A Brief Look At Vikings/Bears History

Much like last week, the Minnesota Vikings will be looking across the line of scrimmage at a divisional opponent, but this time it will be on the road. The purple will head to the Windy City on Monday Night Football to take on the Chicago Bears in the hopes of bouncing back from a tough loss last weekend at home.

With this week’s matchup, the Bears will once again pull into a tie with the Detroit Lions as the team the Vikings have faced off with the most (and next week the Green Bay Packers will tie them both). This will be matchup #112 between these two teams in the regular season, and it’s a bit more evenly-matched than the Vikings’ historical matchups against Detroit have been.

So, let’s take a look back at the history between these two teams. As always, the numbers used for this one are brought to you by the good folks from Pro Football Reference.

Total games between the Vikings and the Bears: 111

All-time record: Vikings, 58-51-2

Total Vikings points scored, head-to-head: 2,341 (21.1 points/game)

Total Bears points scored, head-to-head: 2,154 (19.4 points/game)

Longest Vikings winning streak vs Bears: 8 games (3 December 1972 - 10 October 1976)

Longest Bears winning streak vs Vikings: 6 games (twice, most recently from 28 December 2009 - 25 November 2012)

Most Recent Vikings road win in series: 1 November 2015 (final score 23-20)

Most Recent Bears home win in series: 31 October 2016 (final score 20-10)

Biggest Vikings road win in series: 31 points, 12 October 1969 (final score 31-0)

Biggest Bears home win in series: 31 points, 17 September 1989 (final score 38-7)

Current streak: Vikings, 1 win

As I said in the open, these two teams have been relatively evenly matched over the years. Home field has been pretty significant in the series between these two teams. . .the Vikings are 22-31-2 against the Bears in Chicago, while they have a record of 36-20 against the Bears in four different Minneapolis venues (Metropolitan Stadium, Metrodome, TCF Bank Stadium, and U.S. Bank Stadium).

The most recent game between these two teams was the regular season finale last season. . .a game that, thanks to the Vikings falling apart in the second half of the season, wound up not meaning anything for either team. The Bears appeared to have already checked out for the season, and the Vikings took advantage. Sam Bradford threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers, and the defense put together an outstanding performance in Chad Greenway’s final game to walk away with a 38-10 victory.

Earlier in the season, these two teams squared off in a game that kind of looks like this year’s game. . .the Vikings, despite coming off of a loss, appeared to be on their way to a solid season, while it was looking like a long year for the Bears. But, as we all know, the Vikings’ Soldier Field demons came back to bite them again, as Jordan Howard ran all over the Minnesota defense, and the Vikings got a last-minute touchdown to make the final score a little misleading. The Bears took a 20-10 victory that night, and would only win one more game the rest of the way.

For Minnesota’s most recent victory at Soldier Field, fortunately we only have to go back to 2015. The Vikings were making a push for the NFC North title, and it appeared that the Bears were going to play spoiler once again. However, just after the two minute warning, Teddy Bridgewater found Stefon Diggs for a 40-yard touchdown to tie the game, and after the defense generated a three-and-out, Bridgewater then hit Charles Johnson to get the team into position for Blair Walsh. Walsh then connected on a 36-yard field goal as time expired to give the purple a 23-20 victory.

Hopefully, with the Bears starting a new rookie quarterback, the Vikings will be able to put together a somewhat rare road victory against their rivals from Chicago. If they don’t. . .it could end up being a long rest of the 2017 season.