NFL Week Four Betting - Philadelphia Eagles vs. Chicago Bears

The (2-1 SU, 3-0 ATS) Philadelphia Eagles stroll into its Week 4 NFL online gambling affair with the (1-2 SU, 1-1-1 ATS) Chicago Bears riding high after humiliating the Pittsburgh Steelers at home last weekend.

The same can’t be said about Chicago who dropped a gut-wrencher for the second week in a row against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. NBC snagged this one during the off-season, so NFL bettors will be able to take this NFC showdown in under the primetime lights of its Sunday Night Football telecast; kick-off is set for 8:15 ET from Soldier Field. Nineteen has been the magic number for both of these teams, as the victor dented the scoreboard with 19 points in each of their last three meetings.

Philadelphia bounced back in style off its MNF loss to division rival Dallas against in-state rival Pittsburgh. Though the 15-6 final verdict doesn’t portray a beatdown, don’t let the scoreboard deceive you. Philly dominated from the onset limiting the Steelers to less than 200 total yards of offense, forced three turnovers, and sacked Pitt QB Ben Roethlisberger nine freaking times.

The nine point victory cashed Philly bettors who laid the 3.5-points, and the combined 21 points never seriously threatened the closing ‘total’ of 44.5. The ATS cash was the birds third straight to start the season, and they’ve rattled off six straight pointspread covers dating back to last season.

QB Donovan McNabb continued his excelled play completing 24-of-35 passes for 196 yards with a TD:INT ratio of 1:1, spreading the ball around nicely to his bevy of young WR’s. The bad news however came in the backfield where ultra back Brian Westbrook went down with an ankle injury at the start of the second quarter, and his availability for this game is still in doubt.

Last weeks OT loss at home to Tampa was extremely tough for Chicago to swallow, but even more so for NFL sportsbettors that backed them as three-point home chalks. The Bears held a 10-point lead with less than four minutes to go in the game, but somehow managed to allow Brian Griese and the Bucs offense to rattle off 10 straight points to force the extra session.

After the defense pinned the Bucs deep in their own territory, CB Charles Tillman got caught reacting to OL Jeremy Trueblood’s bottom of the pile antics and got flagged for unnecessary roughness allowing the Bucs drive to continue. Already exhausted, the Bears “D” let up a number of big pass plays that allowed Matt Bryant to nail the chip shot eight-yarder to seal the Bears fate.

On the bright side, QB Kyle Orton seemed to find his go to receiver after hooking up with Brandon Lloyd six times for 124 yards and a score. Bears defensive coordinator Bob Babich did an excellent job of getting his team ready to shut down the Bucs rushing attack, but failed miserably in accounting for the Bucs through the air evidenced by Griese completing 38-of-67 pass attempts for a whopping 407 yards and two TDs.

The NFL betting trends for this match-up tells us that Philadelphia is a perfect 7-0 ATS its L/7 road games, and 2-0 ATS as road favorites during that stretch. The Bears have proven to be resilient off a SU loss covering the spread 6 of the L/8 times, but they’ve gone a woeful 4-10 ATS their L/14 games at Soldier Field. This series has been dominated by the visitor and underdog to go a combined 10-2 ATS the L/6 meetings.