Week 12: Chicago Bears at Oakland Raiders

CHICAGO BEARS @ OAKLAND RAIDERS
Vegas Line: Bears + 3

Rob’s Line: Bears + 3.5

Much like when previewing the Texans/Jaguars game this week, if Chicago was able to call upon Jay Cutler at quarterback, I’d recommend the Bears all day long as they’re one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now and had he been playing, the spread would probably have been a half point either way on whichever team you wanted to pick.

Caleb Hanie picks up the slack under center for the Bears for what could possibly be the rest of the season and he last took a snap in last year’s NFC Championship Game loss to the Packers where he actually fared quite well despite throwing two interceptions. It figures that the Bears will want to give Matt Forte the ball as much as possible, but that’s nothing new as, aside from leading the team in rushing (obviously), he also leads the Bears in receptions with 46 and when you consider that Johnny Knox is second with 24, the invisible ’S' Forte wears on his chest will shine just that little bit brighter for as long as Cutler remains out.
The Raiders have their own rather magnificent rusher in the form of Michael Bush, who’s filled in superbly for Darren McFadden over the last four games. He’s carried the ball 60 times in his last two outings so is clearly not afraid of hard work and this matchup has an old school feel to it as we could see Bush and Forte pounding away for yards down after down. This really is a fascinating contest and one I can barely wait for.
Oakland, finally, doesn’t have any concerns at quarterback and while I’ll always maintain that the Raiders gave up far too much for Carson Palmer (unless he wins them the Super Bowl), he’s been solid of late and done exactly what he was brought in to do. After the initial disaster of six interceptions in six quarters, Palmer’s displayed veteran leadership in guiding his team to two straight wins and his QB rating in both of those averages out at 116.5. Nice job on his part, I have to say.
Forte should be able to rack up the yards on the ground against Oakland’s 26th ranked run defense and for a team who look the most likely to win the AFC West, the Raiders only rank 20th against the pass, a stat that’ll certainly encourage Hanie.
I do feel that the whole outcome rests entirely on how Hanie performs and it’s a risk to think that he can just hide behind what Forte has to offer, but it’s probably about the best he can do and we know that he has Forte as the release valve receiver out of the backfield. I love the Bears right now, but that won’t cloud my judgement on this. However, with points to start with it does make them attractive and I’m going to lean on the best all round football player in the league…Matt Forte, I’m trusting you on this one.

http://www.sportingopinions.com/