One-two punch sends Bears reeling

The Vikings defense sent its fans into a frenzy with a four-play goal-line stand from the 1-yard line in the second quarter Sunday night.

Turns out, that was simply the warmup act.

With the crowd still on its feet after the defense didn't budge an inch, the Vikings offense threw a haymaker that sent the decibel meter soaring inside the Metrodome.

Gus Frerotte connected with wide receiver Bernard Berrian on a 99-yard touchdown on the first play after the defensive stand to give the Vikings the lead for good in a 34-14 victory against the Chicago Bears.

"That was the game there," linebacker Chad Greenway said.

Bears cornerback Charles Tillman saw tight end Visanthe Shiancoe running up the seam and broke toward the middle of the field. That left Berrian wide open down the left sideline. Frerotte hit him in stride and the speedy Berrian had a clear path to the end zone.

"It was the luckiest touchdown I've ever had," Berrian said. "[Tillman] bit on Shiancoe and he took off. Gus said he looked to one side and came back to my side and said he was surprised by how open I was."

The previous longest pass completion in team history came in 1962 on Fran Tarkenton's 89-yard touchdown pass to Charley Ferguson against Chicago. Berrian's catch was the 11th 99-yard reception in NFL history and the first since 2004.

"It was one of those things where I pumped a little bit to the right because the safety was cheating," Frerotte said. "I put some air under it and right when I was throwing it I saw [Tillman] breaking inside. I didn't know where he was going. I'm just saying to myself, 'Please be in the right spot.' "

It capped a huge momentum swing that began on a foolish unnecessary-roughness penalty on Vikings cornerback Benny Sapp, who smacked Bears wide receiver Rashied Davis twice in the helmet.

Sapp's penalty negated a third-down stop by the defense. Given new life, the Bears moved the ball to the 1-yard line where they had first and goal. Sapp was sent to the bench and the defense dug in its heels.

The Bears had an incomplete pass to tight end Greg Olsen on first down. The Bears then tried three consecutive runs, but the Vikings stuffed all three.

On a fourth-down run by Matt Forte, defensive tackle Pat Williams, defensive end Jared Allen and linebacker Ben Leber converged and stopped him at the line, keeping the Bears' lead at 7-3 with 5:04 left in the first half.

"That was huge," Allen said. "Whenever you can stop somebody like that, especially on the 1-yard line. When they throw it on first down, it kind of lets you know that maybe they don't want to pound this out. When you stop three straight runs, that gives you a huge lift."

The offense came onto the field and the fireworks continued. Frerotte dropped back and tossed the ball down the sideline to Berrian, who burned his former team.

"We knew on first down they were bringing the safety down and loading the box because of our running game," Frerotte said. "We were able to hurt them in that situation."