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Best Bears Bets in Week 5: Unraveling the Bears Offense

The Bears' offense remains an enigma, and the inconsistency makes it difficult to predict yards, catches, and touchdowns for the quarterback and role-player positions.

By Larry Goldman

Bears' offensive coordinator, Shane Waldron is on the hot seat as the number 1 overall pick Caleb Williams and the entire Bears offense is searching for identity, making it difficult to place bets.
Bears' offensive coordinator, Shane Waldron is on the hot seat as the number 1 overall pick Caleb Williams and the entire Bears offense is searching for identity, making it difficult to place bets. / Matt Marton-Imagn Images
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The Bears won in Week 4 but betting the Bears offense to do certain things remains extremely difficult. Though we are still up money, we dropped to 8-12 on bets for the season. Here is what happened last week:

The Bears covered the spread like we predicted and won the game by six points.

We thought the Bears running game would continue to struggle, forcing Caleb Williams to throw early and often, so we took the over on the passing yards. He threw for 157 yards which is not nearly what we were thinking.

We said that we couldn't trust the running game, but D'Andre Swift had a breakout game last week, rushing for 93 yards.

We said you could count on DJ Moore to catch five receptions, but he caught three (after catching two in the first 10 minutes), though one was a touchdown.

All odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook.

Betting the Game

It is hard to evaluate the Carolina Panthers' offense after they benched Bryce Young in Week 3. Andy Dalton has breathed new life into the offense by throwing five touchdowns in the last two weeks. But Dalton definitely reminds us of Matthew Stafford in many ways. After slicing the Bears up early, Stafford was contained, sacked, stripped, and intercepted most of the game.

The Bears' run defense has struggled of late, dropping to the middle of the league in total rushing yards. The Rams' Kyren Williams racked up 94 yards in Week 4 and Jonathan Taylor carved up the Bears for 110 yards in Week 3. The Panthers run offense ranks in the middle of the pack as well so should be a good matchup for the Bears.

Conversely, per NFL.com, the Panthers' run defense is giving up the sixth most rushing yards in the league, the fifth-most touchdowns, and the 12th-most yards per carry to opponents' run game. Playing a weak rushing defense hasn't always translated to offensive success for the Bears.

The Panther's pass defense is middle of the league in yards, but they have given up the second-most passing touchdowns in the league and the fifth-worst quarterback rating (107.8).

It feels like the Bears should feast, but the Bears' offense remains an enigma. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Bears managed 264 yards against a Rams defense that is giving up 425.7 yards per game. Winning is what matters, but we are trying to win bets here as well. And we haven't even touched on the soul-crushing pre-snap penalties that constantly push the Bears behind the sticks.

Pick: Bears -4 -110

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