Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are looking to win their fourth straight game when they head to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears on Thursday Night Football. Brady has looked better with each passing week as he continues to develop relationships with his receivers, while the Bears are a mess. They continue to have trouble moving the ball, as neither Mitch Trubisky nor Nick Foles have been the answer. That has led to Tampa Bay being favored per the NFL betting odds, and this game is scheduled to kick on Thursday, October 8, at 8:20 p.m. ET with FOX, NFL Network, and Amazon all broadcasting it.
NFL Odds at Bookmaker.eu
Tampa Bay Buccaneers -4.5
Chicago Bears +4.5
Total 44
The big concern for the Buccaneers coming into the week is how many healthy players they will have at the skill positions. Tampa Bay’s running backs and wide receivers are banged up, and that could lead to some new faces seeing a lot of time against Chicago. Tight end OJ Howard is out for the season, and the Buccaneers’ top four receivers are on the injury report.
Chris Godwin sat out last week with a hamstring injury, while Mike Evans played through a sprained ankle to put up big numbers against the Chargers. Scotty Miller and Justin Watson were injured on Sunday too, leading to all four players not participating in practice on Monday. It looks like Godwin won’t play, but Evans, Miller, and Watson are currently questionable. We haven’t seen another receiver on the roster catch a pass outside of those four players, so there could be some issues with the short week.
That is likely to lead to a heavy dose of Ronald Jones II in the run game. Jones is the only healthy running back on the roster, and he posted his first 100-yard game of the season last week. He is currently averaging 4.4 YPC on the year, and he has been targeted 18 times out of the backfield as well.
Chicago’s defense is a top ten unit in terms of both total defense and scoring defense, but the Bears have had some issues stopping the run. They are conceding 4.2 YPC, and that’s a bit alarming considering some of the names in the front seven. If the Buccaneers can have success moving the chains on the ground, that will certainly make things much easier for Brady in the air.
Matt Nagy made the move to replace Mitch Trubisky with Nick Foles in Week 3, and Foles led the Bears to a comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons. However, Foles fell flat against Indianapolis last week, and the two quarterbacks have posted eerily similar stat lines. Foles will almost certainly get the start since you can’t turn back to Trubisky at this point, but he is unlikely to have a ton of success.
You have to feel for Allen Robinson II. Robinson had Blake Bortles throwing him passes in Jacksonville for four years, and this is his third season in Chicago. He has the talent to be a top ten receiver in this league, but he has posted just two 1,000-yard seasons. Robinson is the only real weapon in the passing game, tallying double the receiving yards as anyone else on the team.
Tampa Bay’s front four does an excellent job of getting pressure. The Buccaneers rank fifth in sack rate, and they figure to do a great job stuffing the run too. This was one of the best run defenses in 2019, and that has continued in 2020 with Tampa Bay allowing 2.7 YPC.
Prediction
The under looks like a good play in this game. Tampa Bay won’t have time to install much with new personnel, and Chicago just isn’t capable of scoring a lot of points.
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