Vikes are 2.5 Point Favorites Again this Week…
Joe Johnson
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The Vikings were 2.5 point favorites over the Lions at home last week, per MyBookie.ag and considering they ended up losing not only the game but their Rookie of the Year leading running-back for the entire season… You can say that I’m a bit worried about the fact that the Vikings are yet again 2.5 point favorites over a division opponent (also per MyBookie.ag). The main difference between this week and last week is that the Vikings will be facing the Bears at their home, which means that they’re favored to win by about a touchdown (without the extra point) as the Bears would get spotted 3 points as the home team. The Bears are starting their rookie QB after a disastrous week where their $17 million dollar off-season acquisition Mike Glennon caused four turnovers by himself and they were blown out by the Packers.
Beyond that, the Bears really aren’t as bad as their record shows as they had been competitive in every game they’ve played so far (outside of the Packers game) and even beat the Steelers for their one win. So, with that and the fact that it’s a divisional game and the Vikings have had a rough time at Soldier Field the past few seasons… And it may not be the super easy game some people believe it’s going to be. There are rumblings that Sam Bradford may start Monday night and that’s something that this Vikings team really needs, considering that Dalvin Cook is out and he was really making the offensive line look a lot better than it was performing (in the run game, especially/obviously). Latavius Murray is a serviceable replacement and should be a decent fantasy pick-up, but losing a spark like Cook on offense is a killer and so the Vikings will definitely need better play from their quarterback than Case Keenum has provided in two of his three performances this year.
Look for the Bears to try to run early and often, as they’ll want to keep the ball out of the hands of their rookie QB as much as possible. The Vikings run defense has been surprisingly good so far this year and should they be able to shut down the Bears RBs, it could be a long day for the Blue and Orange. Considering the bad news that surrounded the Vikings last Sunday they certainly need a great game leading into their match-up with the Packers at home. Let’s hope that they get it Monday Night. I am still too shell shocked to make a prediction, even though I did on the Podcast this week and picked the Vikings to win 13-10. We’ll see how that goes…