The Pittsburgh Steelers are the NFL gambling favorites to beat the Chicago Bears. There are a million valid reasons for that, but let’s just pick one. Bears head coach John Fox is sticking with Mike Glennon, responsible as he was for three of Chicago’s four turnovers in the first half of Sunday’s 29-7 loss to Tampa Bay including two picks (add a –six to one of those picks), to start as the Bears’ quarterback.
John Fox says there will be no change at QB this coming Sunday.
📰: https://t.co/oXWBmBF8g8 pic.twitter.com/YuL88sv3HY
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 18, 2017
- Date: Sunday, 24th September
- Time: 1:05 PM
- Venue: Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois
Sportsbook NFL Betting Online Odds:
Steelers -7 (-116) 45½ (-110)
Bears +7 (-104) 45½ (-110)
Crazy Like a Fox? Or Just Plain Crazy?
“Mike Glennon’s a guy that’s new to us, he’s got the skill set, he’s getting used to us. He’s going to get better,” said Fox via the Chicago Bears twitter. Isn’t it funny how all those things could be said of Mitchell Trubisky as well? Or, as Chicago Tribune sports columnist Steve Rosenbloom suggests, allow the ‘gonna-be’ Trubisky to make the ‘never-was’ Glennon’s mistakes. “I love where (Trubisky) is. I love his growth,” Fox said. “I think the guy works very hard, he’s into it on game day. He’s into it because you’re only one play away from being the starter.” Yep, and that “one play” happened about four or five of Mike Glennon’s plays ago. One thing, though, is for sure; da Bears suck at winning games but they’re fairly reliable at covering the spread. Chicago is 6-3 ATS in the last nine games, 5-1 ATS in the last six at home, and 5-2 against the NFL gambling spread in the last seven versus the Steelers. But with Fox at the helm and Glennon under center, it’s hard to trust them to lose, which you know they most likely will, by just seven points.
The Exploding Bell
Something else that doesn’t bode well for the Bears is Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell’s statement that he’s “due for an explosion play.” Bell had 27 carries and four catches on Sunday, up from 13 attempts in Week 1. However, he earned just 3.2 yards per carry, with a long of 11 yards and four total yards on four catches. “It’ll come,” Bell said per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It hasn’t happened yet. I almost had like three today. I almost made one on a screen, a run. They made the play. We’re two games in. We’ll watch the film and get ready for next week.” Well, you gotta shake off that holdout rust, right. Wide receiver Antonio Brown, then again, had little to show for, too. It was Martavis Bryant who got to strut his stuff.
The Steelers offense is, all things considered, like a moderately oiled machine, but once the engine gets going, then lookout because it’s ‘take no prisoners’ time. With Bell and Brown firing on all cylinders, the sky is the limit and they could easily shatter that NFL gambling under ceiling under which they have remained in four of their last five games, and eight of their last 10 games on the road.