Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings: Third Quarter Open Thread

The Vikings and Bears exchanged punts to get the second quarter of play underway, and the Vikings took over possession inside of their own 10-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Christian Ponder found Jerome Simpson, who reeled in a pass for a 32-yard gain to get the Vikings out of a hole. A couple of runs by Adrian Peterson moved the Vikings down to the Chicago 35-yard line, and the Vikings were in business. After a short gain by Toby Gerhart, the Vikings lined Cordarrelle Patterson up in the backfield, where he took a pitch from Ponder and raced. . .and, man, do I mean raced. . .33 yards for a touchdown to put the Vikings ahead 7-3. The drive went 90 yards in just five plays, their longest drive of the season.

Patterson's score made him the first rookie in Minnesota Vikings' history to score on a touchdown catch, a touchdown run, and a kick return in the same season. So that's pretty awesome.

On the ensuing drive, the Bears again moved the ball a bit, pushing into Minnesota territory. However, a sack by Chad Greenway pushed the Bears back, and the third down pass from Josh McCown to Martellus Bennett came up short of the first down marker. The attempt was from 40-yards, and Gould split the uprights with it to pull the Bears back to within 7-6 with just under three minutes left in the half.

The Vikings took over and got to their own 30-yard line at the two-minute warning. However, they couldn't do anything more with it, and they wound up punting it back to the Bears, who took over at their own 28-yard line. Chicago did get into Minnesota territory, but the Vikings eventually forced a punt. Minnesota handed the ball to Toby Gerhart once, with Matt Cassel taking the snap from John Sullivan, and the Vikings went into the locker room with a 7-6 lead.

The reason that Cassel was in the game is because on the Vikings' final offensive play, Ponder took a hit and was on the sideline being evaluated for a concussion. His return is questionable at this time. On a related note, if you're happy that Christian Ponder potentially has a concussion, you're a jackass.

Adrian Peterson had 72 rushing yards in the first half. He's now 82 yards away from becoming the 28th player in NFL history to reach the 10,000-yard rushing mark for his career. He is just five yards away from passing Clinton Portis for 28th place on the all-time rushing yardage list.

It's been a real barn burner at the Metrodome in this final meeting in this building between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears. What does the second half hold? Shotgun something with a lot of caffeine so you can stay awake long enough to find out!