Bears Will Try to Remain Unbeaten While Keeping the Steelers Winless
The Chicago Bears will take on the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night. The Bears will try to run their NFC North leading record to 3-0 while sending the Steelers to an awful 0-3 start. Show of hands, who had Pittsburgh starting 0-3? We certainly did not. Now it is looking like a real possibility. Obviously, the TV networks didn’t think that was going to happen either as this is Pittsburgh’s second prime time game in a row. On Monday, they lost to their AFC North rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals 20-10.
The Bears are coming off a thriller last week when they beat their division rivals, the Minnesota Vikings 31-30. Jay Cutler fired a 16 yard touchdown pass in the last ten seconds of the game to Martellus Bennett to pull out the win. Had he not completed the comeback, the entire division would be 1-1 right now. The Bears have yet to hit the road this season, but they will be this week against the Steelers and again next week at the Detroit Lions.
The Steelers have been terrible so far this season on offense. Losing Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey for the season to a knee injury has certainly not helped. The Steelers have mustered only 19 points in their two losses to the Tennessee Titans and the Bengals. The bears defense was burned by Christian Ponder and the 0-2 Vikings for 30 points a week ago. So it will be interesting to see if the Steelers offense or the Bears defense is worse.
Bovada has the Bears -3 -110 and the Steelers +3 -110 ATS. Over/Under is 40 with over -115 and under -105. It sounds as if the odds makers expect this to be a rather low scoring game which would seem to favor Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh definitely needs this game more than the Bears do. We like the Steelers +3 and the over -115.
Other NFC North games include:
Green Bay Packers at Cincinnati Bengals– The Packers and Bengals are both 1-1 and both have had a tough early slate. This week is more of the same as the two meet in Cincinnati. The Bengals have a loss to the Bears and a win over the Steelers while the Packers lost a tough one to the San Francisco 49ers before routing the Washington Redskins. The Bengals are -3 EVEN and the Packers are +3 -120. Over/Under is 48.5 with over and under both -110. We like the Packers +3 and the over -110 on this one.
Cleveland Browns at Minnesota Vikings– The Browns fans were fired up in the preseason, but the regular season has been business as usual. Both come into this game 0-2, but the Vikings look to be the better team. Both of their losses were close and they have put up some points. Betonline has the Browns +5.5 -110 and the Vikings are -5.5 -110 ATS. Moneyline is Cleveland +205 and the Vikings -245. Over/Under is 40.5 with both -110. We are going to take the Vikings -5.5 and the over -110. The Browns are down to their third string quarterback and their first two were not that good.
Detroit Lions at Washington Redskins– The Lions are +2.5 -110 and the Skins are -2.5 -110 ATS on Betonline. Moneyline is Detroit +115 and Washington -135. O/U is 48.5 with both -110. Washington certainly must come out of the gates better in this game than they have in their first two. They have been outscored 50-7 in the first half in their first two games. We think they get that ironed out this week. We like Washington -2.5 -110 and the under -110.
