Thursday Night Football in Week 10 isn’t the most pleasing to the general NFL fan who wants to see the best of the best go at it. The 1-7 Carolina Panthers, who continue to struggle, visit the 2-7 Chicago Bears at Soldier Field as two of the worst teams in the NFC go to battle. The kick-off is scheduled for 8:15 PM ET. Carolina is coming off yet another loss in Week 9, this time to the Anthony Richardson-less Indianapolis Colts by a score of 27-13. As for Chicago, they lost to the New Orleans Saints without Justin Fields, who is still injured. We’ll get more into his status below. Continue reading for the Panthers vs Bears picks.
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It’s not too often this happens, but the Bears are the favorite here with -170 moneyline odds. The Panthers come back at +150. Chicago is also laying 3.5 points on the spread while the total is set at a relatively low 40. That makes sense considering how poor both of these offenses are.
Being the first overall pick, there’s always a sense of pressure on your shoulders to perform in Year One. Unfortunately, Bryce Young hasn’t really lived up to expectations for the one-win Panthers. The former Alabama standout has completed just 63.9% of his passes for 1,375 yards and eight touchdowns against seven interceptions. Young has also been sacked 26 times, although that’s not completely his fault. To make matters worse, Young has fumbled the football four times, too.
On Sunday, Young took full blame for the team’s loss to the Colts. Young threw three picks and two of them were returned for touchdowns by Kenny Moore. He ultimately completed 24 of his 39 throws for just 173 yards. Sure, Carolina doesn’t have a lot of depth out wide for the quarterback, but regardless, he should be playing a lot better than he is. To be honest though, the Panthers are essentially in shambles all over. They rank towards the bottom of the NFL in total yards, passing yards, rushing yards, and points with only 17.5 per contest.
Then defensively, Carolina is allowing 28.3 points per game, which is the second-worst mark in the league. The only bright spot is their secondary, who are allowing just 178.2 passing yards. However, it hasn’t really mattered because the run defense is poor. Week 10 definitely represents an opportunity to potentially grab a win but Young must be a mile better. He has a clear opportunity to do some damage though given Chicago’s defensive woes.
Justin Fields went down with a thumb injury in Week 6 and hasn’t played since. Head coach Matt Eberflus said over the weekend however that he’s progressing well and has a chance to play on Thursday based on how practice goes this week. The Bears are 1-2 without Fields, beating the Las Vegas Raiders before back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Chargers and the Saints. Backup Tyson Bagent was honestly atrocious on Sunday and proved why he’s not the starter usually.
Bagent was definitely a big reason Chicago lost, throwing three interceptions. On a more positive note, he did complete 18 of 30 passes for two touchdowns, too. The clear problem for the Bears here was their five turnovers, with most of them proving to be costly. That pretty much summed up the team’s season. Despite the struggles, Chicago actually had the opportunity to tie the game late in the fourth quarter before Demario Davis notched a sack and strip on Bagent.
The Bears are 19th in total yards and points and 24th in passing yards. They do rank fourth in rushing yards though which is much in part due to Fields and Khalil Herbert. The latter just returned from the IR and could play on Thursday. His presence would provide Chicago’s offense with a much-needed boost. The playoffs clearly aren’t happening this season but the Bears will definitely be focusing on winning this one considering the high-flying Detroit Lions are up next.
Whether Fields plays or not, I like the Bears here, who have won five of the last six meetings with the Panthers. Take the Chicago moneyline.
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