{"id":26516,"date":"2012-12-05T16:01:44","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T21:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=26516"},"modified":"2012-12-05T16:01:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T21:01:44","slug":"nfl-week-14-picks-chicago-bears-vs-minnesota-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-14-picks-chicago-bears-vs-minnesota-vikings-26516\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 14 Picks: Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings
\nSunday, 12\/9\/12, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 40.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 39
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
WR Percy Harvin is the key player to handicap in this Sunday’s game between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicago is coming off a 23-17 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks as three-point home favorites, as problems are starting to mount on the defensive side of the ball, especially with linebacker Brian Urlacher out of the lineup until the playoffs.\u00a0 The Bears have won and covered the spread in six straight meetings with the Vikings, which must be taken into consideration when making your NFL picks against the spread this week.\u00a0 Chicago is 2-6 ATS in December the last two-plus years, with the OVER going 7-2 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Bears rank second in the league in allowing just 16.5 points per game, but did surrender a season-high 459 yards against the Seahawks last week.\u00a0 Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler completed 17 of 26 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns in that affair, with the offensive line allowing just one sack, which allowed him to connect with star wide receiver Brandon Marshall 10 times for 165 yards.\u00a0 He ranks second in the NFL with 91 receptions.<\/p>\n

Minnesota has lost back-to-back games against division rivals, including a 23-14 setback to the Green Bay Packers as seven-point road underdogs last week.\u00a0 The Vikings are led by the tremendous running of Adrian Peterson, who leads the NFL with 1,446 yards.\u00a0 \u201cHe ran for 210 yards,\u201d commented Vikings coach Leslie Frazier.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s still more important to him that we didn\u2019t win the game.\u201d\u00a0 He has gained more yards on the ground than 22 NFL teams through 13 weeks of the season.\u00a0 Minnesota is 4-1 ATS at home this season, which is important to note when looking over the pro football odds page.<\/p>\n

The Vikings really need playmaking wide receiver Percy Harvin back on the field, as he\u2019s missed the last three games with a sprained left ankle.\u00a0 Minnesota is averaging 21.8 points per game this season, but quarterback Christian Ponder has been struggling, which has led to averaging just 180.6 passing yards per game.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Bears if Harvin is unable to go, considering they\u2019ve covered the last six meetings in the series by an average of 15.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings Sunday, 12\/9\/12, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 40.5 Current Total:\u00a0 39 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Chicago is coming off a 23-17 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks as three-point home favorites, as problems are starting to mount on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[1027,359,3326,763,73,2589,31],"class_list":["post-26516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-brandon-marshall","tag-chicago-bears","tag-christian-ponder","tag-jay-cutler","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfc-north","tag-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26516","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26517,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26516\/revisions\/26517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}