The Bears were held to just one touchdown and lost Justin Fields to a right hand injury in a 19-13 loss to the Vikings Sunday at Soldier Field.
Fields was injured when he was sacked by outside linebacker Danielle Hunter with 9:59 remaining in the third quarter. At that juncture, the Vikings led 12-6 and had limited the Bears to two Cairo Santos field goals on six possessions.
After the game, coach Matt Eberflus said that X-rays on Fields' hand were negative but that the Bears quarterback was going to undergo an MRI exam.
"We're evaluating it right now," Eberflus said. "We'll see where it is tomorrow when we get the MRI. He wanted to come back in the game. He just couldn't grip the ball to throw it. We'll see where it is. We'll know more information tomorrow."
Fields exited after completing 6 of 10 passes for 58 yards with one interception. He also rushed for 46 yards on eight carries.
Fields was replaced by Tyson Bagent, an undrafted rookie from Division II Shepherd University who was making his NFL debut. Bagent engineered an impressive 9-play, 77-yard touchdown march that cut the deficit to 19-13 midway through the fourth quarter. But that drive was sandwiched by a fumble that was returned for a TD and an interception that sealed the game.
"Giving the ball away that many times, certainly at minus-two (turnover ratio), that's a hard way to win," Eberflus said. "The percentages aren't in your favor, so the defense has to get it more and we've got to do a better job of protecting it."
With the loss, the Bears fell to 1-5.
The Bears defense performed well Sunday, limiting the Vikings offense to just one touchdown, a season-low 220 total yards and 2-of-13 on third downs (15.4%).
On Bagent's first drive, he was sacked by safety Josh Mettellus, who forced a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Jordan Hicks and returned 46 yards for a TD that gave the Vikings a 19-6 lead with 6:44 left in the third quarter.
But Bagent rebounded, completing all three of his passes on the Bears' next possession for gains of 18 and 24 yards to DJ Moore and 11 yards to Robert Tonyan. Bagent then scored on a 1-yard TD run.
After a Vikings punt, the Bears reached the Minnesota 42. But Bagent's deep pass intended for Moore was intercepted by cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. at the 7 and returned 35 yards with 1:51 remaining. Minnesota then ran out the clock.
"DJ Moore, one of the best receivers in the world, one-on-one, anytime we can get that we like it," Bagent said. "Under-threw it a little bit, and you know that's on me. I've got to fix it going forward."
Bagent connected on 10 of 14 passes for 83 yards with one interception.
"He started out not great at first," Eberflus said. "But again, that's everybody, that's 11 guys in there operating. But I think once he got settled down, he put that drive together, you could see what he could do.
"He can do off-schedule stuff, he can escape, made a few nice throws there. His mobility is good. I thought his timing was good on a lot of those passes that he threw. I thought he looked good. I thought he looked good on that one drive. At the very end, on that interception, the protection's got to be more solid in that particular play, and he can't put the ball in harm's way."
The Vikings took a 3-0 lead on Greg Joseph's 53-yard field goal on their first possession of the game. The kick came after Jaylon Johnson—returning to action after missing two games with a hamstring injury—broke up a third-down pass.
The Bears tied the score 3-3 on Santos' 22-yard field goal early in the second quarter. The 14-play, 71-yard drive was highlighted by Velus Jones Jr.'s 17-yard run and Fields' 8-yard pass to Moore on third-and-6.
After Joseph's 51-yard field goal put Minnesota ahead 6-3 with 8:56 left in the first half, Santos countered again with a 53-yarder into the wind to make it 6-6.
After trading field goals, the teams then took turns generating takeaways. First, T.J. Edwards hit Kirk Cousins, forcing a fumble that Tremaine Edmunds recovered.
The Vikings got the ball right back, however, as Fields was hit as he released the ball by Hunter, causing his pass to flutter and get intercepted by Hicks, who returned it nine yards to the Minnesota 23.
The Vikings converted the turnover into the game's first touchdown as Cousins rifled a 10-yard TD pass to receiver Jordan Addison. Rasheem Green blocked the extra point attempt, but Minnesota led 12-6 with :12 remaining in the first half. Cousins was 7-of-7 for 66 yards on the drive.
Two more turnovers in the second half cost the Bears a chance to rally.
"When you go minus-two in a football game, it's going to be hard to win," Eberflus said. "If we would have flipped that, plus-two, I bet we would have won the game. To me, it's all about that, and it's all about us doing our detail.
"Certainly, we fought hard in the game and I'm proud of the guys for what they did. But we didn't come out with the victory and it's mainly because of the ball."
