Minnesota Vikings @ Chicago October 9th-The Vikings have been hot and cold through four games. They have played well at times and looked strong on both sides of the ball when winning. But in their loss to Pittsburgh, they looked too easy to beat.
Remember that this is the team that the Bears toppled last Halloween and that memory will still be fresh in the minds of both teams. So will the near blowout loss Chicago suffered at the end of 2016.
It will, however, be Trubisky’s first start and he is sure to have some growing pains. But if he can keep the mistakes to a minimum Chicago might win.
Both teams will come into this game hurting a little. The Vikings lost rookie running back Dalvin Cook to a knee injury so they will throw Latavius Murray in the mix. At quarterback, it’s still not yet known if Sam Bradford will play. It may not matter because Case Keenum hasn’t been terrible in his absence and he has shown he can play.
Chicago Bears
The Bears come in with some personnel problems, mostly on defense. Nick Kwiatkoski is out with a pectoral injury while Danny Trevathan will miss the game due to a suspension. This means that guys like John Timu, Christian Jones, and Jonathan Anderson need to step up and play well. They will be key in stopping Murray and preventing Minnesota’s running game from getting going.
Hopefully, they are up for the challenge.
These two teams typically play one another tough so expect this to be a close game. However, with this being Trubisky’s first NFL regular season start, there will be some growing pains and there may be a lot of them. So much so that if the Vikings offense gets going the Bears’ offense won’t be able to keep up.
Chicago could make it a close game and if it is close, it will come down to defense. The Vikings are strong against the run but not against the pass so if Trubisky can get the ball out to his tight ends and running backs they could find success. Trubisky’ s receivers can help too if they can hold onto the ball but they have a hard time doing that. Nothing will hurt him more than if guys like Josh Bellamy and Deonte Thompson can’t hold onto the ball.
This game will be close but not that close. The Bears will stay within a couple of scores of the Vikings but will lose in Mitch’s debut.
Prediction: Minnesota 24 Chicago 13