Lions vs. Bears Point Spread: NFL Week 14 Odds, Prediction
The Lions sit atop the division at 9-3 while the 4-8 Bears are firmly in the basement despite defeating another NFC North team in Minnesota prior a bye week. Detroit broke out of a little slump last week with a 33-28 win at New Orleans although they let it get a little to close for comfort after a 21-0 start under 10 minutes in.
Detroit’s defence has been raising eyebrows these past few weeks for all the wrong reasons. In their last four games Detroit has allowed at least 26 points, and that 26-point “low” came in Week 11 versus Chicago. The Bears reek of inconsistency on offence, but right now Detroit’s consistently allowing offence.
Kickoff at Soldier Field begins at 1 p.m. EST with the Lions a 3.5-point favourite on the road and the total set at 40.5 on the NFL odds.
NFL Point Spread and Betting Analysis
The Lions have played a near perfect season on the road winning five of their six contests away from home. Detroit is also 5-1 ATS on the road this season while Chicago’s gone 1-3-1 ATS on home field. Head-to-head the Lions are both 4-2 outright and ATS in their last six meetings with the Bears.
Detroit ranks sixth in the NFL this season with 27.3 points per game and have hit at least 31 points in three of their last four outings. The Bears are on the flip side defensively, ranking sixth-worst allowing 24.7 points per contest. But prior to last week’s bye week the Bears have cleaned it up on defence, allowing under 17 points in two of their last three games.
Detroit Lions
The Lions’ identity down the stretch may be something along the lines of: score so much the opponent can’t win, or play fine on offence and likely lose. All of Detroit’s past four games have had over a combined 50 points, including 41-38 and 33-28 wins. The weapons are aplenty on offence for Jared Goff. There’s a one-two punch at running back in veteran David Montgomery and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs. Amon-Ra St. Brown is a bonafide WR1, rookie Sam LaPorta is emerging already as a top tight end in the NFL, and receive Jameson Williams is a true X-factor.
But if the Lions keep allowing upwards of 25 points, it puts a lot of pressure on these weapons to not be able to afford any mistakes. And now the defence is down DT Alim McNeill, who sprained his knee last weekend.
Chicago Bears
Back on November 19 Justin Fields had one of his best performances of the season in a loss at Detroit. And after a win at Minnesota the following week, Fields and the Bears have had plenty of time to prepare again for Detroit.
It appears running back D’Onta Foreman will be good to go too as he practised in full after being out with an ankle. But how the Bears navigate their backfield of Foreman as well as Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson remains to be seen. Johnson, the fourth-round rookie, received nearly double the touches as Herbert in Chicago’s win at Minnesota. Then there’s the added wrinkle of Fields taking off and running; Fields’ 104 rushing yards in Week 11 at Detroit were the most by a Bears player this season.
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