Bears Trounce Reeling Vikings

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Oct 17, 2005 5:00AM

While the Bears had a pretty bad week that included blowing a game to the Browns in the final minutes and cutting ties with their kicker, the Vikings had a much worse week. Combine that with the Vikings 1-3 record despite being picked by most to win the NFC North, and Chicagoist felt this week's matchup might be an opportunity for the Bears to turn things around.

That's just what the Bears did, beating the Vikings 28-3 at Soldier Field. The Bears came to life shortly before halftime, scoring a touchtown to take a 7-3 lead into the locker room. The defense lead the team in the second half. Brian Urlacher sacked Dante Culpepper twice and the Bears intercepted him twice. Long returns of 44 and 55 yards gave the offense good enough field position to capitalize and score. Running back Thomas Jones, who sprained his knee against Cleveland and didn't practice most of the week, started and ran for 89 yards on 23 carries. Cedric Benson remained a non-entity running for just 2 yards on 3 carries. We expected him to get more work with Jones nowhere near 100%. Is he really coming around that slowly in practice? if he doesn't show some dramatic improvement soon -- along with the QB situation, the kicker situation, etc. -- could GM Jerry Angelo be on his way out of town?