Chicago Bears win 17-13 against Minnesota Vikings to end five game losing streak - NFL Week 17 Recap
A meaningless finale to the 2011 regular season saw the Chicago Bears finally end their five-game losing streak with a 17-13 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at the Mall of America Field in Minnesota.
The Bears who were out of playoff contention after losing the previous week to Green Bay Packers did just about enough to break a five-game skid and send the Vikings to end their season equalling the worst record in franchise history.
The Vikings started off with quarterback Christian Ponder who had recovered for the game but had to be replaced in the second quarter for the third time by Joe Webb after getting carted off for what looked like a hip injury. Ponder ended the game with just
28 passing yards and one interception as the quarterback completed four out of ten attempted passes.
Joe Webb came on for Ponder but this time the Bears defence kept him under check as Webb failed to create a single touchdown as he ended the game covering 200 passing yards, throwing two interceptions as he completed 17 out of 32 attempted passes.
"They did a real good job of being gap smart and not letting him escape," Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said.
The Bears again started with veteran Josh McCown after his better performance than Caleb Hanie against Green Bay Packers. McCown had another good game covering 160 passing yards for a single touchdown and interception. The quarterback completed 15 out of
25 attempted passes to help his team finally end their losing streak although it came too little too late to change anything for the Bears playoffs hopes.
"What a great group, and it's just an honor to play for the coaches and the guys that are on the field today," McCown said.
Coach Lovie Smith is already looking forward to rebuilding during the off season as his team will not take part in the playoffs and seemed optimisitic about the future saying
"It's not a whole lot of fun finishing your season knowing that, but we're a good football team and we're going to try and keep as many of our coaches and players together as possible," Smith said.
The Vikings started off the first quarter by taking a 10-0 lead. Ryan Longwell scored the game’s first points with a 26-yard field goal at 8:53 and Percy Harvin continued his brilliant season rushing 5-yards for a touchdown at 3:42.
The Bears came back in the second quarter. Quarterback Josh McCown sent a 22-yard pass to Roy Williams at 14:19 to bring the Bears to 10-7 and a minute later Charles Tillman picked off a deflected Christian Ponder pass for a 22-yard interception return.
With the Bears up 14-10 the Vikings scored a 26-yard field goal with just 55 seconds left in the second quarter to trail the Bears by a single point.
A scoreless third quarter followed with Joe Webb struggling to break through a dogged Bears defence. The fourth quarter would have been similarly scoreless but for a Robbie Gould field 27-yard field goal at 10:19. The Bears held on to win 17-13 to snap their
five game losing streak.
Tags: