The visiting Minnesota Vikings wore their usual purple uniforms, as the Bears broke out one of their (many possible) throwback uniforms for Sunday’s NFC North match-up at Soldier Field. The inactive lists for both teams included valuable players not available for the game — starting right guard Josh Kline for the Vikings and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks and linebacker Roquan Smith for the Bears, who missed the game for personal reasons. Despite missing starters, the Chicago defence kept the Vikings off-balance and away from the end zone until a garbage time touchdown by Dalvin Cook saved Minnesota from their first shut-out in more than a decade. The Vikings offensive line couldn’t keep quarterback Kirk Cousins clean and he was sacked six times.

“Soldier Field 4” by afagen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Chris Tomasson:

The Vikings’ running game disappeared Sunday at Soldier Field, and so did the rest of their offense.

The Chicago Bears, despite being down five starters to start the game and then losing quarterback Mitchell Trubisky on the first series, easily defeated Minnesota 16-6.

The Vikings got a 2-yard touchdown run by Dalvin Cook with 2:58 left to avoid their first shutout since losing 34-0 at Green Bay on Nov. 11, 2007.

The Vikings have had plenty of struggles in Chicago, but few have been worse than this one. The Bears, with backup quarterback Chase Daniel and a rugged defense leading the way, outgained Minnesota 249 yards to 64 in first three quarters. The Vikings piled up some late yards to make the final margin 269-222.

The Vikings, who entered the game second in the NFL with an average of 193.7 yards rushing, were held to just 40 yards on the ground. Cook, who came in leading the NFL with 375 yards rushing, was held to just 35 yards on 14 carries.

The Vikings dropped to 2-2, denying them a chance to tie Green Bay (3-1) for the NFC North lead. Instead, the Bears (3-1) have moved into a tie for the lead.

On the game’s sixth play, Trubisky was knocked out of the game with a left shoulder injury after he was sacked by Danielle Hunter and lost a fumble that was recovered by Minnesota’s Everson Griffen. However, the turnover was wiped out because of defensive holding on Vikings safety Anthony Harris.

Judd Zulgad:

No one who is employed by the Minnesota Vikings, or a fan of the team, should put any stock in the team’s two victories this season. Atlanta and Oakland are bad football teams that fell apart in the din of U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings’ two losses? Those have been very instructive when it comes to judging this team and right now the judgment of Mike Zimmer’s collection is not kind.

Two weeks after blowing a road game that the Green Bay Packers begged them to take, the Vikings traveled to Soldier Field on Sunday for another NFC North game with a chance to make a statement about themselves. They departed with a 16-6 defeat that came with Chicago missing three key players on defense and quarterback Mitch Tribusky having left on the sixth play of the day because of an injury to his left shoulder.

It was both an underwhelming and sorry-looking performance that will leave many wondering if general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer will be allowed to stick around after this season and also might call for Zimmer to do some of his best work since he took over as the Vikings coach in 2014.

We aren’t talking about the on-the-field stuff either. If it hasn’t started to happen already, Zimmer is about to be faced with a room full of very competitive guys wondering why the Vikings aren’t winning very-winnable games and why they aren’t being used in a more constructive fashion.

Ted Glover‘s Buy and Sell recommendations from his post-game Stock Market Report:

Buy: Everson Griffen fumble recovery on Chicago’s initial drive. The Vikings needed to start out fast today, and on the first drive of the game it looked like they might do just that. Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky rolled out to his left, got caught from behind by Danielle Hunter, who sacked Trubisky while causing him to fumble. Everson Griffen picked it up and was forced out of bounds at the Bears 32. Trubisky was helped off the field, and was knocked out of the game.

Sell: Defensive holding that negated the Everson Griffen fumble recovery. But it was all for naught. Anthony harris was called for defensive holding, giving the bears an automatic first down. So instead of the Vikings knocking out the starting QB and getting the ball in Bears territory, Chicago goes on a 14 play, 75 yard touchdown drive that eats up over 8 minutes of the first quarter, engineered by backup QB Chase Daniel. The drive ended with a Daniel to Tarik Cohen touchdown.

Buy: The theory of deferring. If you win the toss and defer, you are playing the odds of putting our stronger unit out on the field first, hopefully getting a lead at halftime, and then getting the ball to open the second half. If you have a strong defense, it’s a good theory.

Sell: Deferring. This theory sucks for the Vikings, at least against good teams. Against the Packers, Green Bay went 75 yards in a mere four plays. Against the Bears, Chicago … using their second string QB, mind you … went 75 yards in 15 plays, eating up more than half the time off the clock in the first quarter. Their second drive went 16 plays, for 72 yards, and the Bears kicked a field goal. Half over. But, wait, the Vikes get the ball to start the third quarter, and a good drive that ends in a TD to open the half, and we have a brand new ballgame. Yeah, Cousins fumbled on the first play, the Bears recovered, and the game was essentially over.

Buy: CJ Ham. I really like C.J. Ham. I think he’s a good fullback, and does his job well.

Sell: CJ Ham as primary targeted receiver over Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. I don’t like him as the main guy targeted by the quarterback while meaningful football is being played, though. Call me crazy that way.