The Chicago Bears were not pleased with referee Scott Novak’s crew during and after their 17-9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, a game in which they racked up five personal fouls out of nine total penalties — including a rare flag against coach Matt Nagy for arguing about a call.
Afterward, they expressed no regrets.
“Some of these calls are starting to get a little crazy,” said pass rusher Robert Quinn, who earlier Monday was named to his third Pro Bowl. “These refs seem like they’re controlling the game a little too much. So when a play is clean and they’re throwing a flag for something that they thought they could change a game [with] just by one flag … let guys play ball. If this was a couple years ago, half of this stuff wouldn’t even be called. But now they got so many of these stupid rules, they dang near in a ref’s hands [and] could change the game in any given moment.
“I think they need to go check the refs they hire and not our coach.”
2hKevin Seifert
2hCourtney Cronin
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Nagy was penalized in between the first and second quarters, two plays after Novak’s crew flagged Bears safety Deon Bush for a hit to Vikings tight end Tyler Conklin‘s head on an incomplete pass. The NFL’s officiating department tweeted that Bush had committed “forcible contact” against Conklin, a contention Nagy hotly disputed during the game.
“I saw what happened,” Nagy said. “Our guys are fighting their asses off to get off the field, and I saw what happened. So I explained my opinion on it. And I don’t regret it.”
Novak told a pool reporter that Nagy used “inappropriate language” during his argument.
“I won’t repeat what was said but when it crosses the line and it’s inappropriate, we throw a flag,” Novak added.
Both teams struggled to keep their composure. Bears defensive lineman Tashaun Gipson and offensive lineman Trevin Jenkins each were penalized 15 yards for post-play aggression toward Vikings players. And Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks was ejected in the fourth quarter for a hit to the head of Bears quarterback Justin Fields, who was sliding and considered down.
“I didn’t get a good explanation, really. They came over late and said they thought he had an elbow to a head,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said of Kendricks’ ejection. “I thought I saw it pretty cleanly, and I thought the quarterback slid and kept his head up, and Eric was going down and kind of raised his head to try to avoid it, and I thought they bumped heads.”
Zimmer said overall he thought his team did a good job keeping its composure in what was a chippy game against a division rival.
“I know that it helped us a couple times because they got 15-yard penalties,” he said. “We try to be a disciplined football team and not do those kinds of things. But when you get your manhood challenged sometimes, you react, and you just have to keep — you know, I talked to the offense, I talked to the defense, about being composed and just doing our job.”
Added Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson: “Chicago always like that. They like to talk trash, get us out of our game a little bit. That’s what they do. We just play our own game, mind our own business, keep playing football.”
ESPN’s Courtney Cronin contributed to this report.