I will take GB, it seems Bears will do just warm up. They are happy enough to get here, better prepare for long journey. Cutler will not take risk. I think he may play for one qt.
The Bears need Falcons and Saints to lose to move up in playoff seeding and chances of that happening are slim at best.. They will know the outcome before game time. The Bear starters might play a quarter, two quarters at most. With nothing to play for, the Bears are not about to risk an injury to Cutler (most sacked QB in the league) against an aggressive hungry Def that would like nothing more than to knock out a rival QB. Expect the same thinking to apply to Forte, Hester, Knox and probably other Bears players on both sides of the ball. Lovie Smith cares more about his job than some division rivalry and he won't have a job if he leaves Cutler in there and he gets hurt.
Expect to hear a ton of Wes Welker references on Sunday. There should be an O/U for Welker references, at the very least it would make for a good drinking game. "Week 17 last year Welker blew out his knee in a meaningless game.... "DRINK!
I'm still thinking Bears +9.5 is the play here. I heard Lovie Smith say that he will leave all the starters in for the entire game, if that is true, then I definitely like Beats +9.5, but then it doesn't make sense to leave your starters in for the entire game in a meaningless game. With that being said, I am likely to just make a small play on Bears +9.5.
ESPN Chicago reports that the Bears gave backups such as Kahlil Bell and Kellen Davis increased practice reps this week, indicating that they may play more than usual in Week 17 against Green Bay.
The report cites "multiple team sources," who say players like Bell were informed to be ready for extensive action. Beat writer Michael C. Wright names Matt Forte, in particular, as a starter who could be rested despite coach Lovie Smith's insistence all week that the Bears would play to win. It's unclear when the starters would be pulled. Jay Cutler, Greg Olsen, Julius Peppers, and Lance Briggs are other obvious candidates for rest.
I will slightly back off my most recent statement about Chicago 'going for it'.
This could be a total bluff out of Chicago - but it looks like they are preparing backups for this week from all reports I've looked into.
Signs point to starters having a go for a bit, and then backups taking over.
I really have a feeling it could be a bluff pending a Packer explosion. Again, I don't know. This game is off the board for me now.
Lovie has no track record in this spot.
If you havn't made a play, I would lay off this one... There's way too much uncertainty. However, if I had to make a play, it's still with the Bears plus the huge points.
I don't trust the reports I've dug into.
Since this game doesn't start until the early games are over, maybe wait and see what happens? I know the Saints and Falcons have a lot riding on their games and shouldn't have much trouble with the Panthers and Bucs, but then again those are still divisional rivalries with John Fox maybe wanting to go out with a bang and the Bucs still mathematically alive in the playoff race. I'm still haunted by what happened with Minny @ Philly on Tuesday, where Philly had a lot on the line and Minny was starting a WR at QB.
Went from -9.5 -105 at 5Dimes/Pinny last night to 10.5 -109/-106..unreal movement on a spread that is already extraordinarily high.
I would doubt there has ever been a 10.5 spread or higher in this rivalry (highest has been 7.5 in last 5 years), so Vegas better know what it's doing not only setting it so high, but moving it higher.
SBR Top-Rated Sportsbooks
Reply With Quote
