The Minnesota Vikings have defeated the Bears six times in a row. They can’t explain it, and don’t really want to, preferring to lie low one more week.
“I don’t want to talk about the past and the Bears,” coach Dennis Green said minutes after winning the NFC Central Division title and qualifying to play the Bears. “We’re 0-2 when it comes to playoff games. We’ll focus on the Chicago Bears as a playoff team and not any games that were played before.”
The 0-2 in playoffs is a more relevant statistic to Green than his 6-0 against the Bears. It was Green and the Vikings who helped run Mike Ditka out of town when Jim Harbaugh threw the infamous interception in the Metrodome in 1992, and it is Green and the Vikings who are becoming a thorn in Dave Wannstedt’s side. They are the only NFC Central Division team the Bears have yet to beat in four games under Wannstedt.
But the 0-2 in the playoffs puts as much pressure on Green as the 0-6 puts on the Bears. If the Vikings lose a third straight opening-round playoff game, especially to a team Green has beaten like a drum, they will have zero progress to show for winning two division titles in three seasons.
In 1992, the Vikings won the division and hosted the Washington Redskins. They lost 24-7 in the Metrodome.
In 1993, they finished as a wild card and traveled to New York, where the Giants beat them 17-10.
Two playoff games, two touchdowns. By contrast, Green’s Vikings have averaged 27 points a game against the Bears over the last three years.
“You can’t explain it,” said defensive coordinator Tony Dungy. “When we got here, we knew the Bears had been champions of the division and we knew in order for us to make that jump we would have to beat the Bears. We focus on beating the Bears. But they’ve got a very well-coached team and it will be fun on Sunday.”
Only if the Vikings win, of course.
After starting their season 7-2, they suffered through a three-game slump and finished 3-4. Just two weeks ago, they were blown out 41-19 by Barry Sanders and the Lions in Green’s worst loss, so a date with the Bears was preferable to a rematch with the Lions, incentive enough to win the division title.
The health of 38-year-old quarterback Warren Moon will be a concern to the Vikings because Moon has no experience with leg injuries. He suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee against the Lions and did not play in the season finale against the 49ers.
Moon lost his last three playoff games with the Houston Oilers-to the Kansas City Chiefs last year, the Buffalo Bills in the greatest comeback in NFL history, and to the Denver Broncos in 1992-games that allowed Houston owner Bud Adams to rationalize Moon’s departure.
Although Moon’s record as a starter in playoffs is 3-6, his postseason passer rating of 87.3 is seven points higher than his regular-season number.
Moon threw for 4,264 yards and receiver Cris Carter set an NFL record of 122 catches. Carter and Jake Reed combined for an NFL-record 207 catches, breaking the mark of Houston’s Drew Hill and Haywood Jeffires set when Moon was throwing to them.
Despite Moon’s prowess, the Vikings have relied all season on a defense that ranked No. 1 in the league against the rush and scored a league-leading seven times on turnover returns.
When they lost to the New England Patriots, New York Jets, and Tampa Bay buccaneers, two at home, they had one interception, one fumble recovery, and one sack.
“Things just weren’t falling right,” Dungy said. “We’d get a sack, but there would be a penalty. Instead of intercepting a ball, we’d tip it and they’d make a play on third down. What you’ve got to try to do is not get frustrated and not panic and say we’ve got to junk the system. You just keep playing and that’s what our guys did.”
“We just kept swinging the bat,” said linebacker Jack Del Rio. “We felt like we had the talent in place and kept swinging the bat to get out of that slump we were in. We won three games in September, October, and December. We just had a bad November. Now we feel we’re heading in the right direction at the right time.”
A loss to the Bears to start the New Year would be the kind of setback Green doesn’t even want to ponder.
