Bears-Vikings Preview
By Staff in News on Dec 19, 2010 8:30PM
All the hype in the sports world this week has been focused on where the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings are going to play Monday night. We got it, TCF Bank Stadium, can we move on? No more photo galleries and live streams of shoveling snow off the field. It was different and pretty interesting but now we need to focus on the game. Seems like Lovie Smith is on the right page, telling reporters he’s putting these issues behind him and focusing on what needs to be done to beat the Favre-less Vikings.
Vikings quarterback Brett Favre is suffering a shoulder injury has been officially ruled out of Monday night’s game. Rookie quarterback Joe Webb will start in his place. The Vikings will also be without guard Steve Hutchinson for the third straight game with a broken thumb, and Tyrell Johnson with a concussion. Running back Adrian Peterson practiced for the first time this week and is listed as questionable along with Ray Edwards and Jamarca Sanford.
The only injury the Bears have to deal with is linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa. He practiced on Friday but was limited Saturday at Northwestern University’s practice field and is listed as questionable.
The Bears will have a chance to redeem themselves after the embarrassment against the Patriots last Sunday. Their defense was picked apart by Tom Brady, but did a good job of shutting down Favre and Peterson in a 27-13 win Nov. 14 at Soldier Field. Chicago picked off Favre three times and limited Peterson to 51 yards on 17 carries. Without Favre in the picture, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
Minnesota’s defense has been experiencing some problems, allowing a season-worst 395 yards vs. New York. In week 10, the Vikings had some trouble against the Bears with Jay Cutler passing for 237 yards with three touchdowns. Cutler was in pretty bad shape last week, completing 12 of 26 passes for 152 yards with two interceptions, finishing with a season-low 32.9 QB rating.
Despite needing to get over the hype of the Metrodome and TCF Bank Stadium, there is something noteworthy of the change. Minnesota hasn’t played a home outdoor game since Dec. 20 1981, 29 years to the day before this game. The Bears have also lost seven of their last eight at the Metrodome. We assumed cold weather wouldn’t be a problem for our Monsters of the Midway, especially with the Bears winning 10 straight outdoor games in December and January against teams with domes. However, being run over and snapping a five-game winning streak in a 36-7 loss to the Patriots last week proves that it can go either way.
Update: Vikings punter Chris Kluwe called the field "unplayable" on his Twitter account. "The field is as hard as concrete an hour and a half after they took the tarp off," Kluwe tweeted. "Anyone that hits their head is getting a concussion. All respect to the people that cleared the field and got it ready, you did an amazing job. That being said, it's unplayable." Kluwe then mentioned he was asked not to tweet about the field conditions as not to distract teammates.
The field is being heated while tarped, but there are no heating coils underneath which will make the ground too hard during the game. Snow is in the forecast for Monday and Kluwe tweeted to his followers, "Like a lot of you are saying, hopefully the snow will at least provide a cushion tomorrow night :)."
By: Angie Wiatrowski