TNF Preview and Bets: Washington Commanders @ Chicago Bears
Sports Opinion by Josh Blatt and Ethan Irish
We've been blessed with yet another mid prime time game, this Thursday's installment is the Washington Commanders heading to Chicago to face off against the Bears. Carson Wentz and company will be looking to put some points on the board, in what is projected to be a slow paced and low scoring matchup, while Justin Fields will be looking to be able to open up the passing game for Chicago.
Josh's Take:
The Chicago Bears have been terrible at defending the run and rank dead last in the NFL in rushing yards allowed. Whereas the Commanders are middle of the pack at 16th. Where it gets more interesting is that the Bears have defended the pass well ranking 4th in passing yards allowed. Washington hasn't been able to stop anything in the air-- they rank 24th in passing yards allowed and 30th in passing touchdowns allowed. If Justin Fields is gonna break out using his arm? This is the game for it to happen. The Bears total defense ranks 11th lowest in points against while the Commanders rank 29th. Now why am I telling you this?
Because these offenses are offensively bad-- the Bears are the 27th (17.2 points per game) worst scoring offense while the Commanders are are 26th (18 points per game) and I don't see those numbers jumping up too high. These teams won't score a lot of points, or maybe the lack of defense will finally result in scoring? Regardless, the only touchdown scorer bet that I have down is for Brian Robinson Jr. and that was a free bet, don't involve touchdown scoring in your parlays for the love of god, please don't do it. I see this being a laughably bad football game. Smells like 16-9 Bears or 35-10 Commanders, and I don't know why.
Ethan's Take:
Dogshit game with two dogshit teams. They really need to start giving something that is watchable in primetime.
Let's start the week off right though. The Bears success goes as far as their rushing attack takes them and the Commanders surprisingly have one of the better rush defenses that Chicago will have faced thus far. I still expect David Montgomery to get a lot of touches just because the Chicago Bears offensive line is ranked dead last in sack percentage allowed and Washington is ranked 8th in the league in sack percentage. I do not see the Bears having a ton of offensive success during this game on TNF.
Washington is the more talented team even in this matchup. I expect them to continue to pass the ball a lot still but I expect Brian Robinson to be involved in the offense more. Guy got shot twice like seven weeks ago in an attempted carjacking and is playing. Just an animal. With that said I think the current line on Fanduel is at Chicago -1 is overreacting to their game against the Vikings last week that they stayed close in. Washington is the better team.
Josh's Bets: (via Fanduel)
Brian Robinson Rushing Yards o48.5 (-113)
Total Points 2Q u10.5 (-124)
Total Points u37.5 (-105)
Ethan's Bets:
Washington Commanders +1 (-114) (Fanduel)
David Montgomery Rush Attempts O16.5 (-105) (DraftKings)
Brian Robinson Anytime TD Scorer (+235) (DraftKings)