MINNEAPOLIS — Bears quarterback Justin Fields did the one thing he couldn’t do: fumble.
And then he did it again.
In the span of 61⁄2 minutes Monday, Fields coughed the ball up twice, nearly squandering a stellar performance by his defense.
Finally, however, he closed out a game. On third-and-10 from the Vikings’ 49 with 1:06 left, Fields found receiver DJ Moore in the middle of the field for a 36-yard gain to set up a 30-yard field goal by Cairo Santos with 10 seconds to play.
The Bears’ 12-10 victory was the first in the NFC North of coach Matt Eberflus’ tenure and the first for Fields since Oct. 3, 2021. No one will mistake Fields for being a dynamo, but he went 27-for-37 for 217 yards in a horizontal passing attack designed to counter the Vikings’ blitz-happy ways.
The Bears became the first team in the NFL to win this season without scoring a touchdown, and the victory was their first without a touchdown attached since 1993.
“Our message was just ‘finish, finish, finish,’” Fields said. “Because there’s been too many times this season where we’ve been up, we didn’t do a good job of finishing.”
Eberflus said it ‘‘means a lot’’ for Fields to come back from the fumbles and make a throw — even if it was a problem of his own making.
‘‘They left me wide-open,’’ Moore said. ‘‘I don’t think that was a smart choice.’’
‘‘That’s just a play that goes back all the way to training camp,’’ Fields said. ‘‘Guys executed at a perfect level.’’
Santos made a 55-yard field goal on the third play of the fourth quarter to give the Bears a 9-3 lead. Cornerback Kyler Gordon then intercepted a tipped pass four plays later to put them in position to go up by two scores.
Fields, however, did the one thing that was verboten: He fumbled. On second-and-10 from the Vikings’ 22 — chip-shot range for Santos — Fields scrambled over right tackle and had the ball slip out of his right arm. The Vikings recovered.
‘‘There was an ‘Oh, [bleep]’ moment,’’ tight end Cole Kmet said.
Of course, the Vikings marched down the field. Anyone who has watched a Bears game this season knew they would. With 5:54 left, quarterback Josh Dobbs found tight end T.J. Hockenson on a post route in front of safety Eddie Jackson at the goal line. The extra point gave the Vikings their first lead of the game.
With a chance to drive the Bears down the field for the victory, Fields fumbled again. This time, he was hit by Vikings safety Josh Metellus as he scrambled down the middle of the field. Linebacker Anthony Barr recovered the ball, but the Bears’ defense forced a three-and-out.
“I was sick to my stomach, I’m not going to lie,” Fields said.
Fields then marched the Bears from their 22 to the Vikings’ 12, where Santos made the winner.
‘‘The life of a kicker,’’ Santos said. ‘‘It’s not a perfect craft. Just thankful I got the opportunity throughout the game to keep doing what I do. We all showed character after how things went last week [against the Lions].’’
Entering the game, Fields had a 21.5 passer rating in the final three minutes of games since the start of last season. He had only one career fourth-quarter comeback, and that came in the 2022 season opener against the 49ers. His only other game-winning drive came when the Bears sat on the ball after an interception by Roquan Smith against the Texans last season.
Santos made a 39-yard field goal on fourth-and-two midway through the third quarter, then tied his career-high with the 55-yarder in the fourth.
The Bears had lived this drama before. Just eight days earlier, they led the Lions by 12 when kicking off with about four minutes to play. They lost — amazingly — by five, having allowed two touchdowns and a safety.
The safety came when Fields was sacked in the final seconds and right tackle Darnell Wright, who had been beaten, kicked the ball back toward the end zone.
On the Bears’ first drive, Fields completed three third-down passes before throwing a middle screen to Kmet that went nowhere to set up a 48-yard field-goal try by Santos. Santos, who was 19-for-20 entering the game, pushed his kick to the right.
On the next drive, the Bears faced fourth-and-10 at the Vikings’ 38. Kmet stayed in to block next to the right tackle on a blitz, then released late and was wide-open. Twenty-three yards later, the Bears had first-and-10 at the Vikings’ 15. They had to settled for a 25-yard field goal by Santos, though.
After running 24 plays for 114 yards on their first two drives, the Bears floundered, running 11 plays for 34 yards the rest of the first half.
They weren’t much better in the second half, either. Gifted spectacular field position by their defense — which had four takeaways for the second consecutive game — the Bears’ next two field-goal drives went for 34 and 32 yards, respectively.
