Thursday, February 9th, 2012
The Minnesota Vikings will hit the highway in NFC North divisional action when they take on the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football in prime time. Kick off time in Chicago is scheduled for 8:35PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN. The LVSC NFL odds makers have set the opening point spread in this contest and the Minnesota Vikings opened as a 7 point favorite with the over under coming in at 41. The early money from the NFL betting public has come in on the road favorite, as the Minnesota Vikings are currently a 7-½ point favorite. The over under has remained steady with no movement in the early betting, as the current total is the opening total of 41. NFL money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Minnesota Vikings at -305 with the underdog Chicago Bears bringing back +255 to pull off the upset victory without the need for points.
When these two NFC North rivals met in their first meeting it was the Minnesota Vikings pounding the Chicago Bears 36-10 as a 10-point home favorite. The Vikings torched the Bears defense for 547 yards in their victory. The Vikings have clinched the NFC North division and a playoff spot. The team is currently the second seed in the NFC playoffs and blew an opportunity to move within a game of the New Orleans Saints for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Carolina Panthers behind their backup quarterback Matt Moore passed for 273 yards on the Vikings defense. Minnesota tackled very poorly in their defeat. When Carolina receivers were in space the Vikings could not bring down the Panthers receivers. The Vikings faced a good pass defense last week against the Panthers and Bret Favre was only 17 of 27 for 224 yards no touchdowns and an interception. Running back Adrian Peterson had 12 carries last week but produced only 35 yards. Peterson has not rushed for 100 yards in 5 straight games. Peterson is only averaging 4.4 yards a carry, which is well below his 4.9 yards a carry, career average. The Vikings defense allows just 19 points a game. The Vikings pass defense has had its issues giving up major yardage on the road this season. The Bears are going through a poor season sitting at 5-9 on the year and eliminated from the playoffs. They are coming off a 31-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens last week. It was yet another awful performance by starting quarterback Jay Cutler who completed only 10 of 27 passing for 94 yards no touchdowns and another 3 interceptions. Cutler has passed for 25 interceptions this season. The Bears have dropped 6 of their past 7 games. The Bears have gotten nothing on the ground this season as Matt Forte is only averaging 3.4 yards a carry in 221 rushing attempts. Defensively the Bears allow 23 points per game. Teams have been able to run on the Bears as the team allows 4.4 yards per rush attempt on the year. The Bears offense has done no favors to their defense with their mistakes and only 36% conversions on third down. Jay Cutler was benched in the fourth quarter but his starting job does not appear in danger just yet. Second year pro Caleb Hanie from Colorado St is the Bears number two quarterback. There have been media reports now surfacing in Chicago that head coach Lovie Smith’s job is in danger. We will see if the impact of these rumors will bring better effort and execution from the Bears.
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NFL Trend: Minnesota Vikings are 4-0-1 ATS versus the NFC North this season
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