MINNEAPOLIS – The Bears defense accomplished one of its primary goals Sunday in holding Adrian Peterson to 85 yards on 25 carries and forcing the Vikings running back to fumble twice.

But linebacker Lance Briggs and his teammates weren’t in danger of breaking their arms patting themselves on the back following an embarrassing 36-10 loss at the Metrodome.

Brett Favre had plenty to celebrate Sunday during a 36-10 rout of the Bears.

“[Peterson] is not the only person on their team,” Briggs said. “Our goal was to win, and that’s not what we did. They have Brett Favre. They have Bernard Berrian, a good offensive line and a hell of a defense. We weren’t effective at all.”

No one would argue that point, not after Favre completed 32 of 48 passes for 392 yards with 3 touchdowns—all in the second quarter—no interceptions and a 112.5 passer rating.

The Vikings star quarterback tossed scoring passes of 15 yards to Percy Harvin, 10 yards to Chester Taylor and 6 yards to Visanthe Shiancoe to stake the Vikings to a 24-7 halftime lead.

“You go into a game and you want to stop Adrian and you want to say we’ll take our chances and see if Brett Favre can beat us, and he did,” said defensive end Alex Brown. “He threw for a bunch of yards, he threw for some touchdowns. He’s good. He’s a Hall of Famer.”

Favre, who passed for 256 yards in the first half, might have eclipsed his career high of 402 yards he set in a 1993 loss to the Bears had he not been replaced by Tarvaris Jackson with 5:21 left in the game.

Favre has compiled a 23-10 all-time record as a starter against the Bears, completing 61.9 percent of his passes for 8,052 yards with 56 touchdowns, 38 interceptions and an 86.1 passer rating.

After leading the NFL with 22 interceptions last year while playing for the New York Jets, Favre has connected on 69.2 percent of his passes this season for 2,874 yards with 24 touchdowns, three interceptions and a league-leading 112.1 passer rating.

Favre’s three interceptions on 358 attempts this year equal the total that Bears quarterback Jay Cutler threw in the first half of the first game of the season on 22 passes in a Sunday night loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Peterson, meanwhile, had abused the Bears in four previous meetings before being held in check Sunday. He entered the season having rushed for more yards (554) and touchdowns (8) against the Bears than versus any other team, an average of 138.5 yards and two TDs per game.

Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer stripped Peterson twice Sunday. The first fumble, which came after the Vikings had advanced to the Chicago 27 on their first possession of the game, was recovered by Brown. 

The second fumble in the third quarter appeared to be recovered by defensive lineman Israel Idonije. But the Vikings challenged the play, and referee Walt Coleman reversed the call, ruling that the ball went out of bounds. 

Peterson made amends for the fumbles to some extent by providing the game's final points with a five-yard touchdown run with 6:35 remaining in the fourth quarter.