Chicago Regular Season Wins: Over 8 (-105) or Under 8 (-115)
Chicago made some noise in the off-season by signing some big free agents like Julius Peppers, and brought in offensive guru Mike Martz to help bring QB Jay Cutler along in his development, but they may still be a year or two away from great success given how the NFL odds makers are only putting the win total for them at 8 and juicing it to the under. They do play in the tough NFC North with Green Bay, Minnesota and Detroit, so getting wins within the division will be extremely important, but tough as well. Their non-division schedule gives them some lulls here and there, but it is the finish to the season that will determine how good this Bears team is, and whether or not one wins this future bet on either side.
As a fan of any team, how would you feel if I told you that to end the season your team had to play at home vs. New England, play in Minnesota the next week, back home vs. New York Jets, and then conclude the season with a visit up to Green Bay? During the playoff drive these are the teams you will have to beat in order to secure a spot, so good luck. Well this is exactly what is staring Chicago in the face in 2010, and all they can really hope for is that most of these teams have already clinched that second stringers get to play most of the time.
With Cutler’s knack for turning the ball over, those four opponents could all punish the Bears and send Chicago off with a 0-4 SU record to finish 2010. So they have 12 other games to reach 8 plus wins, can they do it?
They have two games against the young Detroit Lions, but division rivals always play tough no matter how weak they appear to be, so nothing will come easy for Chicago in those games. They also have another game against Minnesota and Green Bay earlier in the season, and like I said, division games are always tough, especially when you are up against Super Bowl contenders. We are down to 8 games remaining.
Two of those games feature road trips to Dallas and the New York Giants, two hard-nosed, tough teams that are extremely tough to beat on the road. Dallas is everyone’s pick to be the NFC representative for the Super Bowl this year in their home stadium, so you know walking into Dallas with a young WR core and minimal “big play” threats, the Bears will have a tough time winning. The Giants could just run all over the Bears, and if that wind is swirling in New York, look out Cutler.
With 6 games left, we have already had a tough time finding spots for the Bears to get any wins. They would have likely beat Detroit (at least once) maybe another division foe too, so for arguments sake, let’s say they have 3 wins with 6 games left. Chicago gets to host Seattle and west coast teams tend to struggle on the east coast. They host Washington and Philly, two tough teams, but the benefit of getting them at home could be enough for Chicago to at least get a split there.
They play Buffalo up in Toronto, Canada and the indoor stadium should help Cutler minimize his mistakes; chalk up another win. They go to Carolina in Week 5 of NFL betting against a tough running team in the Panthers, and you know the Carolina fans would like nothing better than to beat Julius Peppers, so Chicago can expect the “A game” from Carolina. Finally they go into Miami on a Thursday night after hosting the Vikings the week before. A short week after a division foe spells “letdown spot” for any team, and the improved Dolphins will look to exploit Chicago there.
It looks like the 8 win total is spot on the number and the Bears should end up exactly around that number. Under 8 is the way to go though here, strictly because of how tough that final stretch is for Chicago and they could be out of gas by the time they get to that point.
Lean Under 8 wins for Chicago in 2010.
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