Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings: Complete Week 17 Preview for Minnesota
The Minnesota Vikings will complete their 2014 schedule when they host the Chicago Bears at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon. There's nothing to play for other than pride for either team, although at least the Vikings have hope on their side as the current season winds down.
The Bears are set to fire head coach Marc Trestman as early as Monday according to multiple reports, including Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago fans have watched a season that once held a smidgen of hope at 3-3 devolve completely off the rails as the Bears have dropped seven of their last nine. Quarterback Jay Cutler, the highest-paid player in the league, was benched last week but will return for the finale after backup Jimmy Clausen suffered a concussion last Sunday.
As much of a disaster the 2014 season has been for the Bears, at 5-10 they're only one game worse than the 6-9 Vikings and are among a quagmire of nine teams who will be drafting anywhere from seventh to 15th depending on Sunday's results.
As far as the future goes, the Vikings are one huge step—and perhaps two—ahead of the Bears in that they have both a head coach and a young quarterback in Mike Zimmer and Teddy Bridgewater that they can confidently head toward the future with.
Even if the Vikings lose to the Bears and finish 6-10, Zimmer has established a culture of accountability at Winter Park. The truth about the Vikings' 2014 season is that the bottom probably fell out when Adrian Peterson's season ended after Week 1 and starting quarterback Matt Cassel was lost in Week 3.
As harsh as it sounds, Cassel's injury might have accelerated the overall growth of the team, as Teddy Bridgewater was forced into action and will head into the 2015 season with 12 NFL starts under his belt. Bridgewater has shown great progress over the season and looks better each week; his passer rating has been over 110 in three of Minnesota's last four games.
Draft status aside, the Vikings would like to end Zimmer's first year with a win. It's a home game, and they're playing a team that's in complete shambles. Plain and simple, it's a game the Vikings should win, and it would cap off a season that pretty much went according to script: They'll have won every game they were supposed to and lost every one they were expected to.
Expectations will be higher for 2015.
Vikings' Week 16 Recap
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The Minnesota Vikings lost to the Miami Dolphins 37-35 last Sunday when rookie Terrence Fede blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety with just 41 seconds left.
Fede's heroics capped off a wild fourth quarter that saw Miami outscore Minnesota 23-18.
Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill riddled the Vikings defense all afternoon, throwing for 396 yards and four touchdowns. Tannehill outshone Minnesota's Teddy Bridgewater, who had perhaps the best game of his rookie season, throwing for 259 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
During a season when it's been predominantly Minnesota's offense that's kept the team from winning games, it was the defense that couldn't hold up its end of the bargain against Miami.
The Dolphins picked up 36 first downs on the afternoon (to Minnesota's 20) and were 9-of-13 in third-down conversions.
The loss was the second straight week where Minnesota had jumped out to a 14-0 lead on the road but couldn't sustain its momentum.
After blowing their lead, the Vikings rallied furiously in the fourth quarter, tying the game up at 28 when Bridgewater hit Jarius Wright with an eight-yard touchdown and Matt Asiata rushed for the two-point conversion.
The Vikings then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at Miami's 5-yard line and went ahead on the next play when Asiata scored on the ground.
The rally was for naught, though, after the Dolphins drove 80 yards in 11 plays to tie the game at 35 and set up Fede's late-game heroics.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, via ESPN.com, Fede's winning blocked punt was the first go-ahead safety in the final minute of the fourth quarter in NFL history.
The loss dropped the Vikings to 6-9 on the season and assured that they'll finish under .500 for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
News and Notes
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Vikings Snubbed for the Pro Bowl
The Vikings were one of just four teams that had no players named to the Pro Bowl on Tuesday night. That hasn't happened to Minnesota since 1983, and it's only the second time in franchise history that the team has been shut out of the Pro Bowl, according to Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press.
The three other teams ignored completely were the New York Giants, Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. The Vikings have had at least two players named to the Pro Bowl for 28 straight seasons.
Safety Harrison Smith and defensive end Everson Griffen were the Vikings expected to have the best chance to be named, but six other safeties and six other defensive ends were chosen instead.
"Harrison Smith isn't the first alternate for a Pro Bowl spot, he said. That's a head-scratcher there.
— Ben Goessling (@GoesslingESPN) December 24, 2014"
While both players had seasons worthy of the honor, we're not going to denigrate anyone who was named to the team. Griffen's 12 sacks rank second among defensive ends, and Smith is the only player in the league who had at least five interceptions and three sacks.
Bridgewater Getting Better Every Time Out
The stat sheet doesn't say that Bridgewater had his best day as a pro against the Dolphins last Sunday, but for anyone who was watching, the eyeball test certainly did.
Bridgewater was great in the pocket, sliding in and out when need be and was as accurate as he's been all season while throwing the ball. His accuracy on short balls has been good for most of the year, but against the Dolphins, he was dead on with several deeper balls.
Bridgewater finished the game 19-of-26 for 259 yards and two touchdowns. His passer rating was 114.1 but would have been much higher had Matt Asiata not cost him an interception and had the refs correctly called a touchdown throw to tight end Chase Ford.
Nonetheless, it was the fourth straight game in which the Vikings rookie quarterback has completed over 70 percent of his passes:
Leaving all the numbers aside, Bridgewater is simply passing the eyeball test. Considering he's playing behind an offensive line that's missing three starters and is basically being held together by duct tape, his performances have to be taken with a grain of salt.
The loss of the team's best two running backs has also neutered any sort of play-action game for Bridgewater.
All told, his poise, confidence and playmaking ability look to be getting better each week, and the fact that he's learning under far less than ideal conditions only bodes well for his future success.
Bears Are in Complete Turmoil
Yes, the Minnesota Vikings' season has veered toward the disappointing, but high expectations heading into the season were probably a little unrealistic, and the loss of too many key pieces rendered them obsolete.
In the end, the Vikings should at least be satisfied that things seem to be headed in the right direction under first-year head coach Mike Zimmer and rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
The Chicago Bears, on the other hand, look like a complete dumpster fire.
According to the Chicago Tribune's Jay Potash, quarterback Jay Cutler said, "Everyone could get axed."
Cutler will be under center again for the Bears, after being benched last week in favor of Jimmy Clausen. Clausen suffered a concussion in a 20-14 loss to the Detroit Lions. The Bears have lost four straight and seven of their last nine.
Per Potash, Cutler commented on the Bears' future on Wednesday:
"I think you’ve just got to prepare yourself that anything can happen — that’s kind of what I’m prepared for. I mean, everyone could stay. Everyone could get axed. You just never know what direction it’s going to go. You have to stay open-minded and know that things happen for a reason.
Coaches could leave. Players could leave. I could leave. That’s part of it.
"
The guess here is that head coach Marc Trestman is fired as early as Monday, with general manager Phil Emery possibly gone as well. The future of Cutler may be left in the hands of their successors.
It should make for an interesting contest on Sunday, and predicting anything with this Bears team is pretty fruitless. Cutler might throw five touchdowns, or he might throw five interceptions—or he might just do both.
Injury Report
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| Player | Position | Injury Status |
| Chad Greenway | LB | Questionable |
| Jarius Wright | WR | Questionable |
| Kyle Rudolph | TE | Questionable |
| Brandon Watts | LB | Questionable |
| Charlie Johnson | G | Questionable |
| Greg Jennings | WR | Questionable |
| Chase Ford | TE | Questionable |
| Robert Blanton | S | Questionable |
| Mike Harris | OT | Probable |
All injury reports are courtesy of Mike Wobschall of Vikings.com.
Greenway, Wright, Rudolph and Watts all missed practice on Wednesday and are questionable for Sunday.
Johnson, Jennings, Ford, Blanton and Harris were all limited on Wednesday, but all but Johnson are pretty good bets to play on Sunday. Johnson may play if he's fully healed but might not risk his bad ankle if it isn't fully ready to go.
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X-Factors and Matchups to Watch
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Matt Kalil vs. Jared Allen
Allen returns to Minnesota to face the team he went to battle with for six seasons prior to signing with the Bears this past offseason. Allen had 85.5 sacks for the Vikings in those six years, and while his 5.5 sacks this year are the lowest total of his career, he still has 53 tackles.
Allen told Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press that he'll enjoy returning to Minnesota this week:
"It's another game, but it's always exciting to go back and play against the team you came from. It's not playing in the (Metrodome), so it's not like there's memories there. It'll always be fun to go back and play those guys and play back in the city for the first time in front of those fans. I wouldn't call it extra juice; it's another game, but it's always fun.
"
Allen will be matched up primarily with Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil, who has spent a majority of the season as a lightening rod for criticism. Kalil has certainly had his ups and downs in 2014 but seems to have righted the ship over the last month and played much better over Minnesota's last four games.
John Holler of Vikings.com reports that Kalil will undergo "clean-up" surgery on his knee sometime next month and quotes Kalil as looking forward to being able to have a productive offseason.
"The past four or five games I’ve been playing better, and I want to finish the season strong," Kalil said. "My plan is to have the best offseason I’ve ever had. The surgery won’t set me back, so I intend to hit the ground running and attack my offseason workouts like never before."
Round one between the former teammates in November went to Allen, who had a sack and three quarterback hits on Teddy Bridgewater, to go along with five tackles.
Both players will be looking to end the 2014 season on a positive note. Kalil is looking to prove that he can still be the franchise left tackle the Vikings thought they drafted in 2012, and Allen is hoping to prove that he can still be a productive player in the league heading toward 2015.
Gerald Hodges vs. Matt Forte
The Vikings defense like to mix up coverages and schemes often throughout a game, so it's sometimes hard to tell who's assigned to whom.
That being said, last week against the Miami Dolphins, it usually looked like nobody at all was picking up running backs Lamar Miller or Damien Williams, who combined for 11 catches for 108 yards and a touchdown.
Those two can't hold a candle to Bears running back Matt Forte when it comes to catching passes out of the backfield. Forte leads NFL backs in receiving, and his 94 receptions are just eight behind the league record of 101, set by Larry Centers in 1994.
Forte, with 987 rushing yards, is looking to become just the second player in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards and catch 100 passes in the same season, joining LaDainian Tomlinson.
Hodges has filled in nicely for injured Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr, and a big game on Sunday would go a long way toward showing the Vikings coaches that he's ready for more playing time in 2015.
Hodges' 55 tackles rank seventh on the Vikings, and his seven passes defensed rank fourth.
Xavier Rhodes vs. Alshon Jeffery
With nothing to play for but pride, is there a single reason in the world that Bears quarterback Jay Cutler won't be chucking the ball all over the field on Sunday?
Rhodes has spent the last two weeks basically playing man coverage against both Calvin Johnson of the Lions and Mike Wallace of the Dolphins, so it seems likely that he'd do the same against Alshon Jeffery this week.
Cutler targeted Jeffery 17 times when these two teams met last month, and Jeffery finished with 11 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown. In his last two games against the Vikings, Jeffery has been a one-man wrecking crew, catching 23 balls for 384 yards and three touchdowns.
Rhodes has been perhaps the Vikings' most improved player in 2014, as he's learned to balance his physicality and his coverage skills and has come as close to becoming a "shut-down" cornerback as the Vikings have ever had.
Rhodes played well against the Dolphins, but Wallace's 16-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter illustrated that he still has work to do on his ball skills. Rhodes was right with Wallace when the ball arrived but failed to knock it away, and Wallace made a great play on a tipped ball and took it across the goal line.
Rhodes is one of the cornerstones of the Vikings defense moving forward, and slowing down Jeffery on Sunday will prove how far he's come during his second season.
Vikings X-Factor of the Week: Jarius Wright
For the Minnesota Vikings, or any other football team for that matter, to get better, you have to have some of your "marginal" players take the leap forward to being good or very good ones.
Jarius Wright would be one of those players for the Vikings.
Once again, in his third season with the Vikings, Wright has shown flashes of great ability but hasn't been consistent enough to be called a very good player yet.
Wright has caught 39 passes for 565 yards and two touchdowns on the season. His yards are the second most on the Vikings but are a middling number that rank just 74th in the league. Wright has also gained 71 yards on five rushing attempts that have illustrated what he can do with the ball in his hands.
Wright's "big-time" moment obviously came against the New York Jets when he raced 87 yards for the winning catch-and-run in overtime.
Another big day for Wright against the Bears would solidify his spot as one of the Vikings' top receivers heading toward the 2015 season.
Prediction
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While neither team has seen the 2014 season unfold the way it hoped it would, one would have to say the Vikings are probably in better shape than the Bears heading toward the 2015 season.
Win or lose on Sunday, the Bears could be looking for a new head coach and perhaps a new general manager come next week, according to Mike Mulligan of the Chicago Tribune.
One might expect anything from the Bears on Sunday. As we said earlier, it wouldn't surprise anyone if Jay Cutler came out and threw five touchdown passes or five interceptions. You just never know with him.
The Vikings should come out with a bit of a snarl as they close out their first season under head coach Mike Zimmer. Minnesota is coming off two straight road losses that saw them jump out to 14-0 leads, only to see them frittered away.
With neither team playing for anything more than pride on Sunday, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the game took on a bit of a playground feel, with big plays and more than a little bit of trickery on both sides.
In the end, look for the team that's taking things more seriously—Zimmer's Vikings—to make just a few more plays to get the victory.
If nothing else, it should be an entertaining game to watch.
Prediction: Vikings 26, Bears 22
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