The opening betting lines for Week 16 have been released and the Detroit Lions begin the week as road favorites over the Chicago Bears.
This week, the Detroit Lions (12-2) will travel to Illinois to take on division rival Chicago Bears (4-9). The Bears still have a game to play to complete Week 15, but the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook have already set the opening betting line for Week 16 at Lions -7 points.
These two teams just met in Week 13, when the Lions came away with a 23-20 victory on Thanksgiving Day in Matt Eberflus’ last game as the Bears head coach. Since then, the Lions beat the Packers for the second time this year, moving to 4-0 in the division, then lost to the Bills in a game where they never found their footing.
Meanwhile, the Bears fired Eberflus and promoted passing game coordinator Thomas Brown—who had recently been promoted to interim offensive coordinator three weeks prior—to the interim head coach position. Thomas led the Bears into San Francisco, but there was no “interim coach” bump waiting for Chicago, as the Bears were beaten up 38-13 by the 49ers. The Bears will face the Vikings on “Monday Night Football” in Week 15, and like the Lions, Minnesota is a touchdown favorite.
While the Bears looked bad in the Bay, it’ll be interesting to see what another week under Thomas does for their confidence and performance. For most Lions fans, it’ll be worth tuning in to ABC on Monday to get a better picture of what sort of challenge Chicago could present to Detroit.
The Lions have beaten the Bears four of the last five times they’ve faced off, with the one loss coming last December in Chicago, when the Bears won 28-13. The Lions are often labeled as a “dome” team that struggles outside, and while last year’s game in Chicago supports that, they have a history of winning outdoors beyond this game, most notably winning the last three games in Green Bay and in Chicago the year prior as well. For what it’s worth, at this time, the current weather report suggests it will be in the high-20s Fahrenheit with a very minimal chance of precipitation.
