Everyone should have known that the Bears were going to struggle on offense Monday night. They were throwing rookie quarterback Mitchell Trubisky out for his first start against a dangerous Vikings defense with few weapons to utilize.
But it was much worse than anyone expected. Not necessarily because Trubisky was bad -- he actually looked pretty good -- he was just constantly on the run and/or being let down by various pass catchers and or teammates intent on coming up with penalties at the wrong time.
Credit John Fox for digging into his very tiny bag of tricks to generate some points in a game that saw Chicago struggle to score early on (the Bears would not have any other points outside of a safety during the first three quarters). Fox dug out a fake punt play that resulted in Pat O'Donnell heaving a quick strike score to Benny Cunningham. Be still my beating heart.
As a result of this pass from O'Donnell, the punter immediately had the third-most passing yards of anyone who attempted a pass in the game. That would be typical, except he's ahead of one quarterback, Sam Bradford, who was forced to leave the game for Case Keenum during the first half, primarily because he was ineffective and looking like he might still be injured.
The touchdown from O'Donnell was also notorious because it immediately became the longest passing play for the Bears all season. Woof.
More than anything, though, it shows just how desperate the Bears are to try and get something going on offense against the Vikings.