The first thing that has jumped out to me when reading the reasons why bettors are favoring the Lions seems to be the quality of opponent for both the Bears and Lions in the previous two weeks. While I agree that the Lions have had a tougher two-game stretch that deflates their perception, they still only average around 18 points per game for the ENTIRE season. Talking to some Lions fans, the frustration seems to be growing with offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. The playcalling has been out-of-sync and the offense has obviously struggled to find rhythm. At this point in the season I wouldn't look at the past two games and call the ineptitude just a trend. It appears that this is the 2014 Lions, folks. Stellar defense, but struggling offense.
As for the Bears, if there's one thing I've noticed from them over the past two games, it is the scaling down of their offense in a way that limits the opportunities Cutler has to make mistakes. Trestman is a very good offensive mind and it's apparent that he stripped down most of the razzle dazzle and has fallen back on his two talented receivers and multi-dimensional RB, Matt Forte. Against both the Vikings and Buccaneers there were 3-step drops and checkdowns ad nausea and the quick hitters resulted in methodical drives. Alshon Jeffrey and Brandon Marshall are big and have strong hands. Cutler just needs to fire it in their direction on the slants, outs and comebacks and the ball sticks. Forte is a monster out of the backfield and with the strength of the Lions being their down lineman, I expect to see more of the same from the Bears -- Forte getting out on the edge and involved heavily in the pass game.
When going over this game, the decision seemed to be who do I trust less out of Stafford and Cutler, but that's too simple. They both have their flaws. I'm going with the team that has gone back to a basic offense and that has shown an ability to complete long and methodical drives whereas the other offense has done very little outside of week 1. Stafford gets in bad habits of trying to force feed Johnson when Johnson is on the field and even with the emergence of Golden Tate, I still see some lost drives due to Stafford trying to force throws that he has no business throwing. Not to say that Cutler won't have the his own blunders, just that for a game with a relatively low over/under where a team is favored by 7 points, I don't see the separation there, if the Lions do happen to put some drives together. It's week 12 and I don't want to assume that the Lions offense just starts to click all of a sudden because as I said, it's more than a trend at this point. Bears have the offensive talent to remain competitive in any type of game.
Bears +7.5 (Bought .5)
As for the Bears, if there's one thing I've noticed from them over the past two games, it is the scaling down of their offense in a way that limits the opportunities Cutler has to make mistakes. Trestman is a very good offensive mind and it's apparent that he stripped down most of the razzle dazzle and has fallen back on his two talented receivers and multi-dimensional RB, Matt Forte. Against both the Vikings and Buccaneers there were 3-step drops and checkdowns ad nausea and the quick hitters resulted in methodical drives. Alshon Jeffrey and Brandon Marshall are big and have strong hands. Cutler just needs to fire it in their direction on the slants, outs and comebacks and the ball sticks. Forte is a monster out of the backfield and with the strength of the Lions being their down lineman, I expect to see more of the same from the Bears -- Forte getting out on the edge and involved heavily in the pass game.
When going over this game, the decision seemed to be who do I trust less out of Stafford and Cutler, but that's too simple. They both have their flaws. I'm going with the team that has gone back to a basic offense and that has shown an ability to complete long and methodical drives whereas the other offense has done very little outside of week 1. Stafford gets in bad habits of trying to force feed Johnson when Johnson is on the field and even with the emergence of Golden Tate, I still see some lost drives due to Stafford trying to force throws that he has no business throwing. Not to say that Cutler won't have the his own blunders, just that for a game with a relatively low over/under where a team is favored by 7 points, I don't see the separation there, if the Lions do happen to put some drives together. It's week 12 and I don't want to assume that the Lions offense just starts to click all of a sudden because as I said, it's more than a trend at this point. Bears have the offensive talent to remain competitive in any type of game.
Bears +7.5 (Bought .5)
