The last time the Bears saw the Minnesota Vikings, defensive end Jared Allen was embarrassing left tackle JMarcus Webb in Game 16 and the Vikings' pass rush was assaulting quarterback Josh McCown with seven sacks.
Kind of like what Aldon Smith and the San Francisco 49ers did to Webb, Gabe Carimi and the Bears offense overall last Monday.
But Minnesota coach Leslie Frazier also remembers that the Vikings lost that final game last season. And he and Allen are ostensibly more interested in what the Bears were doing before that disaster last Monday.
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You try to take a look and see what created the struggle for sure and kind of take it with a grain of salt though when its a team like the Bears and the success that theyve had throughout the season, Frazier said. You have to be very careful about reading much into it and you also have to look at the opponent they were playing. San Franciscos a very good team with some very talented players.
So you look at a lot of different things but you dont want to take what happened on Monday night and say OK, thats the blueprint for success, because not all teams have some of the players that San Francisco has.
Actually, the Vikings are one of those teams.
Allen has seven sacks, 11 tackles for loss and 24 quarterback hits, according to Vikings stats. Left end Brian Robison has 5.5 sacks, five tackles for loss and 13 quarterback hits.
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The Vikings rank 12th in sacks per pass play as well as eighth in average per rushing attempt.
The Bears have dropped to 14th in rushing average offensively.
That Bears offensive line, I think theyre going to be all right, Frazier said. Tough night against San Francisco but every game is different and Im sure itll be a different bus on Sunday.
Not everyone is, however.