(Sportsbooks) - It seems like a while ago when the
Minnesota Vikings began the season with a 1-3 record. Expected to contend for an NFC North title, the slow start had head coach Brad Childress on the hot seat.
It's funny what a few wins can do.
Minnesota answered its poor beginning with two straight wins, although it was then outgunned in a 48-41 loss in Chicago heading into a bye week. The Vikings have since won four of five following the break and are alone in first place in the division after Sunday's 34-14 win over the Bears.
Momentum sure has shifted the Vikings way. In their home game against Chicago, Minnesota trailed 7-3 in the second quarter and the Bears were on the doorstep looking for another score. With just one yard separating the Bears from seven points, the Vikings forced Chicago quarterback Kyle Orton to misfire on his first-down pass attempt, then stuffed the Bears on three straight run plays at the goal line.
Then on the Vikings' first play with their backs against the wall, quarterback Gus Frerotte found Bernard Berrian for a 99-yard touchdown pass, the longest offensive play in team history. It also marked the 11th time in NFL history that a play has gone that distance.
"(The Bears) were trying to load the box because of our running game and we were able to hurt them on that situation," said Frerotte. "You know, when you're at the half-yard line I guess it was, most of the time you are going to run it out of there. We decided to drop back and throw one and they gave us the right coverage."
The Vikings totaled 17 points in the second quarter and never looked back.
The win has cooled the hot seat for Childress in Minnesota. He has been criticized for how he has used Adrian Peterson this year, but the running back ran for 131 yards and a touchdown versus the Bears. Also, a defense that struggled early on forced three turnovers, all on interceptions.
Childress seems to have silently admitted his mistake in drafting Tarvaris Jackson in the second round of the 2006 draft to be his quarterback of the future. Jackson is now backing up the 37-year-old Frerotte, who has played in all but two of Minnesota's games this season.
Although they called for his job back at the beginning of the season, Childress was quick to give the fans credit in Minnesota's recent home win. These are the same fans he compared to the Philadelphia Eagles' faithful -- whose reputation is well established -- earlier in the year.
"Our fans, we knew we could get something from them energy-wise," said Childress. "They brought good energy and obviously the people in the Metrodome brought good energy."
Is this the start of a beautiful relationship between Childress and the Twin Cities' fans?
UP NEXT: Minnesota will attempt to maintain its grip on the top spot in the NFC North when it heads to Detroit on Sunday. The Vikings have won 12 of their last 13 games versus the winless Lions, including a 12-10 home win on October 12.
BEARS: BURNED BY THE BIG PLAYS
The Chicago Bears sure could have used cornerback Nathan Vasher on Sunday.
It wasn't enough that the Bears failed to score on four plays from the Minnesota one-yard line. Up 7-3 in the second quarter, Kyle Orton's pass on first down fell incomplete. Running back Matt Forte was then stopped for a no gain. Fullback Jason Davis' third-down attempt yielded similar results. Faced with a fourth down from the one, head coach Lovie Smith decided to try to punch it in one more time. Forte was stuffed for a no gain.
Smith said he felt that the Bears needed a touchdown in that situation. His team failed.
"You got to be able to get it in from there," said Smith. "If you don't get it in from there, you probably don't deserve to win."
The Bears didn't. On the Vikings' first play after the goal-line stance, Frerotte hooked up with Berrian on a 99-yard touchdown pass as the former Bear got behind corner Charles Tillman.
Chicago went on to lose by a 34-14 score and fell one game back of the Vikings for first place in the NFC North.
Obviously, even if Vasher, a former Pro Bowl selection who has landed on injured reserve because of a broken hand, was on the field, it might not have prevented the blown coverage. It also wouldn't have prevented Orton from ending his team record of 205 straight passes without an interception by throwing three picks.
"You can't turn the ball over like that," Smith said.
Despite the loss, the Bears remain in the hunt for the division title. However, with no games left against the Vikings, Chicago isn't in the driver's seat. It is a similar situation to last season, when the Bears headed into December with a 5-6 mark only to suffer defeats in three straight games. Chicago would like to avoid such a collapse this season.
"We started a six-game season a couple of weeks ago," Smith said. "But we still have time. Nothing has been decided right now -- we are one game out of first place and we need a little bit of help. All we can do is take care of our business."
That business continues this weekend with a home test versus Jacksonville, the start of three straight games at Solider Field for the Bears. That should play into their favor. Chicago is 3-2 as the host this year, but its next two opponents (the Jaguars and New Orleans Saints) are southern teams not used to the brutal Chicago winters. However, Green Bay will have no problem playing in the cold when it comes to town on December 22.
Hopefully for the Bears, they will be out in front by then.
UP NEXT: The Bears and Jaguars have split their four all-time meetings. Jacksonville posted a 22-3 home win in the last encounter back in 2004, but Chicago notched a 33-13 win when the clubs last met in the Windy City in 2001.
PACKERS: APPEAR TO BE FALLING JUST SHORT
The Green Bay Packers have lost four games this season by four points or less, including three in November. That has them just shy of being 9-3 instead of their current mark of 5-7.
That could also ultimately be the team's overall view of its 2008 season.
Green Bay's 35-31 setback to Carolina on Sunday dropped them two games back of Minnesota for first place in the standings. The Packers led 31-28 after Mason Crosby's 19-yard field goal with 1:57 left on the clock. However, they couldn't prevent the Panthers from not only pulling off a solid kick return, but from Panthers wideout Steve Smith out-jumping Green Bay's Charles Woodson for a 54-yard gain to the Packers' one-yard line.
Carolina running back DeAngelo Williams then punched it home from a yard out with 1:30 left on the clock to decide the game.
"We didn't make plays in crunch time," said Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. "We have had a number of games that have come down to the wire and we haven't been able to pull them out and lose by a close margin. We haven't executed in crunch time like we should."
It's unfair to say that the Packers may be on the verge of a big collapse. Green Bay has lost four of its last five games and hardly looks like the team that came out of the gate with two solid wins that featured better-than- expected play out of Rodgers to open the season.
Rodgers is in his first year as Green Bay's starter after sitting behind Brett Favre on the depth chart since he was taken in the first round of the 2005 draft. Learning behind the best can only get you so far, and Rodgers has been better than many anticipated in his first year as the team's quarterback.
"I thought he played very well," head coach Mike McCarthy said of Rodgers. "I thought he did a very good job of managing at the line of scrimmage the play selection that we had in the game. He kept us in favorable play selection; he did a good job of spreading the ball around. He didn't take chances. I thought he played very well."
Rodgers isn't making any excuses for his team's struggles, even as he continues to play through a bum shoulder. While his solid play may have raised the bar higher then it should have been set this year, the 25-year-old isn't counting his team out yet.
"We have four games left," he said. "It is one at a time, but we have to get this next one for sure and we will probably need some help down the road."
UP NEXT: The Packers stay at home to host the Houston Texans, who are coming off a big Monday night win. Green Bay has faced the young franchise just one time, recording a 16-13 home win back in 2004.
LIONS: LITTLE TO BE THANKFUL FOR AT 0-12
If the mere thought of more turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie makes you a little queasy, perhaps you should skip this portion of the NFC North report. However, if you are still in the mood for some post-Thanksgiving references, allow us to discuss the Detroit Lions.
The Lions, a staple of the Thanksgiving Day games, laid a giant turkey of their own (too easy but hard to resist) last Thursday, when they got turned into cranberry sauce by the Tennessee Titans.
We're done with the references, we swear.
In a 47-10 setback, the Lions couldn't stop the run, allowing the Titans to rack up 292 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. As far as Detroit's offense, it was nearly outscored by Tennessee's defense, which recorded a touchdown in the rout.
"We got handled in all areas -- coaches, players, offense, defense, special teams," said head coach Rod Marinelli. "That's a very good football team. I thought they handled us."
The big talk now is if the Lions should be removed from playing on turkey day. Detroit has been a main feature of the Thanksgiving Day schedule since it began in 1934, but has now lost five straight and seven of its last eight on the holiday.
In those seven losses, the Lions have scored more than 10 points just twice.
"We just can't continue to make the same mistakes and do the same things," said quarterback Daunte Culpepper. "We just have to change it up a little bit and then see what happens."
Perhaps the NFL schedule makers should stop making the same mistakes as well. We are all for tradition, but if the Lions refuse to make themselves better, why do we have to keep throwing up gravy by halftime?
Maybe a threat to be taken off the Thanksgiving spotlight will motivate the Lions to make themselves better. We aren't asking for a Super Bowl-bound team, but perhaps just one that can challenge the .500 mark.
UP NEXT: Detroit plays the last of three straight home games this weekend, when it hosts the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions have lost 12 of their last 13 games versus the Vikings, including a 12-10 road setback on October 12.
