Bears-Vikings preview: Bears ball

The Chicago offense was wobbling with Jay Cutler at quarterback. Without him it crashed under backup Jason Campbell, and Cutler’s status for Sunday, because of the concussion suffered in the Houston game, remains a question.

Meanwhile, the problems with the Bears’ offense extend far beyond the offensive line and its shuffling in the wake of six 49ers sacks. So how bad has it all gotten?

The offense has even reached opposing red zones just twice in the past two games and put points on the board on only three of its past 25 possessions.

The Bears’ offense has scored just one touchdown in the past eight quarters, that a meaningless score at San Francisco when the Bears trailed 27-0. One of the two field goals managed against the Houston Texans came after a takeaway and scoring “drive” of five yards for a 51-yard Robbie Gould field goal.

The Bears have not scored on an opening drive of either the first or second half in four straight games. And they still rank 32nd on first-down plays at 4.09 yards per.

If there is a positive here it is that the Minnesota Vikings are sixth-worst, giving up 5.01 yards per first-down plays, which are the ones that start possessions off well or not so well, and which have repeatedly had the Bears starting drives with play-calling options limited from the first snap.

The concerns offensively -- the lack of rhythm, the lack of the fast starts, the lack of success on first down -- are still haunting us,” said offensive coordinator Mike Tice. “We felt like we had a decent plan going in [for San Francisco], playing some smash-mouth, getting into that third-and-medium, giving us a chance to convert to stay out of those long situations and giving those nickel pass rushers a chance to tee off. That didn’t happen in that football game.”

The Minnesota Vikings are not the San Francisco 49ers defensively, even though the Vikings did hold the 49ers to 13 points in a Week 3 win. But they do rank eighth in yards allowed per play and yards per rushing attempt and ninth in yards per pass play.

In short, the 49ers are a top-five defense; the Vikings are top-10 in three very key areas against a Chicago offense that is struggling in just about every area.

The Vikings have forced just 12 turnovers (five interceptions, seven fumbles) and allow 22.1 points per game. In the Bears’ favor: Minnesota has given up 24 or more points in four of the last five games, 30 or more in three of those.

The Bears’ best hope clearly lies with Jay Cutler being past any concussion symptoms. Cutler has played the Vikings six times and has a combined 100.8 passer rating, with 15 touchdown passes and six interceptions.

Since a 38-10 loss in late November 2009, the Bears have scored 36, 27, 40 and 39 points against the Vikings, with only two of the TDs coming on returns, both by Devin Hester.

Maybe it’s a touch of familiarity, based on what Cutler sees all during the offseason and training camp.

“[Minnesota’s defense is] very similar to the defense we have here: Cover-2, Tampa-2, Tony Dungy kind of coaching tree, similar stuff to what we see here,” Cutler said. “Jared Allen is a problem for us; we’ve got to account for him. Good linebacking crew, rest of the D-line is good, and the corners and safeties play disciplined football.

“Much of the same that we see out of the Chicago Bears and we’re just going to have to execute, run the ball well and complete passes when we get opportunities.”

The last time left tackle J’Marcus Webb saw Allen the Minnesota defensive end was flying past him on the way to one of three sacks of quarterback Josh McCown in the Bears’ 17-13 victory to finish last season 8-8.

Webb has allowed seven sacks, three quarterback hits and 22 hurries so far this season, according to ProFootballFocus.com studies. That is an improvement from last year’s 14 sacks allowed but not enough for the Bears to leave him alone all evening with Allen, who has seven sacks this season in addition to 24 quarterback hits and 11 tackles for loss.

“Definitely we will have ‘chip’ help,” Tice said. “He knows that. We’re going to have to make sure that we account for him every play, every time we drop back to throw the ball, [that] he’s walled up. We have to make sure we know where he is and find him and make sure we have an answer for that. That’s without a doubt.”

But the Bears have other concerns of their own, whether Chris Spencer is a sufficient upgrade over Chilo Rachal at left guard, or if Jonathan Scott replacing Gabe Carimi can stop the hemorrhaging of pass rushers past right tackle.

Brian Robision at left end has 5.5 sacks and 13 quarterback hits. Six-time Pro Bowl tackle Kevin Williams has 14 hits to go with his two sacks.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier was watching last Monday but “you don’t want to take what happened on Monday night and say ‘OK, that’s the blueprint for success,’ because not all teams have some of the players that San Francisco has,” he said.

The problem for the Bears? The Vikings do have some of the players the 49ers have.