{"id":151517,"date":"2020-10-08T08:26:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=151517"},"modified":"2020-10-08T11:21:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T18:21:26","slug":"bettors-like-tampa-bay-buccaneers-but-not-chicago-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bettors-like-tampa-bay-buccaneers-but-not-chicago-bears\/","title":{"rendered":"Bettors Like Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Not Chicago Bears in NFL Battle of 3-1."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears enter Thursday night\u2019s game at Soldier Field with identical 3-1 records. Their betting outlooks, however, could hardly be more different.<\/p>\n

\"Tampa
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is fourth in the NFL with 11 touchdown passes going into Thursday night’s game at the Chicago Bears. (Image: Kim Klement\/USA TODAY Sports<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just like when the season opened<\/a>, the Buccaneers, with the addition of legendary quarterback Tom Brady, are among the betting favorites to win the Super Bowl. At William Hill, the Bucs are +1,200 to win the championship, the fifth-shortest odds in the NFL.<\/p>\n

The Bears entered the season at +4,000<\/a> to win this year\u2019s Super Bowl. Despite winning three of their first four games to start this season, they\u2019ve actually trended backward to +5,000.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay was a consensus 3.5-point favorite at sportsbooks as of Thursday morning. The over\/under is 44.5 points.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Belief in the Bucs<\/h2>\n

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>\n

The 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>\n

A 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

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Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n