Bears lost to Vikings, but players impressed by how team responded to 21-3 deficit


Linebacker Nicholas Morrow and running back David Montgomery were both thoroughly impressed with how the Bears responded to a 21-3 deficit in Minnesota on Sunday.

Sure, nobody was thrilled, but the most important thing was that everyone stuck together.

And that doesn’t always happen.

“In my experience, I have seen a lot of finger-pointing,” said Morrow, who is in his first season with the Bears and played for the Raiders from 2017-20. “That’s the sign of a bad team, to be honest with you.”

Morrow said safety Eddie Jackson, fellow linebacker Roquan Smith and defensive tackle Justin Jones were among those who spoke up. Offensively, things began to turn around after Darnell Mooney’s spectacular 39-yard grab late in the second quarter. Three plays later, David Montgomery rumbled in from 9 yards out and suddenly it was 21-10.

The defense then held the Vikings, and the Bears went into the locker room believing they could win.

“We all were like, ‘We can do this. Come on,'” Montgomery said. “And when we came out (in the second half), you saw we were climbing. …

“I’m telling you, we’ve got some guys with great morale and some guys who are willing to put it all on the line just to give us a shot to do it. It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but we will get better.”


        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        

 

Turtle starts

In four of five games, the Bears have gotten off to rough starts. They trailed San Francisco 7-0 at halftime; trailed Green Bay 24-7 at halftime; fell behind 14-6 to the Giants; and dug themselves a 21-3 hole vs. the Vikings.

Each time, adjustments were made, and the Bears climbed back into the contest.

Coach Matt Eberflus loves the resiliency, but also knows his team must start faster. More intense practices might be a solution — although that won’t be the case this week with the Bears hosting Washington on Thursday.

“I think you can do a bunch of different things,” Eberflus said. “You can change the tempo of practice. You can change the amount of reps. … We’ll have some time to talk after this game, to visit on that. But we certainly are going to do something to adjust how we are performing there.”

Gambling man

Matt Eberflus had what seemed to be a pretty funny answer when I asked him at what point he decided to attempt a third-quarter onside kick against Minnesota.

        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        

 

“I think I made that on Tuesday,” he said.

Huh? No, seriously. When?

“No, I was serious,” Eberflus said.

Oof. So much for comedy.

What Eberflus meant was that the staff decided early in the week to try an onside kick at some point. They sketched out “two or three scenarios” and waited for one to materialize.

So after David Montgomery’s 9-yard TD run cut Minnesota’s lead to 21-16 early in the third quarter, Eberflus rolled the dice. It almost worked, but Minnesota CB Akayleb Evans pounced on the ball in the nick of time.

During the TV timeout, Eberflus had a short conversation with the defense.

“I went and talked to ’em and said, ‘Hey, this is what we’re gonna do. We might not get it and you’re gonna have to buckle down. (It’s a) sudden change and you’re gonna have to stop ’em,” Eberflus said. “(The Vikings) got a first down and we ended up blocking the field goal there. So they responded well.”

By the book

When it comes to deciding when to go for a 2-point conversion, coaches have charts to help them out. It doesn’t always have to do with the score of the game, either.

For instance, if a team scores a TD to make it 14-12 midway through the second quarter, they may kick the extra point to make it 14-13 because there’s so much time left.

The Bears faced an interesting decision Sunday after making it 21-16 with 10:31 remaining in the third quarter. While a 2-pointer would have made it a 3-point game, a failure keeps it at 5.

To me, there’s still far too much time left to go for 2 because if you fail (which is what happened) and the Vikings go down and kick a field goal, now it’s an 8-point game.

Whatever chart coach Matt Eberflus and his staff is holding told them to go for 2. So will Eberflus ever deviate?

Apparently not.

“On those things you go by the chart, for sure,” he said.

Wait. He caught it?

Let’s end with a fun one about David Montgomery’s reaction to Darnell Mooney’s astonishing one-handed catch late in the second quarter.

First off, Montgomery didn’t believe Mooney came down with the ball, so he started yelling at the offensive line to get ready for the next play at midfield.

One problem: Everyone was sprinting toward the 11-yard line.

“I’m like, ‘What are y’all doing?'” Montgomery said.

After someone said it was a completion, Montgomery thought: “Oh my God. He’s disgusting.”

And while the highlight-reel grab left many mouths agape, Montgomery wasn’t totally shocked.

“Moon does that all the time in practice,” Montgomery said. “The way he prepares — him and Justin (Fields) are always the last people off the field every day.

“So when stuff like that happens, it’s cool to see, but it doesn’t surprise me at all just because of the way he works and the kind of human he is.”

        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        





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