The red-hot Chicago Bears won their fifth game in a row last week and
currently hold the final wild-card spot in the NFC, but the Bears suffered a
crushing injury in Sunday’s victory over the Chargers as quarterback Jay
Cutler broke his right thumb and likely will miss the rest of the
regular season. So now it’s back to the drawing board for Chicago starting
Sunday in Oakland. The Raiders opened as 5.5-point favorites on Bodog’s NFL
odds.
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Caleb Hanie will get his first
NFL start for the Bears (7-3), who no doubt will focus more on the running game
with Matt Forte because of Hanie’s inexperience. Hanie, who is
more mobile than Cutler (but that’s his only advantage) has thrown a total of 14
regular-season passes in his career, but did bring a spark off the bench for an
injured Cutler in last season’s national championship game. Hanie completed 13
of 20 passes for 153 yards against the Packers. He threw one touchdown but was
intercepted twice, including one that was returned for a touchdown by
B.J. Raji.
The Bears’ special teams – i.e.
Devin Hester – and defense also likely will have to fill the
Cutler void. The Bears have forced nine turnovers in the past two games, and
when the team comes out on the positive side of the turnover margin, they’re
11-1 over the past two seasons. Chicago’s defense also can put points on the
board. When they do that, the Bears are 3-0 in 2011, and 14-1 since
2005.
Oakland (6-4) leads the AFC West by a game. The Raiders have won
two games in a row, both on the road, against the Chargers and Vikings.
Carson Palmer seems to finally be getting comfortable in the
offense, as he completed 17 of 23 for 164 yards, a TD and no picks in a 27-21
win over Minnesota last week. The Raiders played again without top RB
Darren McFadden, who has been out with a foot injury since
early in an Oct. 23 game against the Chiefs. It’s looking unlikely that McFadden
will play here. Michael Bush has stepped up big-time the past
two games, rushing for 266 yards and two scores on 60 carries.
The
Raiders need to stop beating themselves. Oakland finished last week’s game with
12 penalties for 117 yards. That keeps the Raiders on a record-setting pace. At
this rate, Oakland would finish the season with 164 penalties for 1,427 yards --
surpassing the totals of 158 for 1,304 yards by Kansas City in 1998. The Raiders
have already committed 17 defensive personal fouls this season -- more than
double the total of 29 teams and the most in the league since the Chiefs had 19
in 1998.
Oakland is just 3-14 ATS in its past 17 home games. Bears have
covered just five times in their past 17 as a road dog. These two teams haven’t
met since 2007.
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