Can Chicago Bears make spread against Minnesota Vikings week 14

Will the Chicago Bears make the point spread against the Minnesota Vikings in week 14?

In an NFC North showdown between two great football teams, the Chicago Bears meet the Minnesota Vikings at the Mall of America Field in Minnesota. Currently the Bears are tied with the Packers for first place in the division and the Vikings are in second.

Many of the NFC Conference teams’ games this week are extremely important to each of them. Currently the Wild Card Round is shaping up to be a huge battle just to get in to the round. Currently the Giants, Bears, Packers and Seahawks have the spots in the NFC but that could change this week depending on the outcome of a few key games.

In addition, there are 4 teams still in the hunt in the NFC. They are the Redskins, Buccaneers, Cowboys and the Vikings. I have already made my picks for the Dallas Cowboys vs Cincinnati Bengals game here and the picks for the Washington Redskins vs Baltimore Ravens game here.

But before the wildcard games, let’s look at the game this week with the Vikings and Bears and determine if the Bears can make the points. That is correct, the bookies have picked the Bears to win this game by 3 points or so. The line has moved a little on a few games from last night until this Wednesday afternoon and they could actually adjust again but I doubt it.

Minnesota comes in to this game at 6 and 6 and although they are still actually in the hunt for a wildcard berth, they have quite a task before them. They can NOT lose, and a number of other NFC teams ahead of them would need to.

They are not giving up at this point and the Bears can expect them to come to the game and at least attempting to bring their “A” game. And for anyone that thinks this will be an easy win for the Bears, think again.

The Vikings offense may be ranked 22nd over all but the Bears are ranked 30th. The main reason that each of them has lower overall rankings in offense is because each of them do not have a huge passing game. The Bears passing game is ranked 31st and the Vikings 32nd, so although we will see some play action and some passing, this football will be played on the ground.

An old school, in your face kind of game on the ground, with the majority of the plays being run by the backs. The Vikings are ranked 3rd on the ground where the Bears are ranked 10th.

And for the Vikings that means we will see Adrian Peterson get the ball a lot. This guy is having a good year and has 1446 yards, which is not reflected in the Vikings record. His overall average is 6.2 yards per carry but last week he ran for 210 yards and averaged 10 yards per carry so he is a serious asset for Minnesota when a first down is needed.

Even though their defenses have fairly close rankings, 13th for the Vikings and 5th for the Bears, Chicago has been pretty effective against the running game. The Bears corner backs Charles Tillman and Tim Jennings as well as line backer Lance Briggs will be watching for Peterson to stop him from getting outside and making the big plays he has done so often this year.

Those are not the only guys have on the line either and Chicago has a great defensive line and we will see a lot of action from a number of them.

Ok I agree the Bears will beat the Vikings, but can they make the spread?

Well let’s look at the logic of that question. These two met just two weeks ago and the Bears won that game with a score of 28 to 10. It was a very physical game and all indications are in place that this week’s game will be no different.

This week we will likely see Jay Cutler handle the ball well and find his receivers, with at least a portion if not high percentage of passes going to Brandon Marshall. Marshall has 91 catches and 1182 yards but the most important stat is that he has 8 touchdowns this year.

And if the Vikings put double coverage on him, Cutler has plenty of other receivers they can go to like Earl Bennett, David Hester, Alshon Jeffery or maybe even drop it off to Matt Forte or others.

I think the Bears have a much more even mixture of ways they can move the ball down field and are not strictly limited to an all running game. They will likely lean toward rushing plays a fair amount, but they are much better suited to change things up more and this gives them the edge over the Vikings.

Yes I do think the Bears will win this game and I also think they will make the point spread. Even if the line would move a little more I would still probably take Chicago, but I would have to study it closely if it was a lot more.

The Vikings are hungry for the win and play a very physical football game like the Bears do but I think the Bears will play a better game on Sunday. They always say there are never any guarantees in NFL Football, but one thing I will say, is that this game is guaranteed to be a good one.

If you are a US Resident and are looking for a trusted online sportsbook to take your action your choices are limited. For safe football betting I recommend you check out Bet Online and if you live in the UK or most other countries other than the US take a look at William Hill.

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