Fans of the Minnesota Vikings have gotten used to seeing them take on the Chicago Bears to finish their season, but things are a little bit different this year.
This year’s NFL regular-season finale between the Vikings and the Bears will take place at Soldier Field rather than at U.S. Bank Stadium (or what was known as TCF Bank Stadium, even). The Vikings are locked into the NFC playoffs as either the #2 or #3 seed (with the #3 being more likely), while the Bears are fighting for the #1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, which they would likely trade for a bounty since they don’t really need a quarterback.
Both of these teams are coming off of fairly lopsided losses, with the Vikings losing to Green Bay at Lambeau Field by a score of 41-17 while Detroit, 41-10 soundly defeated Chicago.
With the Vikings not likely to see a lot of change in their playoff positioning unless something strange happens in San Francisco, there’s a good chance that they could be resting some key personnel in this one. They did suffer some significant injuries against Green Bay, particularly on the offensive line, and Kevin O’Connell might want to make sure that they don’t lose any more of their main players in a game that doesn’t mean much.
The folks at the DraftKings Sportsbook have made the Vikings an early 1.5-point favorite over the Bears for this Week 18 matchup, which might be taking into account Minnesota potentially resting those key players. The over/under is currently sitting at 46.5 points, just a shade under what these teams combined for back in Week 5 at U.S. Bank Stadium in a 27-22 Minnesota victory.
The kickoff time and broadcast network have not been announced for this week’s game, but once we have that information we will be sure to bring it to you right away.