This Monday night football matchup between bitter NFC North rivals in Brett Favre’s Minnesota Vikings and Jay Cutler’s Chicago Bears had blowout written all over it, but that was far from the truth as Cutler and company came to play for one of the few times this season and took Favre’s Vikings to the limit at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Coming into this week 16 NFC North showdown on Monday night the Minnesota Vikings had already clinched both the division and a trip back into the playoffs, but with a win over the Chicago Bears on Monday, Brett Favre and company had a shot at being the number one seed in the NFC going into the postseason.

Unfortunately, what was thought to be a just another easy win for head coach Brad Childress’ squad turned out to be anything but as Jay Cutler had one of his few dominant performances of the season with four touchdowns and just one interception.

The first half was basically what put the Vikings in the hole in this game as they struggled to do anything right on either side of the football, but in the second half Brett Favre was able to rally his troops and put some points on the board and catch up to the surprisingly good Chicago Bears.

All season long Jay Cutler has had problems with his interceptions as he had thrown a league high 25 interceptions so far this season, which is five more than his touchdown passes this season (19), but Monday night Cutler was on a mission to prove to the Vikings and his childhood idol in Brett Favre that he is still one of the best quarterbacks in this league.

Cutler finished the night with one of his best performances of the season as he threw for 273 yards, four touchdowns and the one interception. Unfortunate that Cutler still could get away from throwing a pick, but his numbers speak for themselves and his best throw of the game was his last as he threw the game winning touchdown pass to wide receiver Devin Aromashodu in over time to beat the Vikings 36-30!

Obviously the Chicago Bears are going to be watching the playoffs from home this season, but finishing out the season on a high note is all they could of hoped for. Next week they will take on the lowly Detroit Lions to see if they can keep a good thing going before season’s end.

As for Brett Favre and company, they have lost three of their last four games and are not looking good heading into the postseason. Personally, the defense was the problem in this game in my opinion as they could do nothing to stop the Bears offensive attack both on the ground and most importantly through the air.

Despite the loss, Favre finished his day with some impressive numbers as well with 321 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, but he did have one lost fumble. Adrian Peterson on the other hand, also had good numbers with 137 all purpose yards, but fumbled the football late in the over time period which was basically the nail in the coffin for the Minnesota Vikings.