{"id":11666,"date":"2010-12-20T00:33:37","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T05:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11666"},"modified":"2010-12-20T10:38:02","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T15:38:02","slug":"monday-night-football-pick-vikings-vs-bears-nfl-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/monday-night-football-pick-vikings-vs-bears-nfl-preview-11666\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Night Football Pick: Vikings Vs Bears NFL Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings, TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN
\nMonday, December 20, 2010, 8:30 pm EST, TV: ESPN
\nOpening Line: Bears -7
\nCurrent Line: Bears -8
\nOpening Total: 34
\nCurrent Total: 33
\nMoney Line: Bears -350 \/ Vikings +290<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Vikings
Jay Cutler's Bears can clinch the NFC North division title and a playoff berth with a victory at Minnesota<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thanks to a\u00a0 New England victory against Green Bay on Sunday night, the Chicago Bears (9-4) can clinch the NFC North division title with a win over the Minnesota Vikings (5-8) on Monday Night Football.\u00a0 However, the Bears (-8) and Vikings will both have to brave the elements outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium for the first time in 29 years because the Metrodome is still not available to host a game.<\/p>\n

Chicago has yet to lose a divisional game and beat Minnesota 27-14 in Week 10 during a five-game winning streak that ended with a 36-7 home loss to New England last week.\u00a0 The Bears were supposed to thrive in the cold-weather conditions against the Patriots but struggled mightily in all facets of the game.\u00a0 Fortunately for them, they will not have to face Tom Brady but instead get to prepare for a third-string quarterback for the third time in five games.<\/p>\n

The Vikings are expected to start rookie Joe Webb due to injuries to Brett Favre and Tavaris Jackson, who was placed on IR due to turf toe suffered in last Monday\u2019s 21-3 loss to the New York Giants.\u00a0 Favre saw his NFL record consecutive starts streak end in that game and still has not recovered enough to suit up.\u00a0 That leaves Webb, who was drafted as a wide receiver out of Alabama-Birmingham in the sixth round of last year\u2019s draft.\u00a0 He saw very limited action last week in relief of Jackson, completing 2 of 5 passes for 8 yards while rushing once for 16 yards.<\/p>\n

Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson was also held to just 26 yards on 14 carries and bruised his knee in a collision with Jackson.\u00a0 Peterson was limited to 51 yards on 17 carries in the first meeting with Chicago and will be counted on to help his rookie quarterback out even though it will likely be even more difficult for him find room to run since the Bears know he will be the main offensive weapon.\u00a0 If Peterson is stopped again, the Vikings will have a very hard time scoring.<\/p>\n

Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler found it difficult to score against New England but will be facing a Minnesota defense that surrendered a season-high 395 yards to New York.\u00a0 Cutler threw for 237 yards and three touchdowns in the first meeting with the Vikings and also shredded their secondary for four scores in a 36-30 overtime victory last year.<\/p>\n

The Bears are 4-2 against the spread in the last six meetings with Minnesota and have gone 5-1 straight-up away from home this season.\u00a0 The OVER has cashed in their last three games overall while the UNDER is 4-1 in the last five games for the Vikings, who are 2-6 ATS in their past eight.<\/p>\n

Now that you have read this Monday Night Football betting preview featuring the Vikings & Bears, check out the NFL odds on this game at multiple sportsbooks to make sure you get the best football lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings, TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN Monday, December 20, 2010, 8:30 pm EST, TV: ESPN Opening Line: Bears -7 Current Line: Bears -8 Opening Total: 34 Current Total: 33 Money Line: Bears -350 \/ Vikings +290 Thanks to a\u00a0 New England victory against Green Bay on Sunday night, the Chicago Bears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":4324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[359,2508,73,2534,1930,1922,4200],"class_list":["post-11666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-chicago-bears","tag-free-nfl-pick","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-monday-night-football-betting","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-vikings-bears-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11666"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11699,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11666\/revisions\/11699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}