Bears vs Vikings: Snap counts, stats and OMG those stats are hideous!

I can’t be the only Chicago Bears fan that is losing his love for the game of football while watching our horrendous team play each and every week. It’s been excruciating to sit through a Bears games these last couple of years.

And then when other NFL games are on, I just find myself watching teams and wondering what it’s like to cheer for a team that scores offensive touchdowns.

It’s the same old story most of my adult life with mediocre Bear offenses not being able to do enough to help out Chicago’s (usually) good defenses. But in the case of the Bears from the last two seasons, them playing mediocre would be an upgrade because what we’ve seen has been some of the worst offensive football in the history of the franchise. Especially when considering how the rules have been slanted to help offense’s flourish.

Chicago may be 5-5, but their offense is down in the winless territory of the New York Jets.

In fact, the worst offensive output from the Jets this year — in terms of total yards — was the 191 they put up week 7 against the Bills. Last night in their loss to the Vikings, the Bears racked up a grand total of 149 yards.

For some perspective, the Bears had 219 yards between the kickoffs, punts, and interception return yards last night.

The Bears went 2 for 11 on third downs, they were 0 for 2 on fourth downs, they ran a season low 50 offensive snaps with a time of possession of just 24:10, while picking up 10 first downs.

But now let’s take a closer look at the playing time break downs for the Bears, and also some individual stats.

OFFENSE

Nick Foles was off most of the night, and it wasn’t all because of the pass protection this week. He wasn’t accurate and he missed some hot reads that he normally makes. Overall he was just 15 of 26 for 106 yards, with 1 interception and a passer rating of 51.1. The Vikings defense had 2 sacks and had 11 quarterback hits.

Cordarrelle Patterson led the Bears in rushing with 30 yards on 12 carries, he had 2 catches for 19 yards, and he had the Bears lone TD on a 104 yard kickoff return.

The Bears leading receiver was Allen Robinson with 6 receptions for 43 yards.

DEFENSE

Roquan Smith has been playing damn good football all year long and he had a game high 14 tackles, a sack, 3 tackles for loss and a QB hit.

Danny Trevathan (8 tackles) and Eddie Jackson (7 tackles) each had a forced fumble, with Tashaun Gipson (3 tackles) getting a fumble recovery.

Brent Urban led the d-line with 6 tackles.

Khalil Mack had an interception and 3 tackles.

SPECIAL TEAMS*

*The above image has players that only played in the third phase.

Patrick O’Donnell had 5 punts with a 44.2 average while placing 2 inside the twenty yard line.

Cairo Santos nailed his lone extra point, he was 2 for 2 on field goals, and all 4 of his kickoffs went for touchbacks.

Deon Bush had the Bears only special teams tackle.

To check out the full Bears vs Vikings box score I find that ESPN has an easy to navigate site.

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL’s Game Statistic and Information System, as are the accompanying pictures.