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Loss averted, Vikings' secondary relieved

After Bears quarterback Brian Griese showed up the Vikings defense with two TD passes in a closing-minutes rally, escaping from Soldier Field with a victory was enough.

Last update: October 14, 2007 – 11:40 PM

CHICAGO - Vikings safety Dwight Smith might have been one of the few people in Soldier Field on Sunday who didn't think his fourth-quarter interception spelled the end for the Chicago Bears.

The Vikings were holding a 14-point lead and had the ball at their own 26-yard line with 3 minutes, 58 seconds remaining after Smith picked off Brian Griese. A few Adrian Peterson runs to eat up the clock and the Vikings would have the victory.

"You understand in this league that one play and the whole game changes," said Smith, following the Vikings' 34-31 victory courtesy of a last-second field goal by Ryan Longwell. "And that's what happened."

Indeed, it did. The Bears scored two touchdowns in 58 seconds to tie it 31-31.

The Vikings gained only 4 yards on three plays after Smith's interception. Chris Kluwe booted the ball out of bounds in order to keep it away from Chicago's Pro Bowl return man, Devin Hester. The punt went only 23 yards, Chicago took over at its 47 and the fun began.

Griese found Bernard Berrian for a 20-yard gain to the Vikings 33. Griese looked for Berrian again on the next play, but his pass ended up in the hands of Vikings rookie corner Marcus McCauley, who plays in the nickel defense. McCauley couldn't hang on.

"You've just got to catch the ball," he said. "That's all you can really say. I was in good position. My teammates are depending on me. ... I was sick to my stomach on that one."

McCauley didn't feel any better one play later. Receiver Muhsin Muhammad caught a Griese pass in traffic at around the Vikings 20, eluded a tackle attempt by Smith and went into the end zone to make it 31-24 with 2:36 left in the game.

Chicago failed to recover an onside kick, but once again the Vikings went three-and-out. This time Kluwe's punt went out of bounds at the Bears 19.

On second-and-10, Griese looked deep for Hester. The speedy receiver got behind Smith, caught the ball around the Vikings 35 and raced into the end zone for an 81-yard touchdown. Smith said the sore hamstring he has been battling in recent weeks had "nothing to do with nothing" when it came to Hester getting past him.

Smith also had little interest in addressing any negatives from Sunday, pointing to the fact the Vikings were able to still win the game.

"Hopefully, the luck will start changing around here," he said. "We've had opportunities through the first four games of the season that we didn't take advantage of. Today, we took advantage of the opportunities, and hopefully that will trickle down and keep going like that."

Judd Zulgad • jzulgad@startribune.com

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