It might be time to jump on board the Chicago Bears bandwagon. The Bears are in a spot they haven’t been in the past several seasons after taking care of business in the first half. They own the top spot in the NFC North and their six wins match the most in any of the previous five seasons. Da Bears are even getting recognition from the networks with their Week 11 game against the Minnesota Vikings flexed into the Sunday night slot. And there will be plenty of ways to wager on this black and blue division matchup.
Watch this Week 11 regular season matchup live on NBC on Sunday, November 18, 2018, at 8:20 p.m. ET at Soldier Field.
Opening NFL Odds at BookMaker.eu
Minnesota Vikings +3
Chicago Bears -3
Over/Under 45
It looks like the Vikings have turned a corner and that’s bad news for the rest of the league and the competition in the NFC North. One of the league’s best defensive units under Mike Zimmer, the Vikes stumbled out of the gate and stood at 1-2-1 after giving up 38 points in a loss to the Rams in Week 4. Whatever Zim did before the next game worked and the Vikings have won four of five games since with their only blemish a Week 8 loss to the Saints.
This isn’t the same Bears team the Vikings have faced over the last few years. They actually have a productive offense led by Mitchell Trubisky, and the defense got a huge boost with the acquisition of Khalil Mack just before the season opened. As a result, the Bears have moved from possible sleeper pick to full-blown contender.
There was a lot of negative pushback when the Bears traded up to take Trubisky with the No. 2 overall pick in 2017. The naysayers said ‘I told you so’ when Fox stunted the QB’s growth with a boring game plan. The hiring of former Arena Football League star Matt Nagy was exactly what Trubisky and the Bears needed. Trubisky was brilliant in a win over the Lions last week throwing for 355 yards and three touchdowns while completing 76.7 percent of his passes.
Even more impressive was his first half against the Lions. Trubisky was 14 of 16 for 209 yards and a pair of scores as the Bears jumped out to a 26-7 lead. The Bears now have the best first-half point differential in the NFL outscoring their opponents by nearly 10 points while the Vikings are in the negative. That makes a first-half spread bet in favor of the Bears a winner on the live betting lines at BookMaker.eu.
Let’s don’t go crowning the Bears just yet, however. Their six wins are all against teams that are currently below .500 and they had that clunker in Miami a few weeks back, so this team is far from perfect. And they haven’t faced a defense as cantankerous as the Vikings. Despite their slow start, the Vikings rank third against the run and fifth in total defense while sitting just outside the top-10 in scoring defense.
Minnesota also tied for the NFL lead with 31 sacks, and making Trubisky uncomfortable will go a long way toward having success. Danielle Hunter is having a monster season and has proven hard to contain on the line. His 11.5 sacks on the year are one off the league lead, and his play against the run has been just as special, though there are no tangible statistics to prove it.
With the Bears likely to have little success running the football Trubisky will have to pass and that plays right into Hunter’s plan. He’s going to get after Trubisky and throwing down on a prop at BookMaker.eu for him to get a sack is worth it.
Vikings at Bears Live Betting
There are plenty of prop and live betting options for a pair of teams that can move the football on offense and play stingy defense. Kirk Cousins is having a solid season even if it hasn’t lived up to the payday he got. And his favorite target Adam Thielen is third in receiving yards and tied for third in touchdown catches. We talked about Minnesota’s defense, but the Bears’ unit is even better statistically. And Khalil Mack has been a difference-maker. He took two games off to rest an injury and returned last week with two of Chicago’s six sacks against the Lions. The Bears are just one sack behind the league leaders with 30. We’ve seen some low-scoring games between these teams in the past, but they are much different now.
NFL Betting Odds
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