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Charlie Grant
Bills vs. Bears Point Spread: NFL Pre-Season Week 4 Odds, Prediction
There usually isn’t anything left to be settled in Week 4 of the NFL pre-season outside of the final names on the 53-man roster. But that’s not the case for the Bills.
NFL Point Spread and Betting Analysis
The Buffalo Bills are 2-5 straight up and against the spread under second year NFL head coach Sean McDermott. The former Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator has seen the Bills play Under the total in seven of their last 10 games overall (regular season, playoffs and pre-season combined).
Buffalo is coming off a 13-point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3 of the pre-season. All 13 of the Bills’ points came in the third quarter of that game.
The Bears, meanwhile, are coming off a 27-20 win against the Kansas City Chiefs as 6-point road underdogs. Chicago is 3-1 ATS this pre-season under first year head coach Matt Nagy. The new boss comes from the Andy Reid coaching tree and was the offensive coordinator with the Chiefs for the last two seasons.
Chicago has scored 24 or more points in each of its last three exhibition games and the Over is 3-0 during the same stretch.
Buffalo Bills
McDermott is a secretive coach when it comes to informing the media of his decisions, but it does seem like he’s grappling with which quarterback to give the ball to in Week 1 of the regular season.
The competition was supposed to be between free agent signee A.J. McCarron and first round draft pick Josh Allen. But Nathan Peterman has thrown a monkey wrench in the pecking order by outplaying both quarterbacks this month.
Peterman owns a 124.7 QB rating with three TD passes compared to one interception, and carries an 80.5 completion percentage this pre-season into Thursday’s game against the Bears. McCarron missed last week’s matchup against the Bengals but is expected to be good to go for Thursday’s contest.
Chicago Bears
Nagy decided to rest his starters during last week’s game against the Chiefs and bettors should expect the same approach for Thursday’s matchup against the Bills. Bettors should expect to see plenty of Chase Daniel and Tyler Bray leading the Bears offence on Thursday. The two quarterbacks are a combined 91 for 142 on pass attempts for 988 yards and six TDs.
