It is Thanksgiving Day in America which means that with turkey comes three NFL matches and the triple header of action begins in the NFC North when the two weakest sides in the division meet as the Detroit Lions take on the Chicago Bears.
There hasn’t been much joy for followers of these two sides but one of them will lift the spirits of their fans while they prepare to sit down and tuck into their turkey but whoever it is that wins won’t have much of an impact on the season as a whole.
Detroit Lions
I think a lot of people expected the Detroit Lions to struggle this season once Matt Stafford disappeared off to the Los Angeles Rams but even allowing for that I don’t think too many would have expected them to be without a win 10 games into the season. That is very much the case though with the only bright spot in a dismal campaign coming in the form of a tie against the Pittsburgh Steelers two weeks ago.
The Lions can point to the fact that they are often competitive but nobody cares if they can’t win matches and the reason why they are struggling to do that is the terrible combination of their offense not being good enough and their defence getting exposed way too often. Usually we would be looking at whether the Lions are tanking the season now but with seven matches left it might be too soon for that. They will certainly want to put on a show on a high profile occasions like this one.
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Chicago Bears
Things are a little bit better for the Chicago Bears but they are still likely to end up with another losing season and already patience within the Bears den is beginning to run out with head coach Matt Nagy. He can rightly point to the fact that injuries haven’t helped his or the Bears’ cause this season but at the same time there have been few obvious signs of progress even with an exciting rookie quarterback within their midst.
Fields is one of the many injuries they have had to contend with this term and he is going to miss this match with broken ribs but as second string quarterbacks go Andy Dalton isn’t the worst so Chicago really should be offering a better output than a 3-7 campaign. This isn’t the fearsome Bears defence of old which is putting a little more pressure on the offense, which still doesn’t look as balanced as it would need to be, and they haven’t coped as often as they would have wanted.
Betting
I think we have to be honest and accept that these are two pretty ordinary sides. One hasn’t got a win all season in the Detroit Lions and the other comes here off the back of a five match losing streak so you would need to be a brave man to bet on the match outcome here with any certainty. I’m always a little bit reluctant to bet on an under on Thanksgiving Day because it is a big occasion and teams tend to raise their game but there is an under I can’t ignore here.
That is on Detroit Lions to go under 19.5 points. They haven’t surpassed this total since the opening week of the season when they took the San Francisco 49ers to the cleaners in garbage time. Only once since then have they even reached 19 points. Chicago aren’t the best team in the world defensively these days but they are the favourites to win here and in each of their three wins they have kept the opposition to less than 20 points. The Lions’ offense seems scared to risk the big play, or don’t have the ability to produce it, and in what might be a tight affair the clock might run out before this safety first Detroit offense reaches the 20 mark.
Tips
Back Detroit Lions – Under 19.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
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