Vikings Look Disinterested, Inept in Loss to Bears

If the Minnesota Vikings' game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday was a referendum on Brad Childress' tenure with the team, the vote is decidedly against perpetuation of the Childress regime. At 3-6 and effectively four games behind two division opponents, a change at the top likely will mean little for the Vikings this year. But a head-coaching switch to current defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, whose defense was at its worst today, would at least give the Vikings an opportunity to gauge Frazier's ability to lead a team in desperate need of new guidance without putting the Vikings' ownership on the hook for another coach's salary in what could be a coming year without football.

What went wrong for the Vikings on Sunday? It would be far easier to note what went right. Despite losing by only two touchdowns, the Vikings were the beneficiaries of several Chicago miscues; absent these miscues, the score could have been far worse. That, in short, is what went right for Minnesota.

The Vikings' failures included an inability to start the game with any sense of urgency, an inability to establish a cognizable, let alone successful, offensive philosophy, an inability to put meaningful pressure on a quarterback against whom all other opponents have exerted their will, an inability to play special teams, and an inability to function, generally speaking.

This was an ugly, plodding game, the type of game to which the Childress-led Vikings have become susceptible. What all of this is a recipe for is unclear, at least on the positive side, and it all suggests that last year was more a confluence of serendipity and overachievement than anything that the the Vikings' coaching staff culled from the players on the team.

Up Next: The Truth Hurts.