MINNEAPOLIS — The Chicago Bears were formally eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday, though the season was lost well before that. No has talked big dreams for a while now, with sole focus on snapping a prolonged winning streak.

The Bears hadn’t won a game since Oct. 13 and were looking for something positive to happen with a game result. They started in characteristically slow fashion Monday night in Minnesota and fell behind two scores.

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The Bears were never able to recover.

That fact was a major factor in this result, which ended with a 30-12 victory by the Vikings on Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium. Let’s take a dive into the important moments of this one:

Bair’s break down

Can’t win if you can’t score. The Bears haven’t been scoring a bunch lately, with an offense that has become consistently inconsistent. Except in the 1st half, where the unit hasn’t scored a single point in its last 3 games.

The Bears have fallen behind by at least two scores in those contests, leaving the offense to play catch-up and abandon its quest for relative balance.

Even when the Bears were able to move the ball and sustain a drive, D’Andre Swift’s touchdown run was negated by penalty. Then a holding call pushed the Bears into long down and distance and the Bears came away with a field goal.

The total yardage gained wasn’t that bad. The give aways were, with a Caleb Williams strip sack – Kiran Amegadjie got beat on the left flank — and a pair of turnovers on downs really hurt. The Vikings scored 13 points off those drives.

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Overall, Williams got beat up on Monday night. He took lots of big hits that he didn’t see coming and couldn’t brace for, which makes them more difficult to absorb.

This team isn’t equipped to squander golden opportunities against good teams. Misses like the Bears had in this game, against this Vikings opponent, secured a loss that stands as Chicago’s 8th straight. – Scott Bair

Key stat

Zero.

The Bears failed to score a single point in the 1st half for the 3rd straight game.

In fact, the Bears have been outscored 53-0 in the 1st half in the last 3 games – against the Vikings, 49ers and Lions.

All 3 games came with new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown calling the plays and the last 2 came with Brown serving as the team’s interim head coach after Matt Eberflus was fired.

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The last time the Bears went scoreless in the 1st half in 3 straight games was 1932-33.

Pivot point

The game was decided early on as the Vikings jumped out to a 10-0 lead with 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter. A big part of that was the strip-sack by star defensive end Jonathan Greenard on the Bears’ second drive:

The Vikings took over at the 39-yard line and marched down the field quickly, ending with a 7-yard touchdown catch by Justin Jefferson.

The Bears opened the game with the ball and after 3 quick plays, they faced a 4th-and-1 situation. D’Andre Swift was stopped short and the Vikings responded quickly with a field goal.

The next drive was the strip-sack after the Bears had started moving the ball a bit.

It was a momentum-changing play that helped seal the Bears’ 8th straight loss.

What’s next

The Bears’ second tour through the NFC North continues with a home game against the Detroit Lions, who just lost a close contest to the Buffalo Bills that was particularly costly with David Montgomery out for the year with a knee injury.