Week 5 of the NFL 2023 season kicks off on Thursday night when two NFC teams meet in the Thursday Night Football which this week sees the Washington Commanders playing host to the Chicago Bears.
The Commanders have begun the season in relatively positive fashion with a 2-2 record from their opening four matches. The same cannot be said of the Bears who go into this match winless and will see their season ended before it has started with another defeat here.
Washington Commanders
The Washington Commanders have made an acceptable start to the season despite their obvious shortcomings and a win here would have them sitting pretty as we approach the end of the opening third of the campaign. They are very much a work in progress with Sam Howell as quarterback and the longer they can be competitive this season the quicker he will learn and the team will make it up to speed in the long run.
He has some good offensive weapons to help him although his offensive line could do with protecting him much better. To have taken 24 sacks in just four matches is not a good long-term plan. That needs to improve, as does their defence which has shipped 33 or more points in their last three matches. That they have won one of those matches and only lost another in overtime highlights how well their offense has played.
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Chicago Bears
If it could go wrong for the Chicago Bears it has done this season. Even when they are playing well and comfortable ahead in a match like they were against the Denver Broncos last week they collapse from nowhere and end up losing. The big concern for the Bears is that Justin Fields had his best game as a passer last week and it still wasn’t good enough to beat a team who were winless heading into that contest. That is now 14 straight defeats for Chicago so something is going to have to give soon.
Fields and the amount of turnovers he churns up is an issue and the same can be said for the Chicago defence which is massively underperforming which is a terrible combination. The problem the Bears have heading into this match is there is a short turnaround so no real time to work on their deficiencies so they are going to need to hope that their offense can keep putting up the plays they did against Denver and that the defence can make the odd play which will make enough of a difference.
Betting
I am struggling to see how we’re not going to get a high scoring match here. These two defences ship points like they are going out of fashion and incredibly we only have a 43.5 point line for this match. When you consider that Washington have conceded 30+ points in their last three matches and Chicago have shipped 30+ points already this season we should be looking at both offenses to rule the roost in this one.
While the defences of these two sides have struggled, Washington put up 31 points against a good Philadelphia side last week while Chicago have scored regularly enough at times this term. There hasn’t been much time for these two teams to form different game plans and when you look at the offenses the likes of Terry McLaurin and DJ Moore are among the better receivers in the league. Add in the potential for short fields with all the turnovers these two quarterbacks have coughed up this term and I like the over to land.
Tips
Back Over 43.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
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