Theories vary about latest Vikings' loss

The Vikings felt exuberant heading into Sunday's game in Chicago, a divisional showdown that seemed to come at just the right time. The Bears faced a short week and were psychologically deflated coming off a one-sided Monday night loss in Detroit. The Vikings, meanwhile, seemed to have hit a strong confidence springboard in their 34-10 Week 5 thrashing of Arizona.

So how then did everything unravel in a 39-10 loss in prime time?

"That may have been part of the problem," coach Leslie Frazier reasoned Monday. "It didn't seem like we handled prosperity very well as a team. We didn't go out there with the type of energy and focus that you have to play with on the road against an opponent in your division. And that comes back to me."

While Frazier seemed willing to shoulder the blame for the most humiliating of the Vikings' five losses this season, defensive end Jared Allen disagreed with the diagnosis of what went haywire.

"You can sit here and throw out all these theories that you want," Allen said. "But the bottom line is there are a lot of the same guys here who went 12-4 two years ago. Same guys that went 10-6 [in 2008]. Guys know how to win. It's not a problem of not knowing how to win. It's a problem of doing it every day and doing it every play. ... We don't walk around here like, 'Oh, we beat the Arizona Cardinals, we've arrived.' Nah. We practice hard. Guys are humble in this locker room."

More now than ever. So just how was Allen processing Sunday's beating?

"It makes you want to vomit," he said. "I've never been 1-5. Ever."

"We were not nearly as physical up front, on either the offensive or defensive line, as we needed to be. And that is unexplainable," he said.

That contention was certainly supported by the final boxscore, which showed the Bears with a 119-53 advantage in rushing yardage. Before Sunday, the Vikings had been allowing an average of only 66.4 rushing yards per game. Chicago had 71 yards on the ground by halftime.

A lesson in protection Quarterback Jay Cutler had been sacked 18 times in the Bears' first five games. Yet Sunday in Chicago, the Vikings got to Cutler only once -- on a strip sack by Allen early in the second half. The Bears committed far more bodies to shielding Cutler, relying on maximum protection schemes throughout the night and using tight ends and backs to chip at Allen and fellow end Brian Robison.

On top of that, Allen believes, that humiliating Monday night loss in Detroit and the heavy criticism that followed angered the Bears line.

"You can't hide how bad an offensive line is on national television and expect [them] to go out and give the same treatment," Allen said. "And anybody who did is an idiot. ... As a competitor, if I was so openly criticized for an entire week, I would try to come out and murder the person in front of me. I'm going to do whatever I have to do to make my name right."

• Frazier said right tackle Phil Loadholt had a magnetic resonance imaging exam on his injured knee but results came back negative. Loadholt has been bothered by tendinitis.