CHICAGO — Sam Bradford’s body language cried out for mercy, and he finally received it when there was nowhere left for the Vikings’ quarterback to crawl but the infirmary.
He was set up for an ambush and wilted accordingly. Coach Mike Zimmer and company can genuflect to an able Case Keenum, a driven Jerick McKinnon and their big-play defense for leading the Vikings to salvation in an ugly but defiant 20-17 victory.
“We came here to get a win, and we did,” said Zimmer.
If only it were that simple.
Harrison Smith’s clutch interception with 2:20 remaining, McKinnon’s purposeful running and Kai Forbath’s 26-yard field goal allowed Minnesota to escape its annual house of horrors with a winning record, though quarterback drama continues to haunt this franchise.
Bradford hobbled around Soldier Field on Monday night on his achy left knee like an old man feeding pigeons in the park after re-aggravating an injury that has dogged him since his Week 1 breakout against New Orleans.
Zimmer had finally seen enough late in the second quarter and yanked him.
“He didn’t want to come out. He wanted to stay in and fight,” Zimmer said. “But I didn’t want to get him injured any more.”
Zimmer insisted there was nothing prior to the game that would have prevented Bradford from playing.
“We wouldn’t put him on the field if he wasn’t healthy enough to play,” he said.
Not with 300-pound defensive linemen stalking him for use as a toothpick and a startling inability to protect himself.
Not with enough rust on his throwing arm to be dry docked for sand blasting.
Not with Minnesota’s offensive identity crisis deepening by the week.
Bradford had not fully practiced since the days leading up to the Saints game. But his inability to last a half, let alone a game, raises questions about his future.
“I’m still hopeful with him,” Zimmer said. “He just aggravated it a little bit. He’s going to get back, and he’s going to be better.”
Anyone else feel confident?
Bradford gave way to Keenum late in the first half when he failed to prod the Vikings into the end zone despite Everson Griffen’s strip-sack that gave them the ball and necessary momentum at the Chicago 13-yard line.
He limped back to the sideline, yanked at his chin strap and nodded knowingly when Zimmer told him his night was finished.
Sacked four times and spooked throughout, Bradford completed just five of 11 passes for 36 yards.
On third and long in the first quarter, Bradford dropped back into his end zone with great protection and waited for a sundial to tell him to unload. Bears linebacker Leonard Floyd pounced, and the Vikings were trailing 2-0.
Floyd buried Bradford again later in the second quarter as the Vikings’ quarterback crashed to the turf in the fetal position whenever he sensed pressure, real or imagined. At one point, the Bears held a yards advantage of 109-2 as Minnesota grabbed the ball for the first time in the second quarter.
The performance exhumed the remains of Josh Freeman’s “Monday Night Football” debacle in the Meadowlands four years ago.
Freeman was a joke, a desperate attempt by general manager Rick Spielman to catch quarterback lightning in a bottle as the Christian Ponder era flamed out. Bradford, however, is a $17 million franchise quarterback and pending free agent who finally seemed poised to bury his troubling history of knee injuries and lead a team to the postseason for the first time.
Meanwhile, Keenum re-emerged as the sharper image of his Week 3 self, when he threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns to torch Tampa Bay.
He confidently guided the Vikings into gaining chunks of yardage and a pair of third-quarter touchdown drives that resurrected modest hopes that Keenum can shepherd this wildly inconsistent offense to respectability.
Still, the loss of dynamic rookie running back Dalvin Cook was felt acutely.
Latavius Murray is a shadow compared to the elusive running and versatile pass-catching skills that made Cook the fulcrum of Minnesota’s offense before he was lost to a season-ending knee injury in Week 4.
That allowed McKinnon to emerge from the ashes with a step-up performance that included a 58-yard third-quarter touchdown run and several tough carries to position Forbath for his heroics.
Defensively, the Vikings remain unbowed despite playing against a stacked deck.
Griffen is having a monster year as a pass-rushing dynamo. His strip-sack of Mitchell Trubisky late in the second quarter positioned the Vikings for their first points of the game, a field goal.
Yet Griffen’s costly offside penalty on a potential third-down stop extended Chicago’s tying touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter.
But Dirty Harry cleaned up after Griffen with his prescient pick of Trubisky.
The biggest mess remains at quarterback.