Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears: Fourth Quarter Open Thread

Trailing the Chicago Bears by a score of 13-3 coming out of the locker room, the Minnesota Vikings found themselves kicking off to begin the second half. The kick from Blair Walsh resulted in a touchback, giving the Bears the ball on their own 25-yard line to start the festivities. For some reason, Mike Zimmer felt the need to waste a challenge on a play that he apparently thought was a fumble but really wasn't anywhere close.

On the next play, Jay Cutler found Alshon Jeffery for the first time on the night, connecting with him for a big 34-yard gain to the Minnesota 36-yard line. Cutler then found Jeremy Langford down to the Minnesota 25, and then hit Jeffery again to move the Bears to the 18. After Xavier Rhodes went off with an injury, the Cutler-to-Jeffery connection made it happen again, as they hooked up for an 11-yard touchdown pass. Connor Barth came in and hit the extra point, and the Vikings found themselves down 20-3 just over five minutes into the second half.

Barth's kickoff went for a touchback, giving the Vikings the ball at their own 25 for their first possession of the second half. A run by Ronnie Hillman and a pass from Sam Bradford to Stefon Diggs picked up a first down, but as usual things stalled out at that point, courtesy of a holding penalty on the offensive line. (It was called on T.J. Clemmings but it looked like it was Jake Long that was the worst offender.) Jeff Locke came on to punt again, and the Bears took over at their own 27-yard line. Chicago pushed the ball into Minnesota territory at the 49, but Everson Griffen collected the team's first sack in seven quarters when he took down Cutler for a big loss. Minnesota forced the Bears to punt, with Adam Thielen fair catching Pat O'Donnell's offering at the 13-yard line.

Minnesota put together the start of a decent drive to start the half, and as we move to the fourth quarter of play, the Vikings are looking at 3rd-and-7 from their own 44-yard line.

With fifteen minutes of play remaining from Chicago, the Vikings find themselves trailing the Bears by a score of 20-3. 17 points in the fourth quarter seems like an impossibility at this point. Do the Vikings have it in them?