NFL Week 7 Bears Line: Bears (+3) Vikings (-3), O/U 38

We were on our way to taking two out three bets again last week in Atlanta when disaster struck. We we 11 seconds away from a 20-19 Bears win over the Falcons with the Bears ready to kick off to the Falcons. The Bears tried to squib kick the kickoff, executed it terribly and wound up giving the Falcons one play to get within field goal range. Head coach Lovie Smith told media that he called the squibber because his special teams guys were tired. I don't get it, do the special teams guys exert less effort on a squibber kick than a straight away kick? The Bears special teams unit with a lot of defensive guys on it may have very well been tired, but come on, the Bears had just battled back and taken a one point lead with a 2-minute drive leading to a sensational last second touchdown pass from Kyle Orton. And Lovie Smith doesn't think the Bears kick-off team isn't stoked enough to run down the field, stay in their lanes and make a tackle inside the Falcons 40 yard line? Bad call.

Then with six seconds left the Bears allow the Falcons to complete a 25 yard deep out pass play which puts them in field goal position. There is only one play, one play, that the Falcons can call with 6 seconds left on the clock and them out of timeouts and well out of field goal range---- a deep out. And the Bears inexplicable allow them to complete it. Did the Bears coaches tell their cornerbacks, "It's going to be a deep out, do NOT let them have the deep out. Gi9ve them anything but the deep out."? Apparently not. Poor coaching again.

Atlanta with one second on the clock nails a field goal to win 22-20. This is the third time the Bears have blown a late lead and this was the worst of the the three defensive lapses. Not only that but where was the pressure on rookie Falcon quarterback Matt Ryan. No blitzes, no pressure, no sacks, no anything. Terrible defensive game plan.

Meanwhile the Vikings (3-3) were trying hard to self-destruct against the poor Detroit Lions last week. In spite of suffering six sacks, a Lions safety, almost 300 yards in passing from Viking QB Gus Frerotte, a 100-yard receiving game WR Bernard Berrian and a 100-yard rushing effort from RB Adrian Peterson, the Vikings barely got past the now 0-5 Detroit Lions 12-10 in Detroit.

Looking ahead to the matchup, the Bears are 3 point favorites for Sunday's game in Chicago against the Vikings with an over under set at 38 points. I like the over in this one. The Vikings offense averages only 19 points a game but they're facing a banged up and problem prone Bears secondary. Bears DB Charles Tillman if he plays at all will play with a hurt shoulder. DB Trumaine McBride and FS Daniel Manning are also going to be playing hurt if they play at all. DB Nashan Vasher is questionable for his return to the lineup. The Vikes will be throwing WR speedster Bernard Berrian and WR Bobby Wade against that banged up secondary and have RB Adrian Peterson coming out of the backfield as well. They'll score their average number of 19 points or more in this one.

The bright side for the Bears is their offense is now scoring 24 points a game on average. QB Kyle Orton did in fact make what should have been a game winning play to put the Bears ahead 20-19 over the Falcons last week with less than 15 seconds left. If you want to be optimistic about the Bears there's also Devin Hester's play at wide receiver. It remains to be seen whether Hester can successfully manage double-duty as a receiver and a return specialist. Normally, you loose something as a return specialist when you have to focus on playing another position as well.

The Bears and the Viking are the two best defensive teams in the Northern NFC Conference, but that's not saying much. They are fairly evenly matched .500 ballclubs. Whose going to win? This one goes to the Vikings 27-24 over the Bears.