Justin Fields starts hot, Bears cool off vs. Vikings in first half

MINNEAPOLIS — Justin Fields was near-perfect in the first quarter and struggled in the second, and the Bears and Vikings are tied 3-3 at halftime.

The Bears quarterback was a perfect 12-for-12 for 100 yards and a 101.4 passer rating in the first quarter of Monday’s game at U.S. Bank Stadium.

On the Bears’ first drive, Fields completed three different third-down passes before throwing a middle screen to Cole Kmet that went nowhere to set up a 48-yard field goal try by Cairo Santos. Santos, who was 19-for-20 entering Monday night’s game, pushed his kick right.

On the next drive, the Vikings blitzed on fourth-and-10 from the 38. Tight end Cole Kmet stayed in to block next to the right tackle, then released late and was wide open. Twenty-three yards later, the Bears had first-and-10 at the Vikings’ 15. They had to settled for a 25-yard Santos field goal, though, when a third-and-4 swing pass to Roschon Johnson went for only one yard.

After running 24 plays for 114 yards in their first two drives, the Bears floundered, running 11 plays for 34 yards the rest of the half.

The Bears recorded interceptions on back-to-back drives in the second quarter — the first by cornerback Jaylon Johnson on a second-down deep shot to Jordan Addison and the second by safety Jaquan Brisker, who caught an Addison tip on third down. The Bears, who had nine interceptions all season entering the game, could have added one more — Johnson had a ball hit both his hands on a third-down incompletion with about three-and-a-half minutes to play in the first half.

The Bears squandered both interception opportunities, though, losing four yards on the first drive and gaining one on the second.

The Vikings’ offense didn’t gain traction until the final two minutes, when quarterback Josh Dobbs threw a 28-yard pass to Brandon Powell along the left sideline and then, on the next play, found K.J. Osborn for 12.

After a timeout, Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon was flagged for pass interference on a deep corner route to tight end T.J. Hockenson that gave the Vikings the ball at the Bears’ 13 with 38 seconds to play. Dobbs was called for intentional grounding on the next play on what would have been a Justin Jones sack, setting up second-and-24 from the 27. An incompletion and a screen pass set up a 34-yard Greg Joseph field goal as time expired.

Fields went to the locker room 17-for-22 for 135 yards and a passer rating of 92 and with four carries for 21 yards.