Joshua Dobbs Bottlenecked in Vikings Loss to Bears

The Vikings finished 2-for-9 on third downs (0-for-4 in the first half), 0-for-2 on fourth downs and netted 242 yards of offense.

Only 76 net yards were gained in the first half, with 52 of those coming on the final possession of the opening half.

A 28-yard pass by Joshua Dobbs to Brandon Powell provided a spark and was followed by a 12-yard completion to K.J. Osborn, moving the ball to the Chicago 39-yard line.

A pass interference call on the next play when T.J. Hockenson was grabbed by Kyler Gordon moved the ball all the way to the 13 with 38 seconds remaining, but Dobbs was called for intentional grounding on the next snap (Chicago picked it over a holding call against Josh Oliver).

That made it second-and-24 at the Chicago 27 with 29 seconds. After an incompletion, the Vikings opted for a screen pass from Dobbs to Alexander Mattison for a gain of 11, positioning Greg Joseph for a 34-yard field goal as time expired to tie the game at 3.

But the Vikings were unable to harness that momentum in the second half.

The 6-yard gain on fourth-and-7 was followed by the final two interceptions.

"Based on the coverages that the defense is giving me, it's a fine line between, 'OK, that's a fine line to fit it in or it's not.' The first one, I got deked out by the corner who did a good job of coming up on the underneath," Dobbs said. "On the other ones, I just can't put that ball in jeopardy. I know it's a fourth down, so we're trying to convert by any means necessary. It's a fine line, but at the end of the day, when the ball is in my hand and guys are open, I'm going to keep shooting, I'm going to keep throwing the ball to where it needs to go, and I'll clean up everything else from there."