MINNEAPOLIS – Overcoming a disastrous turnover, Rex Grossman and the Bears rebounded to stun the Minnesota Vikings with a late rally Sunday at the deafening Metrodome.

Grossman’s 24-yard touchdown strike to Rashied Davis with 1:53 remaining lifted Chicago to a pulsating 19-16 comeback victory and into sole possession of first place in the NFC North. The Bears are now 3-0 for the first time since 1991, one game ahead of the Vikings (2-1).

Rashied Davis hauled in a game-winning 24-yard TD pass with 1:53 remaining Sunday in Minnesota.

“I like the way our team finished the game,” said coach Lovie Smith. “In order to be one of the elite teams, you have to be able to go on the road in a hostile environment and in some kind of way pull out a win like we were able to do today.”

It certainly wasn’t easy. Before Davis scored the game's only offensive touchdown, Grossman’s errant pass on the first play of the fourth quarter was intercepted by cornerback Antoine Winfield and returned 7 yards for a TD that gave the Vikings a 13-9 lead.

“The interception by Rex was a tough play,” Smith said. “But we have competitors like that. They normally come back and that’s what we were able to do on the offensive side of the ball.”

Davis’ first career NFL touchdown was set up by a clutch play by the Bears defense. Trailing 16-12, defensive tackle Tommie Harris knifed into the backfield and stripped the ball from running back Chester Taylor. Adewale Ogunleye recovered at the Minnesota 37 with 3:25 to play.

“That’s probably the biggest play of the game because they were going to try to grind the ball out and (make us) use our timeouts,” Ogunleye said. “For us to get the ball back in that scenario was huge. I couldn’t believe it was on the ground. I’m glad we turned it into points. We need that kind of stuff from our defense.”

Grossman completed an 11-yard pass to Muhsin Muhammad on third-and-eight, giving the Bears a first down at the Vikings’ 24. Two plays later, the fourth-year quarterback connected with a leaping Davis over the middle in the end zone to put the Bears ahead.

“The guy was playing me outside for a corner (route) all game,” Davis said. “He didn’t want me to beat him on a corner route, so we called a post corner and killed them on it.”

“We just got him up the seam and got them to bite a little bit," said Grossman, who completed 23 of 41 passes for 278 yards with 1 TD and 2 interceptions. "The free safety was playing (on the) weak side and I just tried to look him off and get it up the seam to Rashied. He ran a (heck) of a route and made a great catch on it.”

The Vikings reached their own 46, but quarterback Brad Johnson overthrew receiver Troy Williamson down the right sideline on fourth-and-two with 1:05 remaining, enabling the Bears to clinch their first victory in Minnesota since 2001, snapping a four-game skid.

Robbie Gould kicked field goals of 41, 24, 31 and 49 yards in improving to 10-of-10 on the season. Muhammad caught a game-high nine passes for 118 yards, his second 100-yard performance in three games this season and his most productive outing as a Bear.

The teams traded field goals on their opening possessions of the game, with Ryan Longwell connecting from 31 yards to put Minnesota ahead 3-0 before Gould tied it 3-3 with a 41-yarder.

The Bears defense forced the game’s first turnover midway through the second quarter when Mike Brown caused a Travis Taylor fumble after a 20-yard reception that was recovered by Mark Anderson at the Chicago 29.

But the Bears gave the ball back three plays later as Grossman’s overthrown pass intended for Bernard Berrian deep down the middle was intercepted by safety Dwight Smith, who returned it 30 yards to the Chicago 32.

The Vikings converted the turnover into Longwell’s 26-yard field goal, taking a 6-3 lead with 1:08 left in the half. The drive was sustained by an unnecessary roughness penalty against Alex Brown for dragging running back Mewelde Moore down from behind with a horse collar tackle after a 10-yard gain on third-and-11.

Blitzing cornerback Nathan Vasher drew an intentional grounding penalty against Brad Johnson on this play in the Bears' 19-16 win over the Vikings.

Muhammad caught a 24-yard pass across the middle to the Minnesota 23 in the final seconds of the half, but he was unable to get out of bounds. With the Bears out of timeouts, the field goal unit raced onto the field, but time expired before they could even set up to attempt a kick.

The Bears eventually took their first lead of the game at 9-6 as Gould capped Chicago’s first two possessions of the third quarter with field goals of 24 and 31 yards. On the first drive, tight end Desmond Clark sprained his foot while making a 17-yard reception. He returned to the field for one play, but then limped off and was carted to the locker room.

Grossman then committed his costliest mistake of the season. Pressured by defensive end Kenechi Udeze in the end zone, he threw well behind Thomas Jones in the right flat. Winfield intercepted the ill-advised pass and scored easily to put the Vikings back on top.

“Once I realized I was in the end zone with a guy around my feet, I tried to just throw it away and couldn’t see that there was a corner out there,” Grossman said. “It’s just a play that I’ll learn from and hopefully not ever do again.”

Grossman shook off the interception, completing passes of 16 and 15 yards to Muhammad and 14 yards to Berrian to set up Gould’s career-long 49-yard field goal, drawing the Bears to within 13-12 with 10:37 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Longwell answered with a 41-yard field goal three minutes later to make it 16-12, but the Bears rallied to record their eighth win in their last nine games against NFC North opponents.

After opening a season with three straight division wins for the first time, Chicago will host Seattle in a showdown between the NFC’s only 3-0 teams next Sunday night at Soldier Field. The Bears would have faced the Seahawks in last year’s conference championship game had they been able to beat the Carolina Panthers in the divisional playoffs.

“We’re in good shape right now, but we haven’t finished the first quarter (of the season),” Smith said. “We have a big game coming up against Seattle this week. We can’t wait to play them. They went to the Super Bowl last year. We wanted to go up and play them last year, (but) didn’t get an opportunity to. We’ll get our chance this time.”