2021 NFL Week 18: Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings

The first-ever NFL Week 18 will spell the end of the 2021 campaign for both the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears, as they meet at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday afternoon with both teams having been eliminated from playoff contention.

These two teams met a few weeks ago at Soldier Field for Monday Night Football, and both offenses were nothing short of putrid. The Vikings won the game by a score of 17-9, with Chicago’s lone touchdown coming on a touchdown pass with no time left on the clock.

In what continues to be one of the NFL’s weirdest scheduling trends, this marks the fifth time in six years that the Bears have had to travel to Minnesota for the final game of the regular season. In fact, in every year of U.S. Bank Stadium’s existence, the final home game for the purple has featured the Bears. All of those games have been in the seasons’ final week with the exception of last season, where the Bears visited Minnesota in Week 15 and the Vikings finished the season with two games on the road.

The Bears come into this one with a three-game winning streak at U.S. Bank Stadium, so hopefully the Vikings can at least reverse that trend on Sunday.

Minnesota enters this game as a 3.5-point favorite, according to our friends at the DraftKings Sportsbook. The over/under is currently set at 44.5 points.

Kickoff for this one is set for noon Central time on FOX, with the commentary team of Gus Johnson and Aqib Talib on the call.