Give Vikings credit where credit is due

Chicago’s sports columnists were busy pounding keyboards and the hometown Bears not long after California surfer dude Chad Hutchinson came from way down the depth chart to throw three touchdown passes in a 24-14 victory over the Vikings back on Dec. 5, 2004.

The opening line of one column read: “Exactly what have the Bears been thinking the past 10 weeks?” The kicker at the end read: “Necks were sore Sunday from looking back and wondering what might have been.”

Those of us covering the Vikings 12 years ago read that in the airport the next morning, chuckled and knew the author would be wincing over his words soon enough. Hutchinson, the Bears’ fourth quarterback that year, started the next…