NFL Football: Philadelphia Eagles VS Chicago Bears Prediction, Odds and Preview - 12/18/2022

 

Game Time: 1:00 PM ET,  Sunday, December 18th, 2022

Venue:  Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois

Where to Watch: FOX

FanDuel:  Eagles -9, O/U 48.5

BetMGM:  Eagles -9, O/U 48.5

PointsBet:  Eagles -8.5, O/U 48.5

Eagles: 12-1, 1st place NFC East

Bears: 3-10, 4th place NFC North

An NFC battle of a great team vs a bad team.  Young quarterback who was passed on by everybody in the draft and now wins… and a young quarterback who was coveted by everybody in the draft and now loses.  A Philly front office who has a recent Super Bowl in 2018… then detonated the roster and has now rebuilt a Super Bowl contender… and a Chicago front office that has not had a Super Bowl winner in almost 4 decades and has not managed much of a rebuild at all.  The Philadelphia Eagles have made all the right moves since falling apart after the 2018 Super Bowl win… they have been steadily upgrading the defensive and offensive lines… they have been investing in cover corners who now have them #1 in pass defense… and they drafted the obscenely overlooked QB Jalen Hurts in the 2nd round of the 2020 NFL draft. QB Jalen Hurts wasn’t just overlooked, he was downright disrespected when coach Nick Saban of Alabama demoted Jalen Hurts from Starter to back-up in favor of Tua on Alabama's way to a 2018 National Title… Jalen didn’t quit though… he transferred to Oklahoma where he played effortlessly well… Then draft day came and everybody in the first round overlooked Jalen until the Eagles found him in round 2.  Taken with the idea of sitting for a few years… Jalen was soon pressed into action out of necessity… a star was born.  In college Jalen was in an Alabama quarterback room with Mac Jones who now starts for the Patriots and Tua Tagovailoa who now starts for Maimi… Jalen didn’t seem like the best one then.. He is without a doubt the best one of them now.  The Pros are very different from college… The pros require a big guy who can take a hit.. See over the big linemen… and scramble when needed… All things Jalen is better than the other two at.  It also requires hard work and homework… the grapevine tells me he is better at those as well. The Chicago Bears lose football games year after year in a seemingly endless cycle.  They have not had a top-ten quarterback in the league for possibly 30 years. They reached hard when they drafted QB Justin Fields… who is extremely athletic… and hoped for the best.  What they did not do was build a competent team for Justin to play with.  The Bears are bad at offense and bad on defense… The only stat they lead the league in is rushing yards per game… and that is because their QB Justin Fields leads the team in rushing yards through scrambles and often designed runs.  The Bears have given Justin no protection and very few weapons.

The Philadelphia Eagles are on a 4-game winning streak and they have looked dominant as they've done it. Covering the spread 3 of the 4 wins… and overall being 8-5 ATS for the season.  In their last game they beat the New York Giants 48-22. Jalen Hurts completed 21 of 31 passes for 217 yards, 2 TDs, and 0 INTs.  He also ran the ball for 77 yards and 1 TD on 7 carries.  RB Miles Sanders took over big chunks of this game with 144 rushing yards on 17 carries with 2 TDs.  It was a very easy day for the Eagles offense.  The Eagles defense tortured the Giants by recording 7 sacks spread out among 5 different defenders… the star of the day defensively was DE Brandon Graham who recorded 3 sacks and was in Daniel Jones face all day sack or not. The Eagles only have 1 loss on the season… and shouldn’t be too worried about the Bears.

The Chicago Bears are on a 6-game losing streak… and in those losses they hardly make a game of it with 4 straight losses ATS.  They last lost to the Green Bay Packers 28-19… The Packers have been awful this season, but famously Aaron Rodgers owns the Bears… beating them time and time again. In the loss QB Juston Fields completed 20 of 25 passes for 254 yards 0 TDs and 2 INTs… Justin would also run for 71 yards on 6 carries with 1 TD… RB David Montgomery got 10 less yards than Justin Fields on almost double the amount of carries for 1 TD… and then it was over.  It was clear that the Bears could not score or move the ball any further than they did. WR Chase Claypool lost a fumble… it was all a mess.

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PHI: 12-1, 8-5 ATS, 9-4 O/U, 6-0 on the road.

CHI: 3-10, 4-8-1 ATS, 9-4 O/U, 2-4 at home.

The Eagles are 1st in scoring with 29.7 points per game, 3rd in total yards with 392 per game, 14th in passing yards with 229.8 per game, 2nd in rushing yards with 162.2 per game.

The Bears are 19th in scoring with 20.8 points per game with 20.8, 22nd in total yards with 329.8 per game, 32nd in passing yards with 140.6 per game, 1st in rushing yards with 189.2 per game.

The Eagles defense is 2nd in defense of total yards with 297 per game allowed, 1st in defense of passing yards with 178.7 allowed per game, 18th in defense of rushing yards with 118.3 allowed per game, 7th in defense of points scored with 19.1 allowed per game.

The Bears defense is 19th in defense of total yards with 350.5 allowed per game, 11th in defense of passing yards with 204.2 per game allowed, 27th in rushing yards with 146.3 per game allowed, and 29th in points allowed with 25.6 per game.

Our prediction for Sunday, December 18th is…. Eagles 41 - Bears 13

 

Bet on the Eagles… Do it now before that tiny -9 moves to a larger number.  To put it in perspective the Chiefs are favored by -14 over the Texans… BUT the Texans have a better passing game than the Bears… and the Chiefs are much worse on defense than the Eagles.  This is and should be a no brainer!  Get you Eagles bet in NOW… before that line moves! Also Bet the Over separately.  Both these teams have doubled the amount of Overs on the season versus Unders… The Eagles because they score so many points and the Bears because they give up so many points.

 

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Philly is 4-1 ATS off a road win.

Chicago is 4-7 ATS as an underdog.

Eagles: QB Jalen Hurts, RB Miles Sanders, WR DeVonta Smith, WR AJ Brown, TE Grant Calcaterra, TE Jack Stoll, LT Jordan Mailata, LG Landon Dickerson, C Jason Kelce, RG Isaac Seumalo, RT Lane Johnson

Bears: QB Justin Fields, RB David Montgomery, WR Chase Claypool, WR Dante Pettis, WR Equanimeous ST Brown, TE Cole Kmet, LT Braxton Jones, LG Cody Whitehair, C Sam Mustipher, RG Teven Jenkins, RT Riley Reiff

Partly Cloudy, 31*... 13 mph wind.  Chicago is awful this time of year…. And the next several months… plus most of the last two months.  Visit Chicago in the very last spring if you want to see the sights.