The last Monday Night Football doubleheader of the 2024 NFL regular season is tonight, but only one game involves a team with a winning record, and that’s the we’re focusing on as the Chicago Bears (4-9) visit the playoff-bound Minnesota Vikings (11-2) in a matchup of NFC North clubs streaking in opposite directions. The kickoff is a bit earlier than usual at 8 p.m. ET because of the doubleheader, and only ABC is showing this one. The Vikings eye the season sweep and are 7-point favorites with a total of 44.
About a month ago, then-head coach Matt Eberflus fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and replaced him with passing game coordinator Thomas Brown, who then moved up to replace Eberflus, who was fired after a ghastly loss on Thanksgiving. Brown will be given every shot to earn the full-time gig, but may be passed over given how bad the Bears looked in their Week 14 loss in San Francisco’s in Brown’s first game as interim head coach.
Minnesota, on a six-game winning streak, has one of the best coaches in the business in Kevin O’Connell. Entering Sunday, he was the +400 second favorite to win NFL Coach of the Year behind Dan Campbell, who was -175. O’Connell is now the +150 favorite following Detroit’s loss. All due respect to Campbell (now +250), but the Lions were among the preseason Super Bowl favorites, while not a ton was expected of the Vikings in something of a reboot season with journeyman Sam Darnold as a bridge QB to rookie JJ McCarthy. But the No. 10 overall pick suffered a season-ending knee issue in the summer, and Darnold has been magnificent.
If the Vikings can overtake the Lions (12-2) for the NFC North title, O’Connell will most likely win the award — the teams are now tied. Detroit owns the current head-to-head tiebreaker, but they close the season against one another in Minneapolis. There’s a very good chance that’s the game moved to primetime on Sunday night in Week 18 if nothing is clinched. Detroit is -400 (was -1100 before Sunday) to win the division and Minnesota is +300 (was +500).
The No. 1 overall seed is now very much in play with Detroit’s loss, and the Vikings are +450 to claim it. They are +700 third favorites to win the NFC and +1400 to claim the franchise’s first Super Bowl title. Entering Week 15, the SportsLine Projection Model gave Minnesota a 13.1% shot at the division (+663), a 7.7% chance at the NFC title (+1199) and only a 3.2% likelihood of winning the team’s first Super Bowl (+3025).
We’ll take you through every aspect of the Bears-Vikings game that you need to know before you lock in your bets, including sportsbook promos and the best odds, along with SportsLine expert picks, props, trends, DFS, injury information and everything else that will help you know which plays are worth making for the primetime matchup.
Get updated lines and picks on SportsLine’s game forecast page for this matchup.
Betting on MNF: Bears vs. Vikings
Including one playoff game on New Year’s Day 1995, the Vikings lead the all-time series 67-58-2. Minnesota has won six of the past seven after a 30-27 overtime win at Soldier Field as a 3.5-point favorite (total was 39.5) in Week 12. The Bears nearly staged the most improbable comeback win in franchise regular-season as they forced OT after trailing 27-16 with 30 seconds left in regulation.
Chicago stalled out on its first OT drive and punted. The Vikings would easily drive down field and kick the winning 29-yard field goal with 2:10 left. Sam Darnold (without an injured Justin Jefferson) and Caleb Williams each had two TD passes. There were 850 yards of offense. Not that long ago, the teams would have needed two full games against one another to reach that yardage total. While Minnesota has failed to cover the past two, it is still 6-3-1 ATS in the last 10.
Best betting odds and lines for Bears vs. Vikings on MNF
|
Bears |
+260 (multiple) |
+7 (-115, BetMGM) |
Over 43.5 (-110, multiple) |
|
Vikings |
-290 (DraftKings) |
-7 (+100, multiple) |
Under 44.5 (-112, FanDuel) |
Expert picks for Bears vs. Vikings on MNF
The SportsLine Projection Model is projecting the final score to come in Under the consensus over/under of 42, but subscribers can see which side of the Bears-Vikings spread is the best value according to the model at SportsLine or on the CBS Sports app. Expert R.J. White is on a 67-39-5 run in Vikings games, and he’s leaning on the Under in this game as well. He also shared his Bears-Vikings spread pick at SportsLine.
Key SportsLine experts have also weighed in on several props for the game. Larry Hartstein, who is 96-71 (+1557) on his last 167 NFL player prop picks, has locked in a play involving Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson, who had a big first game against Chicago. Dave Richard (+313.5 on props), meanwhile, says a Chicago skill player is worth a fade as he might not be 100% healthy. Those picks and more are available for SportsLine members on the website or the CBS Sports app.
Sportsbook betting promos for Bears vs. Vikings on MNF
Those looking to bet on Monday night’s NFC North clash may want to consider doing so with the current DraftKings Sportsbook promotion. New users at DraftKings can get $150 in bonus bets if their first wager of $5 or more wins.
Check out more welcome promotions from key sportsbooks below.
What to know before betting Bears vs. Vikings
Chicago Bears
Injuries
Smith is likely to play after getting in a limited practice Saturday, and the Bears need him to with Johnson sidelined. Travis Homer would be the next man up if not. Jones protected Caleb Williams’ blind side.
Trends
Chicago is 12-9 ATS in its past 21 overall and 7-3 ATS in its past 10 Monday games, but has lost eight straight on the road overall and is 0-6 SU in its past six against NFC opponents. It has covered the fourth-quarter spread in 11 of the past 18. The Under is 5-2 in the Bears’ past seven and 5-1 in their previous six against the NFC North. They have gone Over their team total in 10 of the past 18 overall, but have done so in just one of the past eight road games.
Minnesota Vikings
Injuries
Gilmore, who has been out since Dec. 1, returned to practice Saturday but was limited. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said the decision on whether Gilmore plays will “most likely” come down to pregame warmups.
Trends
While Minnesota is 6-1 SU in its past seven at home, it is just 1-5-1 ATS in its past seven vs. the NFC North overall and 4-12-2 ATS in its past 18 December games. It has covered the second-half spread in six of the past eight at home but only covered the fourth-quarter spread in seven of its past 17 overall. The Under is 4-2 in the Vikings’ past six, but the Over is 5-1 in the past six against the NFC. The first-quarter Over has hit in 15 of their past 20 and the third-quarter Over 12-5 in the previous 17.
Weather in Minneapolis
U.S. Bank Stadium is covered. The Bears are 0-4 in dome games this year (Houston, Indianapolis, Arizona and Detroit). Then again, they are winless everywhere but Soldier Field.
The matchup
Sam Darnold’s career had been a major bust after being taken third overall in 2018 by the Jets, but despite that he always has been pretty good in December. Since his rookie year and including this season, Darnold is one of just six passers in the NFL with 25-plus touchdowns through the air and 10 or fewer interceptions in December (entering Week 15), and he has an excellent TD:INT ratio of 26:6. The other five passers on that list are all MVP-caliber players in Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford, the retired Matt Ryan (now with CBS) and Joe Burrow.
In a 42-21 win over Atlanta in Week 14, Darnold completed 22 of 28 pass attempts (78.6%) for 347 yards (career high) and five touchdowns (career high) with no interceptions and a team-record 157.9 passer rating. He became the ninth quarterback in NFL history and the first since Aaron Rodgers (2019) with at least 325 passing yards, five touchdown passes, zero interceptions, a completion percentage of 75% or higher and a passer rating of 155 or higher in a game. No Vikings QB had ever had a game with five TDs and a completion rate of at least 75%. Darnold has four straight games with at least two passing TDs and no picks, the longest single-season streak in team history. He’s -145 to throw two touchdowns and +105 to throw a pick tonight.
Darnold, named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for last week, is one of four players in the past 15 seasons with at least two touchdown passes and a passer rating of 100 or higher in 10 of his first 13 games of a season. He is the first quarterback to start 11-2 or better in his first season with a new club since Brett Favre, who also did it with Minnesota in 2009. Darnold is also the first QB with at least 11 wins in a season after winning 10 or fewer games the past four seasons combined since Case Keenum accomplished the feat with the Vikings in 2017.
Yet Darnold is only +1200 to win Comeback Player of the Year, well behind betting favorite Joe Burrow (-500) of Cincinnati. Darnold absolutely deserves the award, and the oddsmakers were wrong last year. He’s 1-1 on Monday Night Football, both games with the Jets. One of those was the memorable “seeing ghosts” loss to the Patriots.
In that Falcons victory, wideouts Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison became the first duo in Vikings history to both record 100-plus receiving yards and two or more touchdowns in the same game. They were only the seventh NFL duo all-time to surpass 130 receiving yards with at least two TDs in one game. Addison now has 17 touchdown receptions since entering the NFL in 2023. Only five players under the age of 23 have more touchdown receptions in NFL history. Jefferson might go down as an all-time great but has never had back-to-back games with multiple TD catches. He’s +650 for at least two scores on Monday.
Minnesota’s defense has been stellar this year under coordinator Brian Flores, which might earn him another head coaching job this offseason. When that blitz-heavy Flores defense forces at least two turnovers in a game this year, Minnesota is 9-0. But is there cause for concern on the ground? Opponents averaged 58.8 rushing yards against Minnesota in Weeks 9-12. But in the past two weeks, that unit has allowed 154 yards to Arizona and 158 to Atlanta. In the Week 12 win in Chicago, the Vikings held the Bears to 78 net yards on 22 rushes and had three tackles for loss on runs.
Kevin O’Connell has a 24-9 (.727) record in one-score games as Vikings head coach, the best by any head coach in NFL history with a minimum of 25 games, joining Guy Chamberlain and John Madden. This marks Minnesota’s 10th straight game as a betting favorite, the second-longest active streak in the league and the franchise’s best since 2003 (10 in a row). The Vikings are 3-4-1 ATS in their past eight after starting the season 5-0 ATS.
While Minnesota already has flown Over its preseason win total of 7.5, Chicago will finish Under its number of 8.5. The offense has massively underachieved without a doubt, but Caleb Williams has certainly shown signs of stardom. He has an active streak of 255 consecutive pass attempts without an interception, the the longest such streak by a rookie in NFL history. Williams’ streak of seven straight starts without a pick but also without a win is the longest by a QB since the merger. The No. 1 overall pick’s streak of three consecutive games with multiple passing TDs and no picks is tied for the second-longest rookie streak since 1970.
The franchise record for consecutive games without a pick is Jim McMahon’s eight in a row in 1984, and Williams is -120 to throw one Monday — Minnesota leads the NFL by a mile with 20 INTs. Since throwing his last pick in the second quarter of an Oct. 13 win over the Jaguars in London, Williams has thrown 11 TD passes, including seven in the last three games. Williams was about the only bright spot offensively in the embarrassing 38-13 loss at San Francisco in Week 14. The team came out completely flat in its first game post-Matt Eberflus by being out-gained by an incredible 319-4 margin in the first half, Chicago’s fewest first-half total yards in a game since at least 1991. It finished with just 162 yards.
I can almost promise that the Bears will take an offensive linemen with their fairly high first-round pick, that unit has been the biggest culprit for the team’s offensive woes. Williams has been sacked 56 times this season, which is tied with Tim Couch (1999) for the third most by a rookie quarterback since 1963, when QB sacks were first tracked. David Carr owns the record for the most taken (76) in 2002 with Williams on pace for 73. The Vikings entered Week 15 ranking fourth in sacks with 40. This is Williams’ first career MNF game, and he’s 0-1 in primetime — Chicago lost 19-13 in Houston in Week 2 but covered at +6.5.
It has been a disappointing season as well for Bears wide receiver Keenan Allen, but he appeared in his 150th career game last week and has 951 receptions, the most receptions by a player in his first 150 career games all-time. In his last game at Minnesota (Sept. 24, 2023, with the Chargers), he set career highs with 18 receptions and 215 receiving yards, tied for the third-most receptions in a game in NFL history.
One potential silver lining for Bears fans is that this game isn’t on a Sunday. Chicago as lost 20 straight road games on Sundays dating to Week 18 of 2021. The Bears are also 4-1 ATS in their past five primetime road games and 5-1-1 ATS in their past seven NFC North games overall.
