Betting the Bears against the Cardinals: Home dogs again

After ending their five game skid and finally putting all of the drama and rumors to rest for a week, what do the Bears get?

The top two NFC seeds, in order.

This tumultuous season is not giving any breaks to the Bears, who are hitting the stretch run with a head coach that is all but sure to get handed walking papers after the season, a lot of injuries, bad quarterback play and more.

The Cardinals have also banged up but they’ve been able to play past it and are 2-1 without Kyler Murray, a legitimate MVP candidate and WR DeAndre Hopkins, who, when healthy, is a top five receiver in the league.

The Bears can barely win when their best players are on the field.

In the survivor contest, we’re down to just four left. I was eliminated, along with four others. I took the Chargers while one took the Eagles and one took the Lions (you should be eliminated if you choose the Lions), while the other two didn’t make picks. CrackedCactus’s Irredeemables is the only one with a perfect record while the other three remaining each have two strikes.

Tread lightly my friends.

CrackedCactus Irredeemables was the also the high-scorer in the Pick ‘Ems contest last week with 10, while Macksmith is still on top of the leaderboard with 113.

The picks are getting tougher, it seems like the games are getting more and more unpredictable and it’s harder to tell whose good. Tread lightly friends.

Arizona Cardinals (-7.5) vs. Chicago Bears (O/U 43.5)

According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Bears are 7.5 point home underdogs to the visiting Cardinals.

The Bears are 2-3 outright at home and 3-2 against the spread. They’re 0-3 as home underdogs straight up but 1-2 against the spread in those games.

Going back to the old stat, Matt Nagy’s Bears have been downright bad with extra rest: They’re 1-8 straight up and against the spread following a bye or a Sunday game after a Thursday game. Their only win in that spot was against Carolina last October as a short road underdog.

The Bears have lost nine straight games as a 6-point or more underdog.

Now, looking at the Arizona side, they aren’t exactly in a great spot either. They are 0-2 straight up after the bye week under Kliff Kingsbury and against the spread, as well as 0-1 as a favorite.

They are 1-0 as road favorites this season, but surprisingly this is only the second time they’ve been favored on the road. Arizona is undefeated on the road straight up this season (6-0).

The one element that is kind of a hang up in all of this is that there is rain in the forecast for Sunday. That does play in to the Bears’ favor, if the Soldier Field turf is slippery and muddy, you have to think that could be an advantage for the home team.

Especially with the Cardinals having their quarterback coming back off injury.

With that said though, I’m laying the points with the Cardinals and taking the under.

I have been so, so, SO bad on the total this year but the under has hit eight times this year and if there’s going to be weather and a QB returning off injury and possibly being rusty, plus Andy Dalton playing, I think the under is more likely.

Even if the Cardinals rout the Bears, the game could be as lopsided as 30-13 or 33-10 and still come under so I think that the under is the safer play and the Cardinals will win.

Although I am eliminated from the survivor pool, I will give out a pick, I would probably go with the Chiefs this week (Andy Reid after a bye!), but if you haven’t used the Rams, Colts or Eagles, those are viable options as well.

My picks: Cardinals -7.5, under 43.5, Chiefs (survivor)

2021 record: 5-5-1 ATS, 7-12-1 overall