MINNEAPOLIS _ The Bears' 100th season started with Super Bowl hopes and ended with a 21-19 victory over the Vikings backups on Sunday, five weeks before two teams will play for the NFL championship.
The Vikings were locked into the NFC's No. 6 seed in the playoffs, and so they rested nearly all of their starters in their regular-season finale at U.S. Bank Stadium, including quarterback Kirk Cousins. The Bears had nothing to play for but pride, and they salvaged that on kicker Eddy Pineiro's fourth field goal of the game.
Pineiro made a 22-yard field goal with 10 seconds to play to give the Bears the victory.
The Bears got into position for the field goal on a big play by quarterback Mitch Trubisky. On fourth-and-9 at the Bears' 49, Trubisky hit rookie wide receiver Riley Ridley for a 32-yard pass to get to the 19.
After getting to the 8-yard line, they opted to let the clock run down rather than get in the end zone to set up the field goal.
Neither team scored a touchdown in the first half, and the Bears led 11-6 at halftime following three Pineiro field goals and a safety for linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski.
David Montgomery had 23 carries for 113 yards � the second 100-yard game of his rookie season. He scored the Bears' only touchdown, on a 14-yard run on the first drive of the third quarter.
