NFL Week 7 Game Preview: Chicago Bears vs. Las Vegas Raiders

Las Vegas Raiders

SB Nation site: Silver and Black Pride

Record: 3-3, second in the AFC West

Last week: 21-7 win over the New England Patriots

Game day, time, TV: Sunday, noon CT, FOX

Spread: According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Raiders are 3-point favorites over the Bears. The total us 37.5 points.

Bears all-time record against: 8-8

Historical meetings: Week 4, 2016. The Bears were 0-3 and hosted the 2-1 Raiders.

The game was back and forth from the start, with Jay Cutler finding Eddie Royal for a score and the Raiders answering back with a Derek Carr-to-Amari Cooper TD.

Following a fumbler recovery, Carr found Roy Helu on the teams’ next drive to put Oakland (at the time) up 14-7.

On the next drive, Chicago drove down the field and Cutler found Martellus Bennett for a 5-yard score.

Pernell McPhee picked off Carr on the next drive and the Bears ended up getting a field goal out of it.

Then the offenses kind of stalled and the teams traded punts and field goals. Matt Forte lost a fumble and later Charles Woodson picked off Cutler.

Following the pick, the Raiders drove and kicked a field goal to go up 20-19 with 2:19 left in the game.

Cutler dinked and dunked the offense down the field and finally with seven seconds left Robbie Gould kicked a 49-yard field goal to give the Bears a 22-20 win.

It was the first win for coach John Fox.

Last meeting: Week 5 of 2021. What turned out to be Jon Gruden’s final game as a coach, the Bears traveled to Las Vegas and took it to the Raiders.

Justin Fields found Jesper Horstead for a short touchdown and Damien Williams ran in another score.

Josh Jacobs scored on a rush in the third quarter but the Raiders went for two and failed.

The Bears tacked on two field goals and left with a 20-9 win.

Injury report: The Raiders had seven players on their injury report Wednesday.

Limited

• WR Davante Adams (shoulder)
• CB Jakorian Bennett (shoulder/knee)
• DE Maxx Crosby (knee/thumb)
• CB Tyler Hall (ankle)

Did not participate

• QB Jimmy Garoppolo (back)
• OT Justin Herron (concussion)
• CB Nate Hobbs (ankle)

Offense: The Raiders’ offense comes to Chicago ranked 27th in points and 24th in yards.

Their passing offense ranks 14th and their rushing offense ranks 31st.

With Jimmy Garoppolo (68 pct. cmp./1,079 yds./7 TD/8 INT) hurting the quarterback is likely to be either Aiden O’Connell (61.5/238/0/1) or Brian Hoyer (60/102/0/0).

The weapons at their disposal are former Green Bay receiver Davante Adams (39 rec./471 yds./3 TD), former Patriot Jakobi Meyers (30/335/4), and rookie TE Michael Mayer (8/116/0). Veteran TE Austin Hooper (8/81/0) and Hunter Renfrow (6/59/0) are also making plays.

Running back Josh Jacobs (107 att./312 yds./2 TD) is not quite as productive as last year, but is involved in the passing game (25 rec./209 yds./0 TD). Backups Zamir White (10/41/0) and Ameer Abduallah (1/4/0 on the ground; 6/46/0 as a receiver) are also in the mix.

Defense: The Raiders’ defense enters the week ranked 19th in points and 11th in yards.

They rank eighth in passing defense and 21st in rushing defense.

Led by Maxx Crosby (5.5 sk/1 PD/8 TFL/8 QB hits), a one man wrecking crew at DE, they also have Robert Spillane (49 tkls/1 sk/2 TFL/1 QB hit/2 INT/2 PD), Tre’von Moehrig (2 INT/4 PD/1 sk) and Marcus Peters (24 tkls/2 PD).

Key match ups: With two backup quarterbacks, this surprisingly feels like a relatively simple gameplan. For the Bears’ offense, it’s mostly going to come down to blocking Maxx Crosby and running the football. The disparity in the Raiders’ defense shows that running the ball is the offensive game plan. It will allow the Bears to set up play action and use shorter routes, which might play more into Tyson Bagent’s game.

On defense, blitz and get after the Raiders quarterback. Brian Hoyer is a seasoned veteran and can play a pretty good game (don’t forget he has the highest QB rating in Bears single-season history). Get him uncomfortable.

Slowing down Adams will also be imperative.

Key stats

• The Raiders are dead-middle of the league in blitz percentage (16th at 24.6 percent).
• Their pressure percentage is one spot lower than Chicago’s at 17.4 percent, good for 28th.
• Crosby accounts for 42 percent of the Raiders’ sacks and 36 percent of their QB hits.
• Adams, Meyers and Jacobs account for 72.3 percent of the Raiders’ team receptions.
• Adams and Meyers have all of Las Vegas’s receiving touchdowns.
• The Raiders have the most interceptions thrown in the league. Garopollo leads the league with eight picks.

Can the Bears get a win Sunday? What is it going to take?