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To supplant the king, you must first defeat the king, or in the case of the NFC North, perhaps kings in the plural. The Bears took a major step toward achieving this goal by defeating the Minnesota Vikings 25 to 20 on Sunday night at Soldier Field, which allowed them to take advantage of the team that won the division two of NFC North over the last three years. three times since the last Bears start.
"Being able to play four quarters of good football against that [Minnesota] The team states that we are going in the right direction, "said coach Matt Nagy." I do not know if it was a statement. "We feel we can play with n & # 39; whoever in this league ….[The Vikings] are good. We know that. Our guys want to be part of that …
"This defense we have just faced is one of the best defenses of the NFL. In attack, we have done enough to win. "
The win comes one week after the Detroit Lions' dominant win, which had beaten the Bears (7-3) nine times in their last 10 meetings and hosted the Bears at Ford Field on Thanksgiving. The question of Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers remains to be settled a second time this season (16 December). But with the Packers faltering to 4-5-1 with their defeat on Thursday, the most immediate and important problem was the Vikings, who had defeated the Bears in eight of their last nine games.
On Sunday, for the ninth time in 10 games, the Bears totaled at least 23 points. The Bears also left the Bears Group, one of three NFC teams with seven wins (Los Angeles and New Orleans are 9-1), with only Carolina and Washington, both 6-4, the only other conference teams with more than five wins.
"The division games are all very important," said running back Tarik Cohen. "We did not win last year, so two consecutive points is great. We are definitely going in the right direction. "
But for the Bears to become more integrated in the NFL playoff discussion, some things must happen. For most of the Sunday, they did it.
Closers in the making?
The win was more than just another win for a team hungry for them since this season. This victory was an important step on the
the rise of the Bears from the cellar to respectability, then some in a division they had once led, but which have been more recently just an afterthought.
"We have to keep driving, stay hungry, stay humble and keep believing in each other," said quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, whose smuggler score was 61.9, the lowest of the season, largely because of the throw of a pair. interceptions in the middle of 20 passes in 31 passes for 165 yards and one touchdown.
For the Bears to reach elite levels in the NFL, where the margins of the winners are down, they needed their young quarterback to demonstrate not only that he could make the last players disappear, but also that he had to dispute matches against the right teams.
Trubisky was in his 22nd start in the NFL on Sunday night, with an arrow pointing upward but still needing to score decisive moments when, with a game in play, the young quarterback leads his team to the field for a decisive score. . One of those moments came against the Vikings late Sunday night.
Trubisky was equal at that moment.
While Minnesota was getting closer to a score at 22-14 and just under 5 minutes to play, and his team had failed to overtake the Minnesota 44-meter line during his first four half-possession, Trubisky guided the Chicago 25's offense on a 45-yard run to 45 yards to the Vikings 30. From there, kicker Cody's third goal Parkey's 48-yard touchdown allowed the Bears to score a second critical point in a game where The Vikings had almost imperceptibly removed the Bears' game after a dominant first half in Chicago.
The Vikings (5-4-1) had a touchdown, but failed to convert their go-for-two when defensive lineman Akiem Hicks blocked a Kirk Cousins pass to complete a 25-20 victory for the first victory of the Bears against four. Since 2012, it was one of the 6 best cousins of 27-yard defenseman Eddie Jackson, who is midway through the fourth quarter, at a time when the Vikings were in the lead position.
"It was a huge game," Nagy said. "We were fighting and scratching a bit in attack, there was not much rhythm."
The Bears were limited to 106 yards in the second half, but surpassed the 308 Vikings at 268 and, against a historically well-placed Minnesota defense, converted six of the 12 third tries.
The defense, which had its seventh goal on less than 315 yards, had a perfect match from Khalil Mack in prime time, with the linebacker offering a bag, a second shot at Cousins, a broken pass, a fumble and a fumble recovery. The Bears were credited with 9 tackles for loss, with Hicks adding a sack and five tackles for loss.
This above Parkey converting three goals into a match in a match finally decided by five points.
Shake hazard indicators
Disturbing signs surfaced early. The Bears pushed the Vikings back for 64 yards in 12 games, while Minnesota had 15 in the first possession of Chicago. But the offensive lost six yards in two games and was forced to settle for three points, often the sign of a disaster against the right teams.
The defense managed to stop the Vikings on the ensuing possession but Trubisky threw Gabriel Taylor in square brackets in a tight blanket and was intercepted. The Bears had accumulated points and at least one try on the field after 17 of their 22 purchases before Sunday but were not followed at the end of the match or a half.
The Bears left the first half with a 14-0 lead and were deferred after winning the draw, as was the ball for the start of the third quarter. But they did not manage to cross the midfield on this match and the next two, Minnesota trying to score goals after the last two. The Bears only reached Minnesota's 44th in their fourth possession of the half, when Trubisky narrowly avoided a choice of 6 in a third botched shot from his back foot.
All this was made questionable when Jackson intercepted the Cousins careless for a choice of 6. The Bears scored for the second time a two-point conversion after the touchdowns and got the lead at 22-6 on a draw Trubisky's lot to forward Adam Shaheen. It was the first time Shaheen was active this season. In IR, he had a foot injury and was injured on the foot. He was part of a squad that included defensive lineman Hicks, inserted as an eligible receiver.
In the best interest of the prospect, the last time the Bears teams held 7-3 at the 10-game mark, they flamed up. It was 2011, when the season collapsed with Jay Cutler's right thumb. In 2012, the Bears even went to 8-3 but then lost three straight and eventually lost in a tiebreaker with the Vikings, who finished 4-2 in the division against the Bears at 3. -3.
The last time the Bears won four games in a row, it was in this 2012 season, when the Lovie Smith group pulled out six in a row before reversing its five-game losing streak in the next six games .
But for a team that has now beaten all full season win totals since 2013, the focus has been on Minnesota, the only team with a winning record besides New England to which the Bears have been confronted until now.
"It shows that we can fight with the best of them," Cohen said. "It shows that we are still improving and we have not reached our ceiling yet."
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