NFL Betting Picks: Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears

Added on Nov 08, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The Minnesota Vikings may have saved Brad Childress’ job with a Brett Favre orchestrated come from behind victory over Arizona on Sunday and now they’ll try to keep their momentum going on the road against the Chicago Bears. The Bears looked listless against the Buffalo Bills in Toronto, but did manage to come away with a victory. Minnesota enters this game at 3-5 SU while the Bears are at 5-3.

Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears
November 14, 2010 10:00 AM Pacific

Brett Favre’s image may have taken a hit this season with his alleged text message nudie pics, but the public still buys into his mythology. For that reason, any team he’s on will be a ‘public’ side as long as they still have a chance of making the playoffs and that’s clearly at play here. The Chicago Bears are 5-3 and in second place in the NFL North behind Green Bay, who is 6-3. Minnesota has not only two more losses but have yet to win on the road this season and are a dome team playing outdoors at Soldier Field. Despite this, the game is currently a ‘pick’em’.

The Bears are definitely an erratic team, but they’ve got a very legitimate shot at winning this division. Green Bay looked dominant in their glorified scrimmage against Dallas on Sunday night, but they’re a very flawed and erratic team themselves. Chicago has as much chance of taking the NFC North as they do. The Bears haven’t been a good pointspread team of late, but the Vikings are 2-6 ATS overall and 0-4 ATS on the road. This has as much to do with their overvalued prices as with their ‘disappointing’ season.

Minnesota doesn’t like Childress enough to rally around him with his job in jeopardy and if you think that served as motivation for Favre on Sunday you’re nuts. Once he started the comeback, it became another addition to his personal highlight reel with any benefit to the team or the coach completely incidental. Besides, he’s still far from 100%–remember the ‘injury angle’ he was selling the week before? His receiving corps is still not very good though there’s a chance that Sidney Rice could return to the lineup this week. Even so, he hasn’t played yet this season and the only other real option is Percy Harvin who has an ankle injury of his own.

The public has turned against Bears’ QB Jay Cutler, but he’s a very dangerous passing threat when he has time to work. Chicago’s protection has been bad this year, but won’t be overwhelmed by Minnesota’s pass rush. The Vikings are a ‘dome team’ and their record on natural grass indicates this–Minnesota is 0-2 SU/ATS this year on grass and 3-9 SU/ATS since 2008. Chicago not only plays on natural grass but has difficult weather conditions–the early forecast is for mild and sunny skies, but the wind can also be a factor. Minnesota has been a very bad investment against the Bears at Soldier Field–they’ve gone 1-8 SU/2-7 ATS in the last 9 meetings. Overall, we’re getting a great value price on a home team that has dominated the head to head series and should keep that streak intact.

Bet Chicago Bears PK over Minnesota Vikings