October 13, 2007
Bears not taking slumping Vikings for granted
By Larry Mayer
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – While there are few guarantees in life, middle linebacker Brian Urlacher provided one this week when discussing Sunday’s home game against the Minnesota Vikings.
The six-time Pro Bowler promised that the Bears (2-3) won’t take the Vikings (1-3) lightly, even though Minnesota has lost three straight games and Chicago is coming off a comeback win in Green Bay over the previously-undefeated Packers.
Brian Urlacher and the Bears will look to improve to 3-3 Sunday against the Vikings.
“We don’t overlook anybody,” Urlacher said. “They’re a good football team. They’ve had some close games; lost some close ones, won some close ones. So we’ve got to find a way to win.”
The Vikings' three losses have come by a total of 13 points, and by virtue of their 24-3 win over the Falcons in Week 1, they've outscored their opponents 67-59 this season. The Bears have been outscored 115-87 in five games this year.
“We can’t [overlook Minnesota] because we’re still in the bottom half of our division,” said defensive end Adewale Ogunleye.
“Only one [half] game is separating us from Minnesota. We’ve got to look at it as we need to win against them the same way we did last week against Green Bay because [the Packers] are still sitting at 4-1. We’ve still got a ways to go to climb to the top of our division.”
The Bears hope their victory over the Packers is just the beginning of a long winning streak. After yielding 341 total yards in the first half, Chicago erased a 10-point deficit by scoring the game’s final 17 points.
“We needed to get a win, especially in a game that looked like we had no business winning after the first half,” said linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer. “It’s huge from a momentum standpoint just to have something good happen. It seems like the harder we worked the worse things got for a couple weeks. Now hopefully it’ll snowball in the other direction.”
Always open: It’s obviously premature to compare Bears rookie tight end Greg Olsen to a future Hall of Famer such as former Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe. But quarterback Brian Griese has thrown to both.
“Thankfully, Greg is not as much of a talker as Shannon was,” said Griese, who played with Sharpe in Denver in 1998-99. “Shannon was never covered. He was always open. He always let you know that.
“But Greg has some unique abilities, first and foremost just his size. He’s a big guy. His speed where he can run and get down the field presents some mismatches; a mismatch against a linebacker or a safety with his speed and with a corner his size is an advantage for him.”
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Bears not taking slumping Vikings for granted - Chicago Bears
Bears not taking slumping Vikings for granted
Bears not taking slumping Vikings for granted
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