The Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears are both trying to avoid their season from turning into total collapse. Their chances to make the playoffs have gone dimmer after Week 9, but things could start to look up for the winner of this matchup at Soldier Field. The Lions and the Bears are +4000 and +6000 to win the NFC North, respectively.
If the Lions are going to turn things around, they will need their defense to tighten things up or they will not be able to stop themselves from sliding down to the depths of the standings. It’s that or the offense will have to keep carrying this team and more. In Week 9, the Lions took a 31-24 road loss to the Oakland Raider — their fourth in five games. Matthew Stafford played sweet music with his receivers, namely Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones, who had 132 and 126 receiving yards, respectively, and a touchdown each. Stafford finished with 406 passing yards and three touchdowns with an interception on 26-of-41 completions, but their collective effort on that side of the ball was wasted by Detroits’ defense that gave up 450 total yards to Oakland. Stafford needs to be more careful with the ball, too, as he had two turnovers, including a lost fumble in the first half. As bad as the defense was in that game for Detriot, the Lions’s stop unit seem to have an easier task ahead of them, as the Bears’ offense often times look clueless with Mitchell Trubisky.
The Lions are 4-3 against the spread (ATS) in their last seven games overall.
Betting on the Chicago Bears (3-5)
All you need to know about the state of the Bears’ defense is the fact that they came up with a grand total of nine total yards (!) in the first half of their Week 9 22-14 road loss at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles. Trubisky spent the entire game spoon-feeding Chicago fans of additional pieces of evidence why he is not someone who should be given the keys to the offense for the long term. Trubisky finished with 125 passing yards on 10-of-21 completions. And once again, it was rookie running back David Montgomery who did the heavy lifting on offense for Chicago, scoring two touchdowns and rushing for 40 yards on 14 carries. While Chicago’s defense wasn’t able to contain the Eagles, it remains an asset for the Bears. They are sixth in the league with just 18.0 points allowed per game and ninth with 323.6 total yards surrendered per contest.
The Bears are 3-1-1 ATS in their last five home games against the Lions.
