The Bucs, who haven\u2019t reached the playoffs since 2007, became an instant contender when they signed Brady. Last week, he threw five touchdown passes to help the Bucs overcome a 17-point deficit and beat the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n
Their success goes beyond Brady, though. He\u2019s formed an instant connection with receiver Mike Evans, who has only 17 receptions, but with five touchdowns. Linebacker Lavonte David was named the NFC\u2019s Defensive Player of the Month for September to fuel a unit that is giving up a minuscule 2.71 yards per rushing attempt.<\/p>\n
Their defense is pretty good and Brady\u2019s been doing it with Evans hurt one week, (receiver Chris) Godwin hurt the next week, (tight end) O.J. Howard out now, so it\u2019s not like he\u2019s had all his weapons at his disposal all at once,\u201d <\/strong>said Nick Bogdanovich, the director of trading at William Hill, to Casino.org<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019d say Tampa\u2019s in pretty good shape right now, to be honest with you. They look like a pretty well-rounded unit: good coaching, good leadership, enough offense, enough defense.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Buccaneers are eighth in the NFL in points scored, as well as points allowed.<\/p>\n
No Belief in the Bears<\/h2>\n
Chicago started 3-0, though all three victories came by matching four-point margins against teams with a combined record of 1-11. Last week, the Bears lost 19-11 to Indianapolis. With Nick Foles getting his first start in place of the benched Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback, Chicago\u2019s lone touchdown came with less than 2 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s probably the lesser of two evils,\u201d <\/strong>Bogdanovich said of Foles. \u201cTrubisky just doesn\u2019t have the consistency. He obviously has the talent, but they had to bench him for Foles.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cTheir offense is so vanilla,\u201d <\/strong>Bogdanovich added. \u201cIn an offensive league, they struggled to get to 10 against the Colts. (Running back David) Montgomery\u2019s just a plodder, (running back Tarik) Cohen\u2019s out. Their receivers are halfway decent but, I don\u2019t know, they just look like a .500 squad.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nA key battle will be Brady against Chicago\u2019s defense, which ranks third in opponent passer rating.<\/p>\n
By the way, this will be the first Thursday night game of the season aired on Fox.<\/p>\n
Week 5 Schedule<\/h2>\n
Here are this week\u2019s games, with betting lines from William Hill. All times are Eastern.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Tampa Bay at Chicago (+3.5), 8:20 PM (FOX\/NFLN\/Amazon)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Buffalo at Tennessee (no line), 1 p.m. (CBS)<\/li>\n
- Los Angeles Rams at Washington (+7), 1 p.m. (FOX)<\/li>\n
- Arizona at New York Jets (+7), 1 p.m. (FOX)<\/li>\n
- Philadelphia at Pittsburgh (-7), 1 p.m. (FOX)<\/li>\n
- Carolina at Atlanta (-1), 1 p.m. (FOX)<\/li>\n
- Cincinnati at Baltimore (-13), 1 p.m. (CBS)<\/li>\n
- Jacksonville at Houston (-6), 1 p.m. (CBS)<\/li>\n
- Las Vegas at Kansas City (-13), 1 p.m. (CBS)<\/li>\n
- Miami at San Francisco (-8.5), 4:05 p.m. (FOX)<\/li>\n
- Indianapolis at Cleveland (+2), 4:25 p.m. (CBS)<\/li>\n
- New York Giants at Dallas (-9.5), 4:25 p.m. (CBS)<\/li>\n
- Denver at New England (no line), 4:25 p.m. (CBS)<\/li>\n
- Minnesota at Seattle (-7), 8:20 p.m. (NBC)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Monday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Los Angeles Chargers at New Orleans (-7.5), 8:15 p.m. (ESPN)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
The Buffalo Bills at Tennessee Titans and Denver Broncos at New England Patriots games are off the board because of\u00a0positive COVID-19 tests with the Titans and Patriots<\/a>. The Patriots have had two consecutive days of negative tests, but the Titans had two more positives, to bring their total to 23 players and staff members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears have 3-1 records but vastly different Super Bowl odds entering Thursday night\u2019s game in Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":151518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[81187,81004,81190,81101,81724,81816,81065],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Bettors Like Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Not Chicago Bears in NFL Battle of 3-1. - Casino.org Thursday Night NFL Preview: Bettors Like Tampa Bay Buccaneers But Not Chicago Bears<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n