Jordan Howard took the handoff early in the first quarter in Chicago from Jay Cutler and ran toward the left tackle, escaping from heavy traffic around the line, zooming into the secondary before he was finally shoved out of bounds by Minnesota’s Xavier Rhodes.

The play gained 69 yards, setting up a field goal by the Bears and setting the tone for a trying Monday night game for the Vikings. The burst by the rookie served as an introduction for the fifth-round draft pick out of Indiana to a national audience, one of a limited number of highlights for the Bears (3-12) in another unsuccessful season. That long run by the 6-foot, 220-pound Howard also became a harbinger of sorts for the Vikings (7-8), who never really recovered.

They’d taken their first hit the week before at Philadelphia, spoiling their perfect record, but after falling to 5-2 in Chicago on Halloween there wasn’t any obvious concern about their ability to bounce back from a second consecutive loss.

“I really don’t think the team lost confidence,” coach Mike Zimmer said, unable or unwilling to produce an explanation. “I didn’t lose confidence.”

The most condemning development of this 2-8 stretch the Vikings have endured since their bye week has been the lapses by a defense that has otherwise been one of the NFL’s best. Allowing 202 yards from scrimmage to Howard in that 20-10 defeat by the Bears was one of those low points.

“We just haven’t held up the way we had been,” linebacker Chad Greenway said, adding: “Extremely frustrating in this building.”

There’s hardly dishonor in allowing Howard to have a big game, though, given his success after starting the season behind Jeremy Langford and Ka’Deem Carey on the depth chart. Howard has 1,178 yards rushing, ranking seventh in the league, and an average of 5.1 yards per carry. With 61 or more yards in the rematch with the Vikings on Sunday, Howard will break Matt Forte’s franchise record for rookie rushing in 2008.

“He’s tough between the tackles. He’s got the speed to get to the corner,” Vikings defensive coordinator George Edwards said. “So we’ve got to do an excellent job of tackling and wrapping up.”

Cutler’s return from a sprained right thumb was just as instrumental as Howard in the first game against Minnesota. But Cutler has since been sidelined with a right shoulder injury, with Matt Barkley on track for his sixth straight start at quarterback. The Bears will be absent from the postseason for the ninth time in 10 years and, if they lose Sunday, will finish with fewer than four wins for the first time in a non-strike season since going 3-11 in 1973.

So it’s no stretch to anoint Howard as the team’s most valuable player.

“The way he’s established the run is impressive for a rookie coming in, carrying the load the way he has,” Barkley said. “He’s grown a lot, too, in pass protection and seeing everything and getting his eyes in the right spot. As a quarterback, it’s good to know you have a guy like him who can carry that workload.”