Vikings @ Bears - Week 16

At first, it was a "red alert, everyone abandon ship" kind of night. The Vikings had recently turned in two clunkers against Arizona and Carolina, but make no mistake about it, this time it appeared they were heading for their worst game yet. The Vikings were shut out in the first half, as Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson's protection was nonexistent and any attempts to establish the run were laughable. Meanwhile, Jay Cutler was playing excellent football.

But then something happened.

After a horrendous showing in the first two quarters that left the Vikings behind 16-0, the offense suddenly opened up. Brett was running the show. He had more options than ever before. Adrian was running the football like a man with something to prove. A team that appeared dead was taking the game to overtime.

Unfortunately, while the Favre-led charge was enough to tie the game, it wasn't quite enough to steal the win. And when handing out the blame, I'm going to put the special teams at the top of the list. An Adrian Peterson touchdown knotted the game at 23-23, but on the ensuing kickoff, Daniel Manning returned it 59 yards and set up a Cutler touchdown toss two plays later. And that brings up another key problem: The pass defense.

For much of the game, Cutler had his way with the Vikings defense. On one hand, the pass rush didn't get much traction until later in the game, and Jared Allen might as well have been on the inactive list. The issues in the secondary though are starting to piss me off. The tackling was once again awful, particularly in the first half. Then there's the game winning touchdown pass in overtime in which Antoine Winfield got absolutely torched. O-H.....OH NO!!

Aside from the defensive mishaps and shoddy kickoff coverage, quite a bit of attention will clearly center on Adrian's fumble in overtime. There were bigger reasons that the Vikings lost this game, but that fumble put the Bears in position to win the game.

The Vikings have now choked away homefield advantage and are no longer in control of their own destiny for even a bye week (which we desperately need to have any chance). We need a win against the G-Men and a Cowboys win over the Eagles to secure a first round bye. Quite a fall for this team, but the second half of this game shows that there are still reasons for optimism.

When Brett Favre is given options, when he is given control, and when he can spread things out, this offense remains dangerous. When they can generate a pass rush and can actually TACKLE...the defense remains a serviceable unit.

This is hardly the ideal way to be entering the playoffs, as the Vikings have clearly been on the decline throughout the past four weeks. Here's hoping their comeback on a cold night in Chicago, although ultimately unsuccessful, provides some momentum and some important lessons.