Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears Live Streaming

The Minnesota Vikings and Brett Favre will be looking for redemption in the national spotlight when they travel to the Windy City to play their NFC North rival Chicago Bears at Soldier Field for Week 16 Monday Night Football.

The Vikings are hoping to turn things around in this game, as their last 2 big nationally televised games ended in embarrassing fashion with two lopsided losses to Arizona and last week against the Carolina Panthers, 26-7. The Vikings offensive line failed to show up on Sunday, allowing Julius Peppers and the Panthers defensive line to play pinball with Favre in the pocket and register four sacks and numerous knockdown and pressures.

Adrian Peterson was also held in check, again, rushing for only 35 yards on 12 carries to drop him below the 3-yards per carry average during the Vikings mini fade at the end of the season. The only good news for the Vikings last Sunday was that they clinched the NFC North title for a second straight year when the Steelers stole a late victory away from the Packers.

But as embarrassing as the Vikings have played in primetime the last few weeks, at least they’re not the Bears.

Quarterback Jay Cutler threw three more interceptions to run his league-leading total to 25, and the Bears also coughed up two fumbles in a 31-7 early Christmas present to the Baltimore Ravens last week. There’s simply no way to sugarcoat the Bears season in 2009, as so many players on this team seem to have packed it in already and they might as well just reserve their tee times for the offseason right now.

The early line out of Las Vegas lists the Vikings as a full touchdown 7-point favorite on the road. There has been little to no line movement either, as bettors are either waiting to see if Favre rests a little to get ready for the playoffs, or if the Bears decide to just call off the rest of the season and put their faithful fans out of their misery.

The over/under total opened at 42 and has dropped a full point down to 41 at a majority of the offshore sportsbooks on the Web. The frigid Chicago weather may have something to do with the total moving down, since the forecast for Sunday calls for strong winds (go figure), temps in the low 20s and a chance of snow.

The best reason to watch this game, as far as the offense goes, is to see how well the Vikings and Favre handle the cold conditions outside. Even though his silly Nike television commercial shows Peterson bowling over defenders in snowy, cold conditions, there’s no hiding the fact that A.P. plays in a dome (Dah, Nike! Good research you knobs!) and is clearly a better back in that ideal setting.

Plus, Favre will be looking to redeem himself as a quarterback that can handle the cold too. In his last visit to Soldier Field (as a Packer in December of 2007), Favre threw two interceptions and dropped four fumbles in the same windy, cold conditions that he will face Sunday. He didn’t fare too well a few games later that season in the NFC Championship game either, looking really cold and wishing he was back in Mississippi after throwing the game-ending interception that gave the New York Giants a gift-wrapped trip to the Super Bowl.

With their playoff position sealed, I don’t expect the Vikings to do too much on offense other than hand it off to Adrian Peterson 30 times. Favre will probably start to keep his record alive, but don’t expect him to finish the game.

Another reason to watch this game will be to see if Cutler can look any worse than he has already this season. Granted, he is on an island with little to no talent around him, especially on the offensive line, but he hit a new low last week with a 7.2 QB rating in the loss to the Ravens (I think you get 10 points just if you put your uniform on correctly).

The Bears defense might not be able to stop the Vikings offense even if they do go to a vanilla game plan, as they added another body to the walking wounded unit when end Adewale Ogunleye broke his leg last week.

Minnesota’s defense did not look like a championship-type unit last week either, giving up 299 passing yards and three touchdowns to a journeyman quarterback (Carolina’s Matt Moore) making just his third NFL start.

Minnesota has won four of the last five head-to-head meetings, including a 36-10 victory in the Metrodome back in late November. The Bears do play well at home in this rivalry though, as they won last year at Soldier Field, 48-41, and have won five of the last six meetings in Chicago both straight up (5-1 SU) and against the spread (5-1 ATS). In fact, the home team is a solid 8-2 ATS in the last 10 meetings, so home cooking does matter in the NFC North.

The under also shows a solid betting trend, since it’s 4-1 in the Bears last five home games, 4-1 in their last five December games and 5-0 in their last five games against the NFC. The under is also 6-0 in the Vikings last six games as a favorite, 5-0 in December and 5-0 in their last their last five games versus the NFC.

Filed Under: Baltimore Ravens , Brett Favre , Carolina Panthers , Chicago Bears , Jay Cutler , Minnesota Vikings , New York Giants , NFL