Another week of NFL action gets underway on Thursday night when the Chicago Bears host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Soldier Field in a match which will see one of these two NFC sides exiting the night 4-1 for their season.
Both these teams have offered up a promising start to their campaign but if they want to win their division and give themselves a better run through the postseason they know they will need to keep winning with some dangerous sides in their division.
Chicago Bears
It is easy to forget that the Bears are 3-1 for the season when all we heard over the first three weeks of the season is when would Nick Foles get the starting job at quarterback? Ironically the answer to that question was last week and the Bears suffered their only defeat of the season so far in that match which has muddied the equation a little further. It appears Foles is going to start again here which is probably the right decision but he needs to offer up a much better performance than he did against the Colts.
The big thing the Bears are going to need to rely on to come through this match is their defence. This is a powerful offense they are up against and by their standards the Chicago D wasn’t at its best against Indianapolis last week and they’ve not had much time to work out the necessary improvements. If they don’t control Brady here this could be a long night for the home side, for whom this is probably an acceptable test for where they are as a team at the minute.
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers
While the Bears lost for the first time last week, the Buccaneers have gone about things in the opposite way. They dropped their opening match of the season to the New Orleans Saints but since then they have won three on the bounce and there have been signs in each match that their powerful offense is beginning to warm up. It is no surprise that they started slowly on that side of the ball given that getting Brady to adjust to the offense would have taken time which they were devoid of in a training camp or pre-season matches.
The one thing they are doing is giving him time to throw the ball now. The offensive line is working tremendously and with key weapons in the passing game coming back, even allowing for the season ending injury to OJ Howard, you’ve got to think Brady and his offense are only going to get better. Their defence has a chance to show its credentials here too given that they are up against an offense that has a few questions over it and a bit of pressure on their shoulders.
Betting
I don’t really want to side with this Chicago Bears offense but on the same note regular readers will know that I’m no fan at all of taking away sides in these short week matches so that makes me leave the match betting alone. I’m not particularly swayed either way on the total points either given that the line looks about right at 44.5, it will struggle to cover if the Bears continue to flatter to deceive on offense and it will cover easily if they have a good game but again that is guesswork.
One thing which is less of a guess is that Rob Gronkowski is likely to see a lot more of the ball here. Tampa Bay do have Cameron Brate to come in to compensate for the injury to OJ Howard. Even with Brate around I’m expecting Brady to look to one of his all-time favourite targets more here so the over 36.5 receiving yards line on Gronkowski in this match appeals to me. He is slowly becoming more of a threat anyway with 48 yards two weeks ago and 29 off just one pass last week. Given he should naturally see more of the ball here I like the over on his receiving line.
Tips
WON – Back R.Gronkowski – Over 36.5 receiving yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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