In the hyper-competitive "Black-and-Blue" crucible of the NFC North, breathing room is a luxury few head coaches ever get to enjoy.

When the Vikings (1-0) head to the Windy City on Sunday to battle the Chicago Bears (1-0), the game will mark Head Coach Kevin O'Connell's 70th regular-season contest as Minnesota's head coach. A closer examination of O'Connell's tenure reveals a fascinating dual-identity in how he finishes games.

Of O'Connell's 44 career regular-season head coaching victories, 31 have been in the category of a one-score game (70.5%). Eight of those 31 tight victories were against either Chicago, Green Bay or Detroit (8-4 record), with five against the Bears specifically (5-1 record).

But when the Vikings secure a win within the division, they have a rare habit of turning it into a rout. O'Connell has registered 13 career victories by a double-digit margin, and seven of those have been against NFC North foes.

As the Vikings prepare to square off against the Bears for the 131st time (more notes about the series history below), let's see who the experts are picking to win the game:

Bears 30, Vikings 24 – Pete Prisco, CBS Sports

The marquee matchup is the Brian Flores defense against the explosive Bears offense. At home, look for the Chicago offense to keep it rolling. Bears take it.

Bears 30, Vikings 23 – Bill Bender, Sporting News

Chicago's offense is full-throttle with second-year coach Ben Johnson. If Minnesota can't slow down a rushing attack that rolled up 291 yards in Week 1 behind D'Andre Swift (18-124, 3 TDs) and Kyle Monangai (10-100, TD), then there will be trouble. It's a challenge for Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores. Minnesota has won six straight matchups at Chicago.

Bears 38, Vikings 24 – Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News

Keep rolling with the Bears who keep getting master motivated by Ben Johnson to step on the gas for four quarters. Caleb Williams and the running game came out firing and focused in Carolina. Brian Flores shouldn't shy away from his blitzing, but Williams is well equipped to beat it with his arm or his legs. Chicago's defense will give up the yards again, but Minnesota won't keep up with whoever it has at QB.

0 of 5 experts pick the Vikings, NFL.com

Analysis from NFL.com's Dan Parr: We have our (very) early favorite for the coaching matchup of the year here, with the Bears' offensive mastermind, Ben Johnson, facing off against Vikings defensive genius Brian Flores.

Who will emerge victorious in the battle between two men who seem to try to redefine the word aggressive on a weekly basis?

Johnson has already stated he wants the Bears to break the single-season scoring record —  and he apparently meant it, given that his team dropped 59 points on the Panthers last week. As for Flores, Minnesota blitzed 78.3 percent of the time against the Packers — no other team had a blitz rate higher than 52 percent in Week 1. For what it's worth, Caleb Williams completed 9 of 14 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns against the blitz last week. He did not fare as well when Flores sent a blitz at him 67 percent of the time in their last meeting (a 19-17 Bears win in Week 11 of last season).

Sunday's contest will give us a much better gauge on whether Williams really has entered the elite tier. I'm on record as a believer.

2 of 7 experts pick the Vikings, Bleacher Report

Bleacher Report analysis Gary Davenport: The Bears dropped 59 points on the Panthers last week. … Minnesota's defense is a fair bit better than Carolina's. The second is that Chicago's defense was 'turrible' in Week 1. Not terrible. 'Turrible.'

Bleacher Report analysis Kris Knox: In Week 1, the Bears reminded me a lot of the 2024 Bengals. They feel like a team that can score almost at will, but one that may need to score at a high clip to win games.

2 of 8 experts pick the Vikings, The MMQB

0 of 11 experts pick the Vikings, ESPN

1 of 8 experts pick the Vikings, The Athletic

Thoughts from The Athletic's J.J. Bailey: The new Minnesota Vikings era lasted all of 11 plays before Carson Wentz was back under center and, just as everyone predicted, the 33-year-old journeyman led them from down 22-10 late in the third quarter to a 39-22 win over the Green Bay Packers.

We all expected that, right? It's possible that Chad Graff did, considering he's the only one riding Minnesota this week. This is a real heat-check of a pick. It means that the Vikes would beat the Bears with a recently concussed Kyler Murray (who threw an unforgivable pick last week) under center — or Wentz stringing together two improbable starts.

Chicago's defense is a mess, but believing Wentz can repeat that level of aptitude is a choice. Perhaps this is a vote of confidence in Brian Flores, whose truly psychotic blitz rate — on 78.3 percent of pass plays, per Next Gen Stats — won the day for Minnesota last week. And while Packers quarterback Jordan Love did an admirable job counterpunching, when a QB is pressured on 50 percent of his dropbacks, it's only a matter of time before things come apart.

The biggest question is how willing Flores is to repeat that onslaught against the Bears, who just became the fourth team this decade to put up 59 or more points in a game. Chicago also has Caleb Williams, who was among the league's best at avoiding sacks and extending plays last season, and has the arm strength to make any throw on the field out of structure. For all of Minnesota's success at pressure, the Vikings averaged 3.2 yards of separation on receivers, a fact that Williams and the Ben Johnson-led offense will surely exploit.

The Bears are also a far bigger threat on the ground than the Packers. Chicago has now run for 280 or more yards in a game three times under Johnson, tripling the number of times it happened in franchise history before he showed up — and 154 of those yards came rushing outside the tackles, where Minnesota is considerably more vulnerable, especially when it blitzes.

Do you, Mr. Graff, but Chicago isn't losing twice in two years at home to Minnesota.

Series Notes

Minnesota holds a 69-59-2 advantage in the all-time series when facing Chicago. Although the Vikings have controlled things as of late — winning eight of the past 10 matchups since 2021–the Bears ended Minnesota's three-game win streak against them with a 19-17 victory at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 11 last season.

Traveling to Chicago, though, has been a different story, especially in this century. From 2001-2019, the Bears dominated at home against the Vikings, with Chicago posting a 16-3 record. But this decade has been all Minnesota; the Bears are the only team in the league who haven't beaten every divisional rival at home at least once since 2020.

A win on Sunday would not only push the Vikings current win streak dating back to last season to seven, but it would match a franchise record for the most consecutive road victories against a single divisional opponent. Minnesota won seven in a row in Detroit from 1968-1974 (part of a 13-game win overall streak against the Lions) as well as seven straight in Green Bay from 1971-1977.

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