TNF: Chicago Bears vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL Picks, Predictions 10/8/20
2020-10-08 20:20:00 EDT
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears meet Thursday in week 5 NFL action at Soldier Field.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers look for a fourth straight victory to jump out to an impressive 4-1 start to the NFL season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have split their last eight road games. Tom Brady is completing 65.2 percent of his passes for 1,122 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. Brady has two or less touchdown passes in six of his last eight games. Scotty Miller and Mike Evans have combined for 480 receiving yards and six touchdowns while OJ Howard has 11 receptions. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers ground game is averaging 97.8 yards per contest, and Ronald Jones II leads the way with 253 yards and one touchdown. Defensively, Tampa Bay is allowing 23 points and 312 yards per game. Devin White leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 37 tackles, Jason Pierre-Paul has three sacks and Carlton Davis has two interceptions.
The Chicago Bears also look for a big win here to get off to a 4-1 start to the NFL season. The Chicago Bears have won four of their last six home games. Nick Foles is completing 59.2 percent of his passes for 437 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. Foles and Mitchell Trubisky have combined for 10 touchdown passes and five interceptions this season. Allen Robinson II and Darnell Mooney have combined for 476 receiving yards and three touchdowns while Jimmy Graham has 14 receptions. The Chicago Bears ground game is averaging 110.5 yards per contest, and David Montgomery leads the way with 218 yards on 53 carries. Defensively, Chicago is allowing 20.3 points and 345.3 yards per game. Roquan Smith leads the Chicago Bears with 33 tackles, Akiem Hicks has 3.5 sacks and Kyle Fuller has one interception.
The Buccaneers are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games, 3-7-1 ATS in their last 11 games as a favorite and 3-1-2 ATS in their last 6 games overall. The Bears are 4-11-1 ATS in their last 16 Thursday games, 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog and 4-12 ATS in their last 16 games overall. The over is 16-5 in Buccaneers last 21 games overall. The under is 17-8 in Bears last 25 games overall. The home team is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 meetings.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers head into this game banged up on the offensive side, as they were already down Chris Godwin, but now LeSean McCoy is dealing with an ankle injury, Mike Evans was hobbling around last week and OJ Howard is probably done for the year. A short week doesn’t help any of those players heading into this game. With that said, Tom Brady has never needed big names to get the job done, as he thitems guys open and can produce with just about anybody. The Bears have a solid defense and put up a fight, but they’re still having issues scoring and Foles didn’t help much last week. We know the Bucs are going to score points, banged up or not, I don’t trust the Bears to respond. I’ll take the Bucs by a touchdown.
