picks the Vikings, prompting Ditka to shout, “What’s wrong with Illinois.” Then ESPN’s pregame montage starts with Brett Favre saying, “I’m not much for talk. Never have been.” So you communicated all those retirement press conferences via American Sign Language? Gametime temp officially 22 degrees.

Short kick, Rashied Davis takes it on the left side from the 18 to the 28. Bears don’t let Cutler throw an opening pick, handing it off to Matt Forte up the middle for three. Then Cutler’s first pass is almost picked off, he goes over the middle for Desmond Clark and linebacker Ben Leber comes a bad pair of hands shy of pick No. 26. That woulda been a big return, too. Timing route to Earl Bennett on the right side and Antoine Winfield is all over it and bats it down. Punt fielded on a bounce at the 25, dropped right there after some horizontal running and there’s a flag. Personal foul on the Vikings’ Asher Allen, who continued blocking Corey Graham after shoving him out of bounds.

From the 13, Tommie Harris bursts up the middle and drops the Other Adrian Peterson for a loss of three. And there’s his one play of the game. They’re calling it a loss of two despite being tackled back at the 8, then Lance Briggs doesn’t let OAP break to the right, dropping him for a loss of one, bringing up 3rd and 13, which will mean a 14-yard pass. Nope, an inside handoff to Chester Taylor, who shoots through the right side of the line and gets dropped just shy of the sticks. Earl Bennett fields the punt while falling forward at the 40 on the left side and is touched down there.

Stretch play left to Forte, he doesn’t see anything and falls forward for a yard. Jon Gruden excuses Cutler’s struggles partially due to inexperience at the skill positions. Forte again, this time he finds a hole and gets six. Forte stays back to help block Jared Allen, it doesn’t work because Allen still gets past both him and Chris Williams, but Cutler rolls out right and hits Desmond Clark downfield at the Vikings’ 30, and Clark gets three more before being brought down. Forte off left tackle, has space and isn’t swung out of bounds until he has eight yards. Three-step drop to Rashied Davis on the right side and he makes the diving catch at the 10. Davis looked like he thought he was supposed to run a hitch and Cutler threw it ahead of him a bit. On 1st and goal, Forte stretches left, doesn’t have much but gets two or three. And cue the red zone struggles conversation. Six picks this season. Ouch. They call it two, and from the 8, Forte has a hole up the middle and shoots through to the 4. Good time for ESPN to mention that Pat Williams is on the sideline. Cutler tries to force it over the middle to a triple-covered Greg Olsen in the front of the end zone and it’s batted down. Fans boo, but more because they wanted a pass interference call. Robbie Gould nails the chip shot.

Bears 3, Vikings 0, 7:24 left in the 1st quarter

Percy Harvin takes it from the 5 on the right side to just shy of the 30 very slightly back toward the middle. More ads. Hooray! Jerry Azumah attempts to spell “jingle” and fails. Taylor still in the game, heads up the middle for three. Favre has time and hits Sidney Rice over the middle just shy of the sticks, and he shakes a defender to get the first down plus two or three. From the 41, play fake rollout right and Favre hits Rice again for about eight. Slant right to Bernard Berrian gets the first down into Bears territory, then Peterson gets around the corner for eight yards, jamming Charles Tillman in the face to get the last couple extra yards. Favre then hits a diving Rice (I think) in the right seam for a first down to the 30. Peterson gets a yard up the middle and is stuffed there by Marcus Harrison. Favre with time, dumps off to Peterson underneath coming left to right, he turns upfield and gets the first down, Tillman wraps him up one-on-one nicely, but the Vikings had an illegal formation. Pocket collapses quickly on Favre, they drop him for a decent loss but after Favre informs the refs that it was an incomplete pass, so they comply. Replay shows that it was a shovel pass attempt to his fullback so I guess this one isn’t worth whining about. But now the Bears slap the ball out of Favre’s hand legitimately, Israel Idonije knocking it to the ground and Tommie Harris recovering. Look who came to play today!

Replay shows that Idonije didn’t slap the ball loose, but Favre tried to bring the ball forward under pressure from Izzy and it slipped out of his hands. Forte shoves his head into the pile and pushes it forward for four yards, then Cutler checks down to Olsen in the left flat, and Olsen actually shakes a defender and gets to the Vikings’ 40 before being brought down. Forte loses a yard up the middle, 2nd and 11. Okay, I don’t know what happened after I last hit “update,” but it didn’t save anything. Cutler ran over Madieu Williams and shook Ben Leber for a nine-yard gain to bring up 3rd and 3.

Bears 3, Vikings 0

SECOND QUARTER

Forte heads right, has nothing, reverses field and actually has some space for the first down. Who ARE these guys? On first and second down, the Bears get four yards somehow (I was trying to figure out what happened), then Cutler looks for Olsen on a hot route and Olsen wasn’t aware he was the hot route. What happened to the threesome? Gould nails the 42-yarder and Mike Tirico makes the “Gould, solid from 42″ crack.

Bears 6, Vikings 0, 13:23 left in the half

It appears that Zoom has corrected his spelling. After Gruden warns the Bears of the dangers of kicking to Harvin, Gould’s kick takes him backward and to the left to the 1, from where Harvin sprints forward to the 25, bounces off a nasty hit but then gets wrapped up and dropped right there. Peterson shakes off a backfield tackle but can’t shake Alex Brown and Lance Briggs as they drop him after a gain of two on the left side. Peterson stuttersteps in the backfield and does that move where he just runs faster than anyone can react around the right end and is dragged down just shy of the sticks. Taylor spells Peterson, bounces off a couple of tackles in the backfield and heads around left end for the first down plus plenty. From the 42, Favre sets up the screen for Taylor on the right side and Taylor gets five or so. Anthony Adams ran him down from behind, not to shabby for a defensive tackle. Make it six yards for Taylor, who gets stopped after a couple up the middle by Hunter Hillenmeyer. Alert drinking buddy (but not tonight) John alerted me that my lost post somehow wound up in the intro. That is fixed. Israel Idonije drops Taylor shy of the sticks on a stretch play right, then the punt goes off the side of Chris Kluwe’s foot and the Bears will have it around their own 40. Love how other special teams end up sucking at Soldier Field in the winter.

Make it the 36, from where Kahlil Bell shoots off left tackle for six, then bounces to the left sideline for six more. Cutler play fakes, rolls right and threads it past a defender to Olsen for a first down, and Olsen gets tripped up but stumbles forward for about ten more yards inside the 30. Cutler then tries to force one over the middle to Clark and it’s batted down, following Bell powering right for six yards to bring up 3rd and 4 from the Vikings’ 23. Bears call a timeout with 6:50 left to debate whether they should just kick on third down and avoid ever entering the red zone. The Tribune ran red zone stats in the paper over the weekend (my parents still subscribe) and when it comes to total scoring percentage in the red zone, only the Rams are worse than the Bears. The Rams are way worse than the Bears, but still. That’s sad. Olin Kreutz starts falsely. But no matter, the Vikings back out of a blitz, Cutler has time, rolls right and fires to a leaping Devin Aromashodu inside the 10. He gets up and staggers forward for about five more to the 2. And the Bears immediately start falsely, this time Roberto Garza. But no matter, as Cutler hits a lunging Greg Olsen on the right side of the end zone for the first touchdown of the game. Cutler just fired a perfect slant pass in to Olsen. PAT is good.

Bears 13, Vikings 0, 5:56 left in the half

It may have been Gruden, but I think it was Jaws struggling with Aromashodu’s name as badly as Thom Brennaman did. Oh, Aroshamadoo. Jaws then says that Cutler can “rotate the spheroid.” He must have failed geometry. That ain’t a sphere. Kick returned across the 30 to the 35. Favre rolls right and tries to hit Rice on the sideline but Tillman bats it away. Peterson gets through Hunter Hillenmeyer but not Nick Roach as he gets stopped after five yards around right end. Favre goes for Berrian on a deep slant and Tillman makes a diving deflection. Tillman and Lance Briggs are still good, Alex Brown has played okay, the other eight guys, well… Punt caught and downed at the 23.

Play fake and Cutler goes deep for Aromashodu on the stop-and-go route up the right side, but Cutler’s pass brought him back toward the middle, giving the safety the ability to come over and get involved in the play to bat it away. Quick-out right to Bennett gets two. Cutler tries to set up a screen left to Forte but three Vikings linemen read it and it loses about five. Punt downed at the 32.

Peterson does some backfield dancing, then gets hit from behind by Mark Anderson and uses that momentum to fall forward for seven yards. Danieal Manning comes up on a nickel blitz and the run is designed to go right at the spot where Manning blitzed, so he drops Peterson for no gain. We’ll be warned about the whole two minutes left thing before doing 3rd and 3. Shotgun designed rollout right and Favre’s fade attempt has to sail in order not to get picked off. He does indeed sail it. Anderson pressured him and Kluwe’s punt is caught fairly at the 19. Bears have two timeouts and 1:48 left.

They don’t seem interested in it, Forte up the middle for six or seven, then a slant right to Johnny Knox gets batted away, stopping the clock with 1:19 left. Cutler rolls right away from Allen, threads one through two defenders to Bennett for a first down on the right side, then Cutler rolls left away from more pressure and dumps off to Aromashodu, who gets the first down plus two and then gets out of bounds at midfield with :50 left. Cutler has Knox with a step on Cedric Griffin but Cutler led him by too much, missing a sure touchdown by about two yards. Cutler then has a bunch of time and finds Aromashodu wide open over the middle at the 30, from where Aromashodu goes horizontally and gets four more. Timeout Bears with :35 left. Pocket collapses, Cutler scrambles forward for about four to the 22, the radio in Cutler’s helmet goes dead so they sit on it until the clock is at :03 and call their final timeout. Gould splits the uprights.

Halftime: Bears 16, Vikings 0

Halftime thoughts: Well, where was this, um, ALL EFFING SEASON?!?! If they played just a touch better against the Eagles, 49ers, Falcons, Packers either time, then they’re in this season. I don’t know if I trust Cutler or anyone else to continue this in the second half of this game, let alone next season. But it’s nice to see a glimpse of something other than curling up for a nice winter nap. Also fun to see Favre losing. Always fun to see that. Alert Tweeter Marcus J. Merritt corrects me on spheroids. Jaws, I apologize.

THIRD QUARTER

Harvin actually gets something going, breaking through the first level of tacklers and getting across the 40. From there, a dump-off to Visanthe Shiancoe gets eight or nine, then Peterson pops off the left end and doesn’t come down until Craig Steltz makes a shoestring tackle at the Bears’ 40. Peterson then slips trying to make a cut on a pitch left and gets touched down for a gain of one. Favre checks down to Peterson a little too far away from Peterson and he can’t corral it with his right hand. Crowd gets noisy on 3rd and 9. Favre has some time, fires over the middle to a wide-open Berrian and it just bounces off his hands. That’s the Berrian I remember causing me to throw pretzels at the screen. Pooch punt is fielded by Bennett on the 2 or 3, and I think that would have been a touchback had he let it go. Bears ball around their 10.

Cutler hurt his hand on the last non-field goal play of the half but is fine now. From the 9, Forte gets three up the middle, then bounces off the right side and gets into the second level due to a nice pulling block by Olin Kreutz and gets dropped just shy of the markers. Nope, they’re giving him the first down at the 19. Forte again, three yards to the 22. Cutler with some time again, hits Aromashodu on the right side on a hitch route for about five. Replay shows that it wasn’t a catch but the Vikings are not challenging. Cutler’s throw to Knox on a slant left goes to no one in particular as Knox gave up after getting chucked off his route. Punt downed at the 20.

Run gets seven or eight, then Favre pump-fakes a screen and then hits Berrian on a slant left to the 40 for a gain of 13, which Tirico informs us is the Vikings’ longest gain of the night. Not anymore, as Favre finds Berrian wide open on the right sideline in the cover-2 cushion at the Bears’ 25, and Berrian hops out of bounds at the 22. Favre goes to the end zone for Rice, Tillman tackles him before the ball gets there, so 1st and goal on the Bears’ 1. Peterson heads up the middle, cuts out left and beats Lance Briggs to the corner of the end zone. I had already typed “Bears 16, Vikings 7,” when Idonije got his giant self behind the Vikings’ line to block Ryan Longwell’s PAT. Love jinxing the other team.

Bears 16, Vikings 6, 8:17 left in the 3rd quarter

And if the blocked extra point weren’t enough to enhance Dave Toub’s offseason résumé, Danieal Manning takes the kick on the left side, shoots up to the 25, stuttersteps through the mass of bodies, gets 15 more, does some more stutterstepping and bursts into Vikings’ territory, finally getting brought down at the Vikings’ 34. Cutler then checks down to Desmond Clark at the line of scrimmage, and Clark stiff-arms his way to a four-yard gain. Forte then bounces out left and squeezes his way between defenders and the sideline for a first down to the 23. Cutler then goes up the right seam to Olsen, who’s interfered with by the rookie who was guarding him, 1st and goal from the 4. Cutler falls down, manages to reach up to hand it off to Forte, who takes it up the middle for two. Cutler then fakes the handoff to Forte, who picks up a blitz and Cutler has Clark wide open in the back of the end zone on the right side. Gould nails the PAT.

Bears 23, Vikings 6, 6:30 left in the 3rd quarter

Harvin’s return dropped at the 26, and Gruden tells us not to be surprised if the Vikings go to the 2-minute drill here. Favre goes to the shotgun, has time and fires up the right seam to tight end Jim Kleinsasser, who’s been on the Vikings since Fran Tarkenton was throwing to him. From the Bears’ 48, Peterson gets around the right end, gets shoved out of bounds after eight yards and the refs will congregate to decide if he was hit late. No flags fly. Replay shows that Anthony Adams hit him just after he stepped out of bounds. Refs now congregating about the spot. No wait, different angle shows Adams hit him while he was more or less in bounds. They make it 2nd and 1, which Peterson easily converts plus about eight. Replay shows Peterson flattening Tillman on that run. Favre fires over the middle to Harvin on his first offensive involvement of the game, nine-yard gain. Peterson again easily converts 2nd and 1, first down to the Bears’ 20. Peterson motions from the backfield to wide right after Favre yells at him to do so, Favre throws a fade to Peterson but Peterson had no idea what was going on and Steltz was the closest to the ball. Taylor comes in for the first time in a while, shoots off the right side for six and the fans are very, very loud. Empty backfield and Favre hits Rice coming to the right from the left slot for a first down to the 3. Taylor runs a stretch play right, the Bears are all over it and he loses three. After gaining a ton on passing packages, the Vikings switch to a big package and, as Gruden points out, the Bears were waiting for it. Back to the spread package and Favre has Shiancoe in the front of the end zone over the middle for the touchdown. PAT is good this time. Shiancoe was more on the left side around the hash marks, if that matters.

Bears 23, Vikings 13, 1:18 left in the 3rd quarter

Knox looked like he had a lane, which he did, but he was tripped up, stumbles forward to about the 40 and then is down and getting looked at. Knox gets carted off the field. That kinda sucks. The Vikings pressure Cutler pretty much as soon as the football touches his hand, he gets sacked as a flag flies, which can only possibly be holding (it is) and the Vikings decline because they sacked Cutler back at the 31, 2nd and 19. Shotgun handoff to Bell and he gets a pair, if that. Cutler rolls left out of pressure, has some time and throws pick No. 26, this one to Cedric Griffin. Griffin returns it for negative yards, so the Bears got that going for them.

Peterson gets five or six to the Bears’ 48 or 47 and that’s the quarter.

Bears 23, Vikings 13

FOURTH QUARTER

Jaws and Gruden are criticizing Cutler for smiling on the sideline. Maybe someone told him a good joke. Peterson has space up the middle, takes it for the first down and falls forward for three more to the Bears’ 41. Favre checks down to Peterson, who gets the first down but then slips in front of Tillman at the 30. Peterson was pissed because he would have left Tillman in the dust if that cut had been a cut and not a slip. Pocket collapses on Favre, led by Idonije, and Favre throws at his offensive lineman. Intentional grounding, 2nd and 20 from the Bears’ 40. Blitz comes, Favre goes to Shiancoe up the right seam on the hot route, sails him but Shiancoe makes the leaping catch a yard shy of the first down. Steltz and Tillman collide as they both run into Shiancoe and Tillman is down. I know Steltz is playing well today, but I’d rather have him be the one injured right now. With 13:11 left they’re still looking at Tillman. Steltz led with his helmet into Tillman’s ribs. And if there’s any music that’s appropriate to play while a player is stretchered off the field, it’s The Yellow Ledbetter. Mona said, “I wanna leave Bennigans.” Off-tackle right loses a pair, Tommie Harris leading the charge. Vikings go for the field goal on 4th and 3. It’s good.

Bears 23, Vikings 16, 12:10 left in the game

Manning returns the short kickoff from just shy of the 20 to the 35. Forte goes up the middle, spins after a gain of three and falls forward for one more. They don’t give him that one, and on a quick slant left to Bennett, he drops the ball to bring up 3rd and 7. Gruden: “It’s hard to call plays when the trust isn’t there.” So how does that explain the wide receiver screen? Pocket collapses, Cutler rolls right and has Aromashodu rolling with him and catches the pass at the 49 for the first down. Forte gets a yard up the middle to midfield. Cutler goes up the right sideline to Aromashodu, who comes back and tries to make the leaping catch, or at least draw a pass interference call, but can do neither. Pocket collapses on Cutler and he steps up a split-second too late to escape the ends and gets sacked for a loss of six. Punt caught fairly at the 20 with 9:55 left.

Make it the 21, from where Favre fires for Harvin at midfield, Bowman cuts inside of Harvin and drops the interception. Harvin whines for pass interference to no avail. Quick-out right to Harvin and Manning reads it all the way and drops it for no gain. The crowd’s noise doesn’t affect either Favre’s protection or his checkdown to Taylor, who gets the first down all too easily and gets 10 more on top of that. Peterson sweeps right and gets six or seven. Blitz that the Vikings pick up like it’s nothing, Favre stands in the middle of some mayhem and fires across the middle Greg Lewis coming right to left and Lewis isn’t brought down until he’s at the Bears’ 25. Slant left to Rice gets 12 or 13. Gruden does the, “This guy, what’s his name? Brett Favre?” thing that he’s done two or three times before. Yes, Jon, people know who he is. That’s so clever. Quick-out left to Harvin and he sprints forward, splits a pair of defenders around the sticks and stumbles forward to the 2. The Vikings hurry to the line and Peterson walks into the end zone. PAT good.

Bears 23, Vikings 23, 5:49 left in the game

From the 20 on the left side, Manning cuts through the first level on the left side at the 35, cuts back to the middle at midfield and heads to the right side, tries to cut back to the middle again and slips down at the 20. Tirico calls it “inexcusable” for the Vikings, and Gruden agrees, especially considering the short kick was designed to keep it away from Manning. Make it the 21, from where Forte gets a yard and then Cutler, in the face of pressure, fires up the left seam and hits Earl Bennett in the end zone. PAT good.

Bears 30, Vikings 23, 4:55 left in the game

Great throw by Cutler with a dude all up in his space. Harvin tries to do the Manning reverse-field thing but gets dropped at the 32. Peterson gets stuffed up the middle after some dancing in the backfield, gain of one, maybe two. Favre dumps off to Peterson over the middle, and he doesn’t get touched until he has the first down plus five, then knocks two guys back to midfield. Favre fires to Kleinsasser up the left seam to the 30 but it falls incomplete. Checkdown to Jeff Dugan gets nine, then Peterson leaps over the pile for the first down (he cleared some dudes standing up). From the 38 with the clock rolling under 2:15, Favre fires up the left seam, it’s tipped and Zack Bowman drops the sure interception. He had both hands and his chest on it and dropped it. Just before the ends collapse on Favre, he hits Harvin coming across the field to the left side a yard shy of the sticks, Harvin stops and cuts back toward the middle and isn’t brought down until the 20. That’s the 1:59 warning. Make it the 1:58 warning and the 19-yard line. Favre forces it over the middle to Rice and it bounces off of Hillenmeyer’s hands. Taylor tries a stutterstep at the line of scrimmage, gets a yard and then gets flattened from behind for a gain of a little more than one, 3rd and a long 8 as the clock rolls under 1:15. Favre has Rice on the right side just right of the numbers for a first down. Hitch for Rice out of the right slot, 1st and goal and the Vikings call timeout with 1:04 left. From the Bears’ 7, the Bears have some confusion in on the defense but they’re all over the quick-out left to Harvin, dropping it for no gain and the clock will roll. Gruden and Jaws wonder why the Bears aren’t calling timeouts to give their offense a chance. Favre rolls right under pressure and hits Kleinsasser, who makes the lunging catch out of bounds for a gain of one. With :26 left and the crowd going nuts, Corey Graham makes a great deflection on a fade to the left side for Harvin. Check that, it just sailed over Harvin’s outstretched hands. Alex Brown hit Favre as he threw. Vikings call their second timeout with :22 left on 4th and ballgame. Peterson on the sideline, which I find ridiculous, and the Bears call their first timeout and now the Vikings have a chance to put Peterson in. Favre hits Rice on a fade to the left side of the end zone and the Vikings are a PAT from tying it. There it is.

Bears 30, Vikings 30, :16 left in the game

The Vikings’ special teams has shown no ability to stop the Bears from getting into field goal range, so the Bears got that going for them. Oh well, Aromashodu back because Manning was just playing a TON on defense and he’s dropped around the 30. Boos rain down as Cutler kneels on it.

End of regulation: Bears 30, Vikings 30

OVERTIME

Bears win the toss and will receive. Bennett from the 9 on the right side takes it back up the middle across the 30. Vikings stack the box, Cutler makes a check at the line, has just enough time to find Aromashodu on a deep hitch left at midfield, and Aromashodu spots his defenders’ angles and cuts back toward the middle and doesn’t get brought down until he’s at the Vikings’ 35. Forte on a stretch right and Jasper Brinkley reads it and drops him for no gain. Cutler dumps off to Clark in the right flat, Clark stiff-arms his defender and gets five while carrying his man. That’s a 48-yarder. Shotgun delay handoff and Forte gets a yard shy of the sticks for a 44-yard attempt. I guess it was just a matter of time before Gould let us down. He pushes it about a yard wide right. Brutal. Vikings take over at the Bears’ 34.

Pressure comes and Favre can’t get the screen off in time. It falls incomplete as Favre cracks his head on the frozen turf. Pocket then collapses on Favre at the 30 and Mark Anderson sackes him again on third down back at the 25. A flag flies but it’s holding and the Bears will receive this punt. Bennett fields it at the 36 and is flattened right there.

Play fake to Forte, Cutler juggles the ball and his checkdown to Jason McKie is errant for an incomplete pass. Vikings show blitz, Forte takes it to the right side of the line, cuts back to the middle and only gets three, 3rd and 7. From the shotgun, Cutler has time and it’s batted away by Bennie Sapp with 10:22 left in the game. Punt goes to the left side inside the 10, Darius Reynaud tries to turn the corner at midfield but is brought down by Patrick Mannelly at the 17. The longsnapper with the huge tackle!

Peterson can’t make anything happen off left end, no gain. Swing pass right to Peterson and he beats Hillenmeyer around the right corner, gets the first down, Hillenmeyer recovers, hops on his back and then punches the ball loose and Nick Roach recovers the ball. The Vikings take a timeout in the hopes that the booth will review this, but even if they do the Bears have the ball. Replay booth doesn’t even bother because it’s so bleeding obvious.

From the Vikings’ 39, Cutler airs it out up the right side and Aromashodu runs under it for the win.

Final: Bears 36, Vikings 30

Final thoughts: So yeah, where the hell was this against the 49ers, Eagles, Falcons or Packers? Maybe Jay Cutler has found a friend in Devin Aromashodu and this will be fun next season. Or maybe whoever coaches the Bears next year screws up royally. Who knows. But that was fun. Favre fails are always fun.

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