LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The same resiliency that enabled Rex Grossman to overcome two serious leg injuries was on display again late in Sunday’s thrilling 19-16 comeback victory over the Vikings.

After giving Minnesota a 16-12 lead on a gift-wrapped interception that cornerback Antoine Winfield returned 7 yards for a touchdown, the Bears quarterback rebounded to throw a game-winning 24-yard TD pass to Rashied Davis with 1:53 to play.

Rex Grossman's game-winning 24-yard scoring strike to Rashied Davis Sunday in Minnesota was the first fourth-quarter TD pass of the quarterback's career.

“It says all kinds of things about his character, which is really no surprise,” said offensive coordinator Ron Turner. “It’s just like him coming back from two injuries. A lot of guys wouldn’t have been able to do that.

“He threw the pick for a touchdown. But he knew, ‘Hey, it was a bad play. Let’s bounce back and go.’ Rex has a lot of confidence. I don’t ever worry about his mental state, not one bit.”

The winning touchdown came after Tommie Harris forced a Chester Taylor fumble that Adewale Ogunleye recovered at Minnesota’s 37-yard line with 3:25 remaining in the game.

“All good quarterbacks have to go through a little adversity,” said coach Lovie Smith. “The defense gave him an opportunity to get back on the football field and when we needed the offense to step up, Rex led them down for that big score to win the football game.”

It was fitting that the first game-winning TD pass of Grossman’s career came when and where it did. Nearly two years ago to the day, the quarterback was lost for the season after tearing his ACL on a 6-yard TD run with 2:00 left in a Week 3 defeat to the Vikings in the Metrodome.

Sunday’s score came on the first play after the two-minute warning against the same opponent in the same venue. Grossman’s parents and wife, who were at the game to console him two years ago, celebrated with him at the Metrodome Sunday before the Bears bussed to the airport.

Under pressure from a slew of blitzes, Grossman completed 23 of 41 passes for 278 yards. In the second quarter, his overthrown pass intended for Bernard Berrian was picked off by safety Dwight Smith, who returned it 30 yards to set up a Vikings field goal.

Despite the two interceptions, coaches and teammates were confident that Grossman would bounce back and rally the Bears to a victory if given the opportunity.

“That’s what good players do,” Smith said. “They play the next down. Rex had a couple bad plays before that, but you have to get into ‘the now.’ Rex played that next down and really threw a great pass and Rashied made a big play.”

“Nobody had to say anything to Rex,” said receiver Muhsin Muhammad. “He knew he made a mistake, he knows what’s on the line, he knows the situation in the game, and he knew what we had to do. I have total confidence in what he can do. He plays like a warrior, a real courageous guy. When he’s under pressure, you can tell how relaxed he is out there. He doesn’t panic.”

Teammates have so much faith in Grossman that once the defense left the field after Ogunleye's fumble recovery, the unit immediately began preparing for its next possession assuming that the offense was going to score the go-ahead TD.

“Everyone on the defense was excited,” said middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. “We were talking about going back in there and having to stop them on a two-minute drive, which we did. We expected (the offense) to score. Any time you’ve got No. 8 back there for this team, we have a chance to win a game and he came through for us.”

Urlacher was impressed with how Grossman responded after throwing the costly interception.

“The guy’s confident,” Urlacher said. “I think to be a good quarterback you have to have that. You’re going to throw picks in this league. There are a lot of good players. I’m sure he’d like to have that throw back, but he didn’t let it bother him. He came back and made some nice throws at the end of the game and kept us in it.

“We missed tackles, we missed sacks. We do all that stuff. It’s just the way the game goes. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s just how you deal with them.”

The winning TD came on the same corner-post route that produced a 31-yard completion to Davis a week earlier in the Bears’ 34-7 win over the Lions. With Vikings cornerback Ronyell Whitaker playing on Davis’ outside shoulder, Grossman made the play work by freezing the free safety with a quick glance to his left.

“Rex does a great job of looking off,” Turner said. “He looked the safety over and knew he had one-on-one with Rashied. We had great protection. The offensive line and backs did a real good job protection-wise and guys did a good job executing.”

Grossman entered Sunday's game leading the NFL with a 128.7 passer rating, but he slipped to fifth at 100.9 after recording a 64.9 rating against the Vikings.

“We threw the ball fairly well,” he said. “I made some bad decisions, but in the end all that matters is we won. We made a lot of plays. We weren’t able to put it in the end zone for whatever reason (for the first 58 minutes). But I’m just happy that we stuck with it. To score like that and to win with some adversity shows a lot of character.”