Chicago Bears (4-6) at Minnesota Vikings (9-1)

NFL Football: Sunday November 29, 2009 4:15 PM EST

The Line: Minnesota - 10 1/2

The Minnesota Vikings look to take a step closer to wrapping up the NFC North title as they host division rival, the Chicago Bears.

Minnesota is looking like a strong contender to go to the Super Bowl as they have been playing some of the best football in the NFL this season. It's crowded at the top of the league with the Colts, Saints, and a handful of others playing great football but it's been the Minnesota Vikings who look to be the toughest all around of any of them. The Vikings have been slow starters in several of their games this year but no team has put it together in the second half of games like the Vikings. They are just brimming with talent, starting to gel as a unit, and also avoiding the injury bug to key players. While the scores of a lot of their games have been lopsided, the back ups have seen plenty of action so if and when they are called on for prime action, they will be more than just ready. Brad Childress has done a great job keeping this team together and focused. The closest anyone has come to them since their lone loss is 12 points.

It's been a season of disappointment on many levels for the Chicago Bears and Jay Cutler appears to be on his way to getting his second head coach fired in two seasons. While I'm not sure the Bears organization is ready to eat the massive contract that head coach Lovie Smith has, it is nearly impossible to bench the pathetic Cutler because of the weight of his contract and what they dealt to get him. As we said at the beginning of the season, Jay Cutler is nothing more than a six win QB who puts up all of his numbers in garbage time, though not even we expected the huge interception totals. Cutler doesn't give his team a chance to win as he forces the ball into bad spots. In his defense, he hasn't had a lot of options nor much support from the run game. The Bear defense has simply fallen apart. Major injuries to the linebackers were the first chink in the armour and then the pass defense has absolutely collapsed. Unfortunately for the Bears, they won't reap the rewards of their grossly disappointing year as they don't have a first round draft choice for the next two seasons. The Jay Cutler trade may go down as one of the worst deals in NFL history.

Minnesota is 3-0-1 against the spread when playing a team with a losing record but just 2-5-1 against the spread in their last eight home games. Chicago is 4-0 against the spread on the road as an underdog of 10 1/2 or more points but they are 0-6-1 in their last seven games as a road underdog. Minnesota has covered seven of the last nine games played at home against the Bears.

It's always tough to lay big numbers in a divisional rivalry game but I think the Bears have packed it in. While we hear rumors about the future of Lovie Smith, it may just have less to do with the record and more to do with his team just quitting. If they lay down in this one, the rumblings will get louder. Whether they lay down or not, the Bears will get steamrolled in this one as it could be one of the worst beat downs in the long and storied history of this rivalry.

Mitch's Pick: Minnesota Vikings - 10 1/2

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Beyond this game
written by V-Man, November 29, 2009

Finally - someone points out that the Cutler trade was terrible. I might not be as down on Cutler as you are but what a miserable trade. I felt that way when it was made (but changed my mind during pre-season only to be brought back to reality by week .

I always felt with a good offensive line, a good running game, a stud WR, solid WRS 2 and 3, and an above average DEFENSE then Cutler would be good. With that said - what QB would not be. Orton would be fine with that situation and for that matter so would Grossman.

Cutler is not a QB who can play from behind or in tight games - not with maddening throws into traffic. Also he does not have the WRs he needs to be succesful. I do not know how he will get them. Hester should be a #3 and used much like Harvin but he is a #1(ick).

Simply said the Bears got the QB before they had the pieces to support this type of QB. Now they do not have high draft picks to pick up the pieces. Put Cutler on a solid team and look out - he would be very good. Put him on a bad team and he just is not good and becomes part of the problem. There are a number of QBs in the league for whom we could say the same thing but there are a handful of tru FRANCHISE QBS who always make their team better regardless if team is good or bad - Cutler is not one of those guys and thats why the trade should not have been made.

I have a feeling this will be like a 10 - 6 game at halftime with the final Vikes 34 - Chic 16

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