MINNEAPOLIS – They started the week without knowing where they would play the Vikings and found out shortly before kickoff that they’d face Brett Favre—two days after he had been ruled out of the game with a shoulder injury.
But the Bears didn’t allow any uncertainty or adversity prevent them from achieving a goal that most outside the organization were convinced would never happen. On a snowy Monday night at TCF Bank Stadium in Minnesota, the Bears crushed the Vikings 40-14 to win the NFC North title.
“It was just a great job by our football team all week—[with] a lot of things going on—to stay focused on the task and that’s to be the first team to clinch their division,” said coach Lovie Smith, who wore a 2010 NFC North championship shirt to his post-game press conference.
After the Vikings took a 7-0 lead on the game’s opening drive, the Bears scored 27 unanswered points, capped by Devin Hester’s 64-yard punt return touchdown early in the third quarter. The score gave Hester 14 career kick return TDs, enabling him to set the all-time NFL record.
“Just think about that,” Smith said. “The all-time career return leader in the history of the National Football League. You’re talking about an honor, and when you’re a special player like him, he should be the guy to be up on top with that.”
The Bears (10-4) dominated on both sides of the ball, generating three Jay Cutler touchdown passes and four Robbie Gould field goals on offense and five takeaways and four sacks on defense.
One of the sacks—the first of Corey Wootton’s career—knocked Favre out of the game. With the Bears leading 10-7 early in the second quarter, the rookie defensive end wrestled the quarterback to the ground. Favre’s head hit the artificial turf and he remained down on the field for several minutes.
“I didn’t even know he was hurt until we were walking over to the sideline and I looked back and saw he was on the ground,” Wootton said. “You hate when a guy gets hurt, but that’s the game of football. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I hope he’s not hurt too bad and I hope he recovers.”
Favre exited having completed 5 of 7 passes for 63 yards, including a 23-yard TD to Percy Harvin. After that opening drive, the Bears defense allowed only one TD on Minnesota’s final 13 possessions.
“We didn’t start off necessarily the way we wanted to,” Smith said. “Minnesota is a good football team and they have great players over there. Brett Favre gave them a boost there early on. But we settled down after that.”
Julius Peppers intercepted a Favre pass that was deflected by Henry Melton to set up the first of Gould’s four field goals without a miss, drawing the Bears to within 7-3. Chicago then took a 10-7 lead it would not relinquish on Cutler’s 67-yard TD bomb to Johnny Knox late in the first quarter.
“The big pass play to Johnny from Jay really kind of kick-started us off a little bit, and we got some things going,” Smith said. “Offensively, it felt like we were moving the ball whether it was passing or running the ball fairly well the entire night.”
Cutler completed 14 of 24 passes for 194 yards with three TDs, one interception and a 106.6 passer rating. He also threw scoring passes of 15 yards to Hester to put the Bears ahead 17-7 in the second quarter and 9 yards to Rashied Davis to make it 34-14 in the third period.
Though the field conditions were a popular topic all week, they weren’t much of a factor. It stopped snowing early in the game and players appeared to generally have good footing.
“It didn’t really affect our game plan for the most part,” said tight end Greg Olsen. “Guys handled it really well. The turf wasn’t too bad. In the second half it got a little icy and guys started slipping a little bit. But for the most part it was pretty good.”
The Bears defense finished with a flourish, forcing turnovers on Minnesota’s final four possessions. Chris Harris and Charles Tillman intercepted backup quarterback Joe Webb, and Nick Roach and Brian Iwuh forced fumbles that were recovered by Melton and Matt Toeaina, respectively.
In clinching the NFC North title, the Bears are headed back to the playoffs for the first time since 2006 when they advanced to Super Bowl XLI.
“After you make [the playoffs] the first time, you assume you’ll be back there every year,” Smith said. “It doesn’t work like that, so that’s why this is special. The second time around we realize how hard it is to get there. We’re the only team to clinch our division right now.
“It’s hard to win in the National Football League. There’s parity in the league. Our players realize that. You also realize how hard you have to work to stay there, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Even though outsiders doubted them, Peppers always believed the Bears could win the NFC North.
“I see these guys every day,” Peppers said. “I see these guys work. I see what type of players we have on this team and I see the coaches. The coaches don’t accept anything but our best.
“Anytime you have that combination of things working together, good things have to happen. The football gods make sure good things happen to people who work hard and do things right.”
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