The 5-1 Super Bowl champions welcome the .500 Bears to the Raymond James Stadium. Will Tom Brady and his injury-depleted Bucs have enough to see off Justin Fields and the Bears?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are without a number of starters for this contest. Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown, Lavonte David and Richard Sherman are all OUT. Of course, Tampa have an abundance of talent for Brady to pass the ball too so shouldn’t miss Gronk and AB too much, but David and Sherman are big losses to a defense already struggling. Expect Tampa to blitz the rookie QB plenty to try and hide the deficiencies in the secondary.
Chicago was humbled by their owner Aaron Rodgers in last week’s contest against Green Bay. The Bears had won back to back games before losing by 10 to the Packers, and Justin Fields is starting to look a little bit more confident with Bill Lazor calling the plays, but his inability to negate the blitz has been telling. Fields has yet to throw for more than 210 yards in a single game, and against a Bucs team that will bring pressure, I don’t see him throwing for much more than that in this one. Darnell Mooney has been a consistent target for his rookie QB, the second-year pass-catcher has five or more receptions in four of six games this year and could be in for targets against a Bucs defense that’s near impossible to run on.
Spread: Bears +11.5
Total Match Points line: U/O 47.0
Game Prediction: Tampa 27-17 Bears
Best Bet: Justin Fields under 221.5 Passing Yards & Darnell Mooney over 4.5 Receptions @ 10/3 with Bet365 Bet Builder. [0.5]
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