Offenses Keep Rolling in Bears vs. Falcons

Bears vs. Falcons, 1 ET

The hope is real in Chicago right now. I mentioned that last week and it still rings true after another solid game from Justin Fields. There is hope in Atlanta too, though. As we sit here and watch the games, we've seen Marcus Mariota use a bunch of guys that had low expectations use their opportunity and have a chance to win the division. Let's look how these teams match up.

The Bears never should've lost that game last week. They were up 24-10 at home and somehow allowed the Lions to score three touchdowns in the final quarter. One issue was the interception that Justin Fields threw, but outside of that pass he really wasn't bad. The Bears seem to be opening up their playbook to him a bit more and encouraging the scrambling more than they had early in the season and it is making a difference. In order for him to take the next step, he will need to be able to find open receivers. He only attempted 20 passes this past week and targeted new acquisition, Chase Claypool, just twice. Despite that, this is the best the Bears offense has looked since drafting Fields. Now they face an Atlanta defense that is similar to the Lions. They have a lot of capable players, but they allow a lot of yards and opportunities to the opponents. If the Bears can convert, the points are available.

For Atlanta, their past two games haven't been anything exciting, and have seemed a bit more defensively focused. Their offense is predicated on getting the ground game going and the Bears are not great against the rush. If they can get Mariota into the open field, or get Cordarrelle Patterson to get into the open space they will be able to chew up yards on the Bears. I do expect them to be able to move the ball and this to be a fairly fast-paced game. In their last three home games, they've also averaged around 27 points per game.

I like the over in this. The Bears are going to look to keep pushing this momentum that has seen them put up nearly 30 points in each of their past four games. While three of those four games have been losses, it is certainly encouraging. As their offense gets better, their defense seems to be getting worse. 50 is a bit of a high number here, but 28-24 seems like it is a reasonable score.

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