The Bears and Texans are power ranked as two of the worst teams in the league.
They both feature defenses that have had some moments over the first two weeks of the season and two of the worst offenses in the league by about any metric.
It’s still early enough in the season though, to where there is some doubt over what we’ve seen over the first two games of the season.
The Texans have held their opponents to pretty low-scoring games, but the Colts and Broncos both seem to be pretty disjointed, bad offenses on their own.
The Bears beat a San Francisco team with high expectations in a rain storm and then got pretty beat in by the Packers.
So are these teams really as bad as they seem? Are they worse? Are they better?
We should get a lot of answers Sunday at Soldier Field.
In the survivor pool, 20 more people took strikes who made a pick. Looks like all of those were on Cleveland and Cincinnati. Yikes. I skimmed by with the Broncos.
Over in pick ‘ems, I had a worse week than week one as I scored 8 wins. Bill Swerski continues to lead and he won the week. I have to pick it up before I get left in the dust.
Now, onto the Bears.
Chicago Bears (-3) vs. Houston Texans (O/U 40)
The Bears are 1-4 all-time against the Texans and match that record against the spread. They have been favored only two other times against Houston, in 2012 when Jay Cutler got hurt and Jason Campbell relieved him and in their first ever meeting in 2004.
The under has hit in all but one game between these two teams as well.
Both teams have defenses that struggle against the run and it’s something both teams want to do.
The Texans though have played their first two opponents close, but their opponents really played down to their level and had a lot of self-inflicted issues.
If the Bears can play cleanly, I expect them to be able to take care of business against Houston.
Justin Fields should benefit from playing a similar defense to that of his own team.
Also, Davis Mills isn’t that inspiring when you look at the numbers. His road splits are not good. He 1-6 as a starter on the road, completing a lower amount of his passes (60.75 vs. 68.63 at home), for fewer yards (245.6 yds per game at home vs. 159.4 yds per game on the road) and, most alarmingly for Texans fans, four touchdowns and nine interceptions on the road vs. 14-1 at home. That’s a big disparity.
Mills is also not good in close games. When the final margin was 0-7 points, he’s 0-3-1.
Although it scares me, I’m laying the points with the Bears and I’m taking the under.
For the survivor pool, I’m deciding between the Vikings (Kirk Cousins at home at 1 p.m. feels like a good spot) or the Bengals. I’m rolling with the Bengals right now, in what feels like a good get-right spot against the Jets.
Picks: Bears -3, under 40, Bengals (survivor)
2022 Record: 2-2 (1-1 ATS)
Let me know what you think, tweet me @SamHouseholder on Twitter.
Join us every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. on our 2nd City Gridiron YouTube channel for The Gambler’s Den, where Jeff Berckes, Ross Read, and Erik Smith, talk prop bets, make game picks, and go over fantasy football decisions too.
