The national spotlight will be on the Bears tonight as they host the Minnesota Vikings on NBC, and the primetime audience should be in for tightly contested matchup.
These two teams have a history of those.
Last year, Mitchell Trubisky made his first-career start in a similar situation under the lights at Soldier Field, but his late interception set the Vikings up with the game-winning field goal with 12 seconds left for a 20-17 victory.
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The year before, Jay Cutler led the 1-6 Bears to a major upset over the 5-1 Vikings, also in primetime. It was Cutler’s first game back from injury, and he threw for 252 yards and a touchdown while Jordan Howard added 153 on the ground to win 20-10.
Back in December of 2013, Josh McCown threw for over 350 yards to lead Marc Trestman’s Bears to overtime against Matt Cassell and Minnesota. But Adrian Peterson’s 211 rushing yards proved to be too much as Blair Walsh hit the winning field goal in the extra period.
Chicago has had its share of game-winners against the Vikings too, like wide receiver Devin Aromashodu’s 39-yard touchdown pass from Jay Cutler back in 2009, one of his seven catches for 150 yards in the 36-30 overtime victory over Brett Favre.
The division rivals have met in the playoffs once in their 114 matchups, a 35-18 win for our own Dave Wannstedt. Steve Walsh connected with Jeff Graham for four catches and 108 yards to knock off Warren Moon and Cris Carter in the wildcard round.
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This season’s Week 11 matchup could have its own playoff implications as the winner will sit in first place in the NFC North and take a potential head-to-head tiebreaker.
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