The Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears in a thrilling overtime showdown on December 28, 36-30, when Jay Cutler threw a game-winning 39-yard touchdown pass to Devin Aromashodu. Minnesota fell for the third time in four games, and the defeat gave the New Orleans Saints homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
"I know we're fortunate to be in the playoffs but we have to play better than we did the last few weeks or we'll be home fairly quickly," Favre said to the Chicago Area Local News. "I'm just being honest as I can be."
Cutler threw the game-winning touchdown pass with just over nine minutes left in the overtime period after Favre’s fourth down pass to Sidney Rice with 16 seconds left in regulation, preventing the Vikings from securing a first round bye.
However, a Bears’ win wouldn’t have been possible without the fumble by Adrian Peterson, forced by Bears’ Hunter Hillenmeyer, and a recovery by Chicago’s Nick Roach that lead to the touchdown pass by Cutler.
The Bears started quickly, gaining leads of 16-0 at the half and 23-6 midway through the third quarter; however, the Vikings rallied back to make the score 30-23 with 4:55 in the fourth quarter. Favre’s pass to Rice ended regulation and tied the game 30-30, sending the two teams into a heated overtime period.
With Cutler’s game-winning pass to Aromashodu, he finished the game with 273 yards, while his counterpart Favre turned in a good performance of 321 passing yards. Aromashodu had seven catches for 150 yards, and Danieal Manning of the Bears set up two touchdowns with kickoff returns of 57 and 59 yards.
"At times today in the second half you saw guys offensively make plays," Favre said. "That has to happen for four quarters. I hope we can turn it around. I hope we do. I'm going to sit here and be positive as I should be, but we have some things we have to get better at."