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For the second straight game, the Vikings will face a divisional opponent they have seen every single year since their inaugural season in 1961. While the Vikings still have a winning record against the Bears, it isn’t as pronounced as their historical advantage over the Lions.
Let’s take our weekly look at some of the history between the Vikings and their upcoming opponents. As always, all of the numbers used in this post come from the good folks at Pro Football Reference.
Total games between the Vikings and the Bears: 114
All-time record: Vikings, 60-51-2 regular season; Bears, 1-0 postseason
Total Vikings points scored, head-to-head: 2,402 (21.1 points/game)
Total Bears points scored, head-to-head: 2,216 (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: 9 October 2017 (final score 20-17)
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, 3 wins
Throughout the evenly matched series, home field advantage has been very important. The Bears hold a 31-23-2 advantage over the Vikings in Chicago while the Vikings lead 37-21-0 in Minnesota. Before Mike Zimmer came to town, Soldier Field was an absolute house of horrors for the Vikings—they had lost 12 of their previous 13 visits to Chicago. The Vikings are 2-2 in the Windy City over the past four seasons, including coming away with victories in two of their last three visits.
The most recent game in this series was the 2017 regular season finale, where the Vikings clinched the #2 seed in the NFC and took care of the Bears by a score of 23-10. Latavius Murray had 111 yards and two scores. Stefon Diggs led the way receiving with 6 grabs for 65 yards and a score. Chicago was held to just 30 yards rushing on the day in their final game with John Fox as Head Coach. Bears fans have to enjoy the fact that Fox was put out of his misery since Matt Nagy has the team at 6-3 in his first year at the helm.
That’s a quick look back at the history between the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings. Hopefully the purple can get their third win in their four tries at Soldier Field and leave Chicago atop the division.