Be Careful What You Wish For...

A lot of fans of the Minnesota Vikings are moving on from the Philly debacle and are now looking forward to the Monday night Halloween matchup against the Chicago bears in Soldier Field.

You know, the Bad News Bears. And by 'bad news', I want to emphasize bad. At 1-6, they are headed for a top five pick in next year's draft, and have been beset with more injuries than even the Vikings have. They have 12 players on IR, four that probably won't play against the Vikings, and their defense is just a hot mess right now. They have no playmakers on offense, and they've had key starters out for most of the year.

One of those key injuries was to QB Jay Cutler, the guy most fans...even Bears fans...love to hate. When he went down with a thumb injury early in the season, most Bears fans I know were ready to move on from him, and Cutler's replacement, Brian Hoyer, played well enough to make Cutler and 'out of sight. out of mind' situation in Chicago.

But Hoyer broke his arm against the Green Bay Packers and will be ut about six weeks, and that forced the Bears to play one Matt Barkley, who came in and was in over his head more than a midget in the shallow end of the pool. And because of that, it looks like Cutler will be back to face the Vikings:

#Bears coach John Fox announces QB Jay Cutler has been cleared to play; has been sidelined since Week 2 with thumb injury.

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 24, 2016

For a lot of Vikings fans, this news was received with great joy, and I don't understand why. Jay Cutler has a (fairly well deserved) reputation as an undisciplined quarterback with an attitude of indifference that has mostly underachieved throughout his overpaid career. And those are fairly accurate statements, for the most part. But there is one area where Cutler has excelled throughout his career, and that area is when facing the Minnesota Vikings at home.

In eight career home games (one in Denver, seven in Chicago), Cutler is 7-1 all time. And yes, yes, QB wins are a lame statistic, I understand that, but the fact remains his home and road splits against the Vikings are kind of striking. Let's take a look:

In his career, he's only one game above .500 at home, but at home against Minnesota he's 7-1, and his first loss didn't come until last season. When you look at those statistics, he plays like an All Pro, with a rating of nearly 100, and a TD/Int ratio that approaches 3-1. The mistakes Jay Cutler usually makes in games are ones he simply doesn't do against Minnesota at Soldier Field, for the most part.

Most of those seasons, I concede that the Bears (and that one season in Denver) were probably a better team than the Vikings, and Cutler has only faced a Mike ZImmer defense twice at home. But he's played well against a Zimmer-led Vikings team both times, and but for a near-miracle of a comeback late in the 4th quarter by the Vikings last year, he would be 2-0. But this home record against the Vikings isn't really an anomaly attributed to beating mostly inferior teams year in and year out, though. If you contrast his starts against Minnesota, you'll find that some of his best games came against the Vikings in Chicago, and his worst came against the Vikings in Minnesota.

I know it's easy for Vikings fans to make light of Jay Cutler... and heck, I'm probably as guilty as the next guy. But still, Cutler in Chicago has been a formidable opponent for the Vikings, and even if he's a guy many fans are taking lightly these days, I don't think the Vikings will.

Because if they do, 5-2 is something that will be staring them square in the face.