Chicago Bears At Minnesota Vikings: Second Quarter Open Thread

The Minnesota Vikings won the coin toss in this one and took the ball first, but after getting a first down early, Christian Ponder was sacked by Julius Peppers to snuff out the Vikings' opening drive. The Bears then took possession, but could only muster a three-and-out on their opening possession.

Minnesota then went with a three-and-out of their own, as they decided to pass on five of their first eight plays against the worst run defense in the NFL. Two of those plays resulted in Christian Ponder getting sacked. Only one resulted in a completion.

Chicago managed a single first down on their next drive and punted it back to Minnesota, when a decent return by Marcus Sherels was negated by a holding penalty on Gerald Hodges. But the Vikings again couldn't move the ball, as their third drive ended the same way their first two drives ended. . .with a sack of Christian Ponder. So, Chicago got the ball back again.

The Bears put together a pretty nice drive on their next possession, and it appeared that the Vikings had them stopped with an interception by Chad Greenway. However, for the second time in two weeks, a penalty on Robert Blanton negated a big play by Greenway, and the Bears kept the ball. An offensive pass interference penalty on Chicago negated a play that would have given them first-and-goal, and the Bears wound up settling for a 30-yard field goal from Robbie Gould to take a 3-0 lead.

When they got the ball back, Adrian Peterson finally broke off a big run, going for 23 yards on the Vikings' first play to put them into Bears' territory. The Vikings then followed that up with an end-around to Cordarrelle Patterson that lost six yards, and that's how we ended the first quarter of play, with the Vikings looking at 2nd-and-16 from near midfield.

The Vikings trail the Bears by a score of 3-0 after the first quarter of play in the final game between these two teams at the Metrodome. Come hang out with us for the second quarter, folks!