EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) -When Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye leveled Gus Frerotte with a late hit in the second quarter, Minnesota’s 37-year-old quarterback crumpled to the turf and lay motionless for more than a minute.
Finally, Frerotte rose to his feet and headed to the sideline, but fell to a knee before he got there. He later said he was momentarily knocked out cold by the blow.
As bad as things looked for him then, Vikings receiver Bernard Berrian knew who would be in the huddle the next time the offense took the field.
“I think Gus gets knocked down more times than Adrian Peterson does,” Berrian said with a chuckle. “But he gets up and keeps ticking and it just shows the type of character and heart he has.”
e second quarter to get the Vikings rolling toward a 34-14 victory over Chicago that gave them sole possession of first place in the NFC North.
“Guy hit me right in the back of the head and threw me for a loop,” Frerotte said.
There was some speculation that after two poorly thrown fade routes into the end zone fell incomplete, Frerotte may have been embellishing just a tad in hopes of drawing a penalty flag that never came.
“He doesn’t have a lot of flop in him,” Vikings coach Brad Childress said Monday. “He’s not really a very good thespian, I don’t think. Nonetheless, when you’re taking three steps and the play, as far as you’re concerned, is over, you can’t hit the quarterback. You can’t do that.”
The 15-year veteran has taken a licking since being named the starter in Week 3, seemingly needing attention from the team’s medical staff every game. He was taken out for three plays against Tennessee on Sept. 28 and missed one play each in games at New Orleans on Oct. 6 and at Jacksonville on Nov. 23.
Yet here he stands, with a 7-3 record as the starter this season.
“He’s been around for a while,” left tackle Bryant McKinnie said. “You never know if he’s going to get up or not, but he fights through it and keeps doing his thing. It definitely impresses me.”
line like to tease Frerotte about his penchant for holding the ball a little too long, which exposes him to sacks and big hits. But that patience also can pay off by giving his receivers time to get open down the field for big plays.
Frerotte was 16-for-25 for 210 yards with the 99-yard TD to Berrian and an interception, with the bulk of his production coming after Ogunleye’s late hit.
Frerotte was sacked twice and pressured on several other occasions in the first quarter while the Bears stacked the line of scrimmage to stop the run. But he absorbed their biggest shots and then delivered a haymaker of his own when he found Berrian all alone down the sideline after a spirited goal-line stand by the Vikings’ defense.
“He is a tough guy and the quarterback position is one of the toughest positions because you can’t really defend yourself back there,” Childress said after the game. “You’ve got to be tough mentally and tough physically and he’s both.”
That combination at the league’s glamour position has endeared him to a team that enters the final month of the regular season with a chance to win the NFC North for the first time since its inception as a division in 2002.
his and learning from this.
“We’re really growing together as a team. I think the guys understand that as long as we keep fighting, we have a chance no matter what happens.”
Frerotte will be right there with the rest of them, taking his lumps for the team. His numbers may not be the shiniest – he has a pedestrian 58.8 completion percentage and 76.1 quarterback rating with 12 TD passes and 13 interceptions.
But no one can argue with the wins.
“That’s always the thing that defines quarterbacks,” Childress said, before reciting one of his favorite axioms. “Damn how rough the sea is; did you bring the ship in? That’s number one for quarterbacks.”
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