Vikings need winning streak

There is one positive factor for the Vikings, who lost their ninth consecutive road game when they were beaten by the Bears 27-13 on Sunday in Chicago.

The good news is that the Vikings play four of their next five games at home, where they have lost only once this season and are 19-5 the past three seasons.

The five-game streak starts with this Sunday's game against the Packers, who had a bye Sunday. Then the Vikings are at Washington, a winnable game you would think, and after that they face the Bills, the Giants and the Bears at home.

Unfortunately, the Vikings close the season with games at Philadelphia and Detroit, but both are winnable if the team has Pro Bowl receiver Sidney Rice back and the other key players stay healthy.

So if you want to be an optimist, the Vikings proved they could win six in a row last year with Brad Childress as the coach, so maybe they could perform a miracle and put together a seven-game winning streak after the 3-6 start. That would give them a 10-6 record, good enough to qualify for a third consecutive NFC North title or a wild-card berth.

However, they aren't going to perform any miracles if they play like they did Sunday in handing the Bears a victory.

The Vikings showed promise early in the game, and their their offense went south. The lack of a pass rush enabled Bears quarterback Jay Cutler to have a big day. And, on special teams, the Vikings' coverage wasn't very good.

Childress is the same coach who had the fourth-best record in the NFC during the past three years before Sunday's game, and he coached the team to 8-8, 10-6 and 12-4 records the past three seasons.

Childress can't play for these guys. This is the same group of players who proved how well they can perform in those final four minutes of the Cardinals' victory last week, so tell me why they couldn't come close to that performance against a not-so-great Bears team.

Like quarterback Brett Favre said after the loss: "The number of games is counting down, we can't play like we did for 56 minutes against Arizona last week and the game today against the Bears."

Game decided early On their first two drives of the game, the Vikings got deep in the red zone but only got three points. They had a chance to go up 14-0 and didn't.

The first drive stalled at the 18, and Ryan Longwell kicked a 36-yard field goal. On their second drive, the Vikings got to the 11, but a questionable intentional grounding call against Favre set them back and Longwell hit the left upright with a 39-yard field goal attempt with a swirling wind.

Offensively, the thing that hurt the Vikings the most was they were only 1-for-9 on third-down efficiency. On the other hand, the Bears were 11-for-19 (58 percent) after coming into the game with the worst third-down percentage in the NFL.

The Bears were penalized 11 times for 116 yards, giving the Vikings a lot of opportunities of which they didn't take advantage.

Bills did better What is hard to believe is a pitiful Buffalo Bills team -- which finally won its first game of the season Sunday -- pressed the Bears all 60 minutes last week and led 19-14 late in the fourth quarter before losing 21-19.

Try and figure that one out.

The Bears had 283 total yards against the Bills, but against the supposedly vaunted Vikings defense they had 360 yards.

The Vikings defense made a star out of shaky Bears quarterback Jay Cutler as he completed 22 of 35 for 237 yards and three touchdowns. However, you have to give Mike Martz, the Bears offensive coordinator, credit for having Cutler roll out out most of the day, thus making it easier to protect him.

Bears receiver Johnny Knox caught three passes for 49 yards against the Bills, but caught five for 90 yards against the Vikings.

And the Bills, who have the 26th-best offense in the league, had 340 yards against Chicago, while the Vikings had only 240 yards Sunday.

When you compare the Bills and the Vikings, there is no question the Vikings have a lot more talent. They will prove it in a couple of weeks. One team is full of Pro Bowlers, and the other isn't.

So why should the Bills play the Bears tougher? There's no reason for it.

Adrian Peterson, who has enjoyed some great days in Soldiers Field, including one for 224 yards, averages 112 yards rushing per game in his career against the Bears. He carried the ball 17 times for 51 yards Sunday, and one of those was a 20-yarder. So the Bears really shut down the Vikings' run game.

True, Favre did have three interceptions, but one ball was tipped and on two others Vikings receivers fell down running their patterns.

Favre's protection wasn't the greatest on this day. Maybe the Vikings should have gone into their two-minute offense sooner. But without Bernard Berrian, who didn't play because of a groin injury, and Percy Harvin, who was injured late in the game, they were really handicapped at the wide receiver position. Rice is close to being ready to return, and that will help this team.

Special teams fail Until Sunday, the longest punt return an opponent had against the Vikings was 9 yards. And the special teams coverage on kickoffs was as good as any team in the league.

On Sunday, at one stretch of the game, five of the six Bears possessions after a punt or a kickoff wound up in Vikings territory.

Taylor helps At Buffalo a week ago, former Vikings running back Chester Taylor scored his first touchdown this season, but he had only 13 yards on 10 carries. But against the Vikings, Taylor played as much as he has this season, carrying 11 times for 33 yards and catching three passes.

The big contribution he made was protecting Cutler, and knowing the Vikings' front four and practicing against them a lot in past years must have helped him in doing his job.