Vikings vs. Bears: The best betting props for MNF

Week 10 of the NFL season finishes up with a matchup of NFC North rivals trying to keep their playoff hopes alive.

The Minnesota Vikings find themselves on a two-game winning streak riding their bell cow Dalvin Cook. Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears have lost three straight games following a 5-1 start.

Here are the best betting props for the Week 10 Monday Night Football showdown between the Vikings and Bears.

Kirk Cousins passing touchdowns

Kirk Cousins is terrible in primetime. In his 23 career primetime games, he is 7-16 straight up. Cousins is even worse on Monday Night Football, as he is 0-9 and only has 12 touchdowns. The last time Cousins played on Monday Night Football (Week 16 of last season against Green Bay), he only managed to put up 122 passing yards and one touchdown.

Cousins has faced the Bears five times in his career. He only has one game where he managed to generate two passing touchdowns, and has five total combined. The Bears enter this matchup having allowed the least amount of passing touchdowns in the entire league at 10. That is only 1.1 passing touchdowns per game.

The combination of Cousins’ history and the Bears stout pass defense makes this one an easy Under. I expect the Vikings to rely far more on Dalvin Cook and the running game.

Pick: Under 1.5 passing touchdowns (-125)

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Dalvin Cook rushing yards

Nobody is hotter in the league right now than Dalvin Cook, who is making a case to be considered the best running back in the NFL. Since returning from injury in Week 8, he has racked up 163 and 206 rushing yards in each game. In the two weeks before getting injured in Week 5, Cook put up 181 and 130 rushing yards in each game.

The Bears are just middle of the pack in rushing defense as they allow 116.9 rushing yards per game. However, they have only allowed two individual rushers to reach this number (86.5 yards) all season. Those two players are Adrian Peterson in Week 1, and Ronald Jones in Week 5.

Cook has historically struggled against the Bears, and has only averaged 28.7 rushing yards in his three career games against Chicago. However, I believe this one will be different as he is just a machine right now. The Vikings will lean on their superstar and keep the ball out of Cousins’ hands.

Pick: Over 86.5 rushing yards (-115)

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Jimmy Graham receptions

Jimmy Graham enters this contest as the second most targeted Chicago Bear behind only Allen Robinson. He has had a sneaky good season with 55 targets and 35 receptions. That is an average of 6.1 targets and 3.9 receptions per game. The number in this game is 3.5 receptions.

Graham has reached this number in five of his last seven games since Nick Foles took over quarterback. He has also averaged 3.7 receptions in his six career games against the Vikings.

Minnesota has struggled to stop tight ends. They have given up at least four catches to the starting tight end in five of their eight games this season. The only teams that did not reach this number were the Seahawks, Texans, and Week 1 Packers (without Robert Tonyan).

Jimmy Graham will be targeted at least six times in this game. I love the chances of him getting at least four catches in this one.

Pick: Over 3.5 receptions (-110)