The Minnesota Vikings are not shy. Win or lose, they say what’s on their minds. Usually. But not Sunday.
Not after falling 17-10 to the Bears at Soldier Field. For once, the studs of the team had nothing to say about anything, least of all what had transpired on a soggy afternoon by Lake Michigan.
Receiver Randy Moss? No comments.
Quarterback Daunte Culpepper? “I’m not talking.”
Receiver Cris Carter? “No questions.”
These are normally more loquacious guys. There was no locker-room teasing, no chatter. The loudest sound was water hissing in the showers. It is doubtful this subdued atmosphere was solely because strong safety Robert Griffith had fractured his right leg early in the game and is lost for six weeks.
More likely the Vikings aren’t coping well because they know teams that start 0-2 don’t win Super Bowls, and this is the first time the Vikings have been in such circumstances since Dennis Green became coach in 1992.
“We went 7-0 once and didn’t win a championship,” Green said. “Right now we just have to get the first one.”
No one else seemed to know what to say. Some chose not to say anything. Or they couldn’t figure out what has gone wrong.
This is an offense with an all-star cast. Yet the Bears’ defense choked off big plays, disrupted the Vikings’ rhythm and thoroughly contained Culpepper in the fourth quarter. The Vikings led 3-0 and 10-0 but never got near the end zone again after the first series of the third quarter.
“It’s disappointing,” Green said. “We came out and had some chances to move the ball and we didn’t score. It haunted us.”
So did a confused fourth-down-and-1 situation in the fourth quarter when it was 10-10. Vikings ball on their own 46-yard-line, punter Mitch Berger back to kick with a little more than 6 1/2 minutes remaining. The snap was a tad high, Berger rolled right and heaved a pass toward Harold Morrow. Nothing doing.
A called fake punt in a bold stroke by Green? Or Berger improvisation? Green said it wasn’t his idea.
“I’m sure Mitch thought it was there, so he went for it,” Green said.
Berger, a six-year veteran out of Colorado, did not duck questions.
“I was just trying to make a play,” he said. “It was a decision I made. I just kind of reacted.”
This has been a season of extreme tribulation for the Vikings. One of the team’s leaders, offensive tackle Korey Stringer, died of complications from heatstroke during training camp. The Vikings, like all Americans, had their lives put on hold by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But the malaise afflicting them Sunday, a failure to perform with the usual offensive precision, and the moodiness of the locker room afterward seemed to defy easy explanation.
“We were up and we were down and we lost,” rookie running back Michael Bennett said. “They [the Bears] did exactly what we expected them to do. We just fell short.”
Bennett, the club’s No. 1 draft choice out of Wisconsin, rushed for 56 yards and the Vikings totaled 104 yards on the ground. Culpepper threw for 233 yards, and Moss caught five passes for 81 yards. Those are not embarrassing statistics, but there was no sustained spark. At times, there was tension. Veteran Carter was enraged when rookie linebacker Fearon Wright was nailed with a 15-yard taunting penalty in the second quarter.
Fullback Jim Kleinsasser was at a loss for words, too, but he tried to formulate some.
“We just didn’t play a whole game,” he said. “I wish I knew why.”
And then, like his more celebrated teammates, he went silent.
