Betting the Bears: The enemy rides again

Dec 3, 2022 - 7:00 PM

All Bears fans have wanted is to see the team face off against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers with a quarterback of their own that could possibly go toe-to-toe with him.

That day may come Sunday, but is it what we actually want?

The 4-8 Green Bay Packers are coming to Soldier Field to face the banged-up 3-9 Chicago Bears.

Aaron Rodgers rides again. It feels like this might actually be the last time he faces the Bears and a year removed from his famous “own” comments.

Anyway, I’ll dive into that in a little bit, but let’s visit the WCG contests.

Over in the survivor pool we’re holding steady at seven. No one took a strike last week. Great job.

In the pick ‘ems, Bill Swerski’s Superfans continues as the leader with Eberflus right behind.

Last week’s high-scorer was HITS4LIFE. I’m down in 13th.

Green Bay Packers (-3.5) at Chicago Bears (O/U 45)

The news of Justin Fields participating fully in practice Thursday, and then being clear to play, dropped the line by a full point. It also raised the total.

The game opened at Packers -4.5 but has since come down and the total has slowly risen from 43.5 to where it is now.

I’m not sure how much more this line moves, although I have seen Packers -3 at a couple of places.

The Packers have absolutely dominated this series. We can’t argue that. And we know that Rodgers has circled this game and is hellbent on playing.

We all know he wants one more shot to humiliate the Bears at Soldier Field.

The only thing standing in his way is Justin Fields.

The Packers defense is bad. The Bears are worse. The Packers cannot stop the run, but neither can the Bears.

The difference might come down to the secondary for Chicago. Christian Watson has killer speed and has been coming on over the last three games.

The Bears haven’t been able to slow down about any offense, so I don’t think that suddenly changes, especially as the Packers have been finding their offensive footing.

Justin Fields is going to have something to say about this, but I’m just not sure it will be enough. He’s still not 100, despite what the injury report says. A separated shoulder doesn’t heal in two weeks.

Fields could run all over this defense, but I don’t know that he should. Ideally, Luke Getsy will try to protect Fields a little bit and use more roll outs and plays that show run, but allow Fields to throw. But running room will be there for Chicago.

However, that isn’t swaying me from my pick. I think Fields can keep it close, but now close enough. I think that Rodgers gets his one last moment of personal glory and comes out the victor.

The Bears just don’t have the players to hang with them for 60 minutes.

I’m laying the points with Green Bay and the over.

If I needed a survivor pick this week, I think I would either go GB over Chicago (hate to say it), but since I was eliminated on GB, I would probably look at Seattle over a Rams team that has zero left on it.

My picks: Packers -3.5, over 45, Seattle (survivor)

My record: 11-12-1, 6-5-1 ATS, 3 strikes in survivor