On Monday Night Football, Mitchell Trubisky made his NFL debut against the Minnesota Vikings, who led the all-time series 58-52-2, though the Bears had won all but two games at Soldier Field since 2007. Trubisky is the eleventh rookie quarterback in team history to start a game and the first since Kyle Orton in 2005, though only three won their first games (Jim McMahon, Rex Grossman, Craig Krenzel); furthermore, since 2009, only one of nine Bears quarterbacks won in their debuts with the team (Todd Collins). Jeff Joniak emphasized a focus on first down success; the Bears' rushing game, which averaged 5.3 yards per carry on first down in 2016, had just 3.7 yards in 2017, including 17 plays in which Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen were tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Chicago took on a Minnesota defense that allowed just 71.2 yards yards per game, the third-least in the league. Instead, Joniak suggested relying on the passing attack; on first down, the Vikings allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 80 percent of their passes for a 121.1 passer rating. The Bears also had to focus on improving their league-worst -7 turnover ratio; over the past three seasons, the team had a combined ratio of -31. For the Bears defense, Joniak wrote the unit had to prevent the Vikings from making big plays courtesy of Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen, who had a combined 15 catches for at least 20 yards, while a combined 30 receptions resulted in first downs. Joniak further added the "excitement Trubisky brings into this game at Soldier Field" should be used by the "Bears to their advantage to keep the crowd engaged and loud." Trubisky led the Bears into Vikings territory on the opening drive, but a holding penalty on Cody Whitehair pushed the offense back before the Bears punted. The Vikings were unable to exit their side of the field on their first two drives and were forced to punt; likewise, the Bears reached Minnesota's side before punting on their drives. Late in the first quarter, Sam Bradford was sacked by Leonard Floyd in the end zone for a safety. In the second quarter, Trubisky was strip-sacked by Everson Griffen, which resulted in the Vikings' Linval Joseph recovering. Kai Forbath kicked a 26-yard field goal to give the Vikings a 3-2 lead. Bradford, who was sacked three times in the first half, was replaced by Case Keenum for the remainder of the game. On the Vikings' first drive of the second half, Keenum threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Rudolph, to which the Bears responded with a trick play: on fourth down, punter Pat O'Donnell instead threw a pass to Benny Cunningham, who escaped two Vikings to score on the 38-yard play. The Bears defense suffered another loss when reserve linebacker John Timu suffered a knee injury. A play later, Minnesota's Jerick McKinnon ran 58 yards for the touchdown. Down 17-9, Trubisky answered with a 79-yard drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Zach Miller, who caught a pass that had been tipped by Andrew Sendejo. Now trailing by just two points, the Bears elected to go for a two-point conversion, on which they attempted another trick play: Trubisky handed the ball to Howard on what appeared to be a draw play until Howard gave it to Miller, who was running in the opposite direction. Trubisky ran alongside Miller on a reverse option play, catching a lateral from the tight end when Miller was stopped by Anthony Barr, allowing the quarterback to run into the end zone unscathed. The next three series ended with punts. With 2:32 remaining in the game and pinned at his team's ten-yard line, Trubisky's pass for Miller was intercepted by Harrison Smith, which set up Forbath's game-winning 26-yard field goal with 12 seconds to go. On the final play of the game, Trubisky passed to Markus Wheaton, who lateraled to Cohen before he was tackled to end the game. In his debut, Trubisky completed 12 of 25 passes for 128 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a 60.1 passer rating. He also had three rushing attempts for 22 yards. John Fox reflected on Trubisky's first game by connecting it to Joe Montana's before adding he was "not making comparisons at this point. But  will do nothing but get better.". How many games did the Bears lose this season?