Week 1: Chicago Bears vs San Francisco 49ers 9/11/22 NFL Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers do battle Sunday afternoon in a week 1 NFL NFC contest at Soldier Field in Illinois. The San Francisco 49ers are coming off 10 wins and enter the sixth year under coach Kyle Shanahan. The Chicago Bears are coming off 6 wins and begin the Matt Eberflus era.

The San Francisco 49ers have won 4 of their last 6 road games. The 49ers should have some sort of motivation with the way their seasons keep ending in the playoffs, and they were able to fix contract disputes with Deebo Samuel and Jimmy Garoppolo. Of course, the direction of the 49ers depends a lot on the progress of Trey Lance, a young quarterback who has just 71 pass attempts and has been pegged as the starter despite a two-time Super Bowl champ on the roster. The talent is there on both sides of the ball, and there’s clearly a bond between Shannahan and general manager John Lynch as they continue to build this thing out. You just wonder when everything will click, as the 49ers haven’t won the Super Bowl since the 1994 season and have had many heartbreaking losses recently.  

The Chicago Bears have lost 5 of their last 6 home games. The Bears continue their rebuild with what’s a very young roster and going through scheme changes on both sides of the ball. Throw in the fact they’re in a loaded NFC North and most fans are paying attention to next season when the Bears will have oodles of cap space. This season is all about the growth of quarterback Justin Fields. Unfortunately, the Bears offensive line leaves a lot to be desired and Chicago had limited weapons before injuries to Byron Pringle, Velus Jones Jr. and N’Keal Harry. The Bears can still be stingy defensively, and they were sixth in the league last season in total defense. The issue is there’s not a lot of help around Fields, and it makes you wonder if there’s enough here to even reach last year’s win total of six victories.

The 49ers are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 road games and 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games overall. The Bears are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 home games and 3-9 ATS in their last 12 games overall. The under is 7-1 in 49ers last 8 games overall. The under is 20-7 in Bears last 27 home games. The road team is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 meetings.

This is a lot of points to lay with a road team in the first game of the season when we’re still feeling teams out. Trust is, we don’t know what to expect from any team when it’s a new season. That being said, the Chicago Bears are one of those teams I have no confidence in because of the offensive line issues and the lack of offensive weapons. Unless things happen out of thin air, I have a hard time seeing the Bears have offensive success this season. The San Francisco 49ers are a more than respectable side and have the pieces to give the Bears fits. I’ll lay just under a full touchdown.