The second week of the NFL season draws to a close with the traditional Monday Night Football and this week the EPSN cameras trek north to Soldier Field for the match between the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Both sides had different beginnings to their seasons last week when the Eagles proving far too good for the Cleveland Browns while the Bears were beaten in an arm wrestle against the Houston Texans. Both will be eager for the win here which makes for a good game.
Chicago Bears
It always looked a tough assignment for the Bears against the Houston Texans last week and so it proved. They are an offense looking to recover from the absence of Matt Forte and it might take a while for that to come to fruition although Jeremy Langford offers much the same option as Forte albeit not quite as potent just yet.
One area where the Bears had to improve last year was their defence. They defended fairly well last week and they will certainly be tested here by a fairly powerful Eagles offense. Protecting Jay Cutler needs to improve too else you get the feeling this will be another disappointing season for the Bears.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles went into the season with a rookie quarterback starting for them and things could barely have started any better for Carson Wentz. He threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns and linked up wonderfully with his receiver Jordan Matthews. Admittedly that was only against the Cleveland Browns and tougher tests will come but it was a promising start from the first round draft pick.
One area of concern for the Eagles last week might be the big plays they gave away through the air and with a gun slinger like Jay Cutler in opposition in this match that is something they will need to manage much better but this is an Eagles defence which has underperformed for a while. The offense will have to do without Zach Ertz here as the tight end is out with a rib injury.
Betting
On the face of it the Bears’ offense struggled last week, certainly numerically at least, but few get much change from the Texans’ defence these days so we shouldn’t hold that against them. I sense they will have more joy against this Eagles’ D which bodes well for backing the overs.
We’ll find out more about how good Wentz is here but everything we saw last week suggests he is the player most thought the Eagles have signed and if that is the case he should be capable of leading his side up the field in this one. It isn’t ideal that Zach Ertz is out but in Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, Darren Sproles and Ryan Mathews this offense isn’t short of playmakers.
I fancy we’ll see some big plays made and while the offensive play might not always be as fluent as neutrals would like I do think those big plays will result in points. I think both are better on offense than defence and that can lead us to more than 41.5pts.
Tips
WON – Back Over 41.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Skybet
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