Sammy’s Sportsbook Whispers: Is Chicago No Longer Your Average Bears?

Are the Chicago Bears that good? Full disclosure, I had a bet on Carolina +3 last Sunday, and if you would’ve told me the Panthers would average 7.7 yards per play and score 37 points, odds were good they would have covered or won the game outright. Problem is, Chicago scored 59. FOX Sports posted its weekly power ratings on Monday morning and the Bears were on line three, behind only the Seahawks and Broncos. I’ve never been one to overreact and third seems insanely high. This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports. “Third-best offense maybe,” one professional bettor told me. “You can’t be the third-best team with that defense. Not after that performance against a below-average offense. Chicago’s head coach and quarterback have elite potential, but the secondary is an issue and there wasn’t much of a pass rush. “The Bears’ defense made Bryce Young look great.” What say you, Las Vegas? “I have them eighth with room for growth,” retired bookmaker Ed Salmons told me. “Rams, Ravens, Bills, Eagles, Niners, Patriots, Lions, Bears.” “The Bears looked every bit the part offensively against Carolina,” Caesars Sportsbook head of football Joey Feazel added. “Caleb Williams showed why he entered the season as one of the league’s brightest stars. “Market reaction has leaned more toward the Bears being legitimately improved. Their lookahead line moved two points in their favor week over week and bettors also showed support for Carolina against Atlanta. “My lean is that the Bears are a good football team, but they’ll obviously need to sustain this level of play over several weeks before we can confidently make that distinction.” Don’t look now, but Williams has the third-shortest NFL MVP odds at multiple sportsbooks. Those 15 and 16-to-1 preseason prices are long gone. To college football, there are some serious injury rumblings at Ohio. QB1 Nick Poulos and QB2 Matt Vezza are both banged up, and RB1 Duncan Brune left Saturday’s game with an injury, too. Sources say Poulos is doubtful for Saturday’s game against South Alabama and Vezza is questionable. South Alabama was -4.5 everywhere on Monday and the board is now painted -7. Clearly, some people expect the Bobcats to be shorthanded. “I moved from -5 to -6 when I first heard,” South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews told me. “You want to get ahead of those injuries [because] these guys don’t wait for news to break, they just bet.” If both quarterbacks are eventually ruled out, this line will undoubtedly spring north of a touchdown. And having worked in this racket long enough, I know vultures on the other side will be waiting to take 8 or 8.5 with Ohio. A 27-20 final would be no bueno for the house. I got a ton of flack on social media — shocker — when I said Ohio State is still my highest-rated team in the country. I mean, the Buckeyes took a 23-3 lead into the fourth quarter on the road. That’s impressive. And yes, they would still be favored over Texas on a neutral field. That’s how it works. “I think Ohio State and Georgia are the two best teams in the country,” Salmons opined. “Notre Dame is right there with Georgia, too.” Salmons gave us Ohio State +2 last week, a wire-to-wire winner. What about this week? “I bet Houston +8.5 against Texas Tech.” Lastly, what the hell is going with Oregon? This was a Ducks team several sharp people predicted would win the national championship. It beat Boise State by seven as a 25.5-point favorite, then lost at Oklahoma State as a 24.5-point favorite. From the Las Vegas numbers perspective, Oregon is one of the most underachieving teams in the country. That said, I might bet the Ducks to make the College Football Playoff at +160. That number was -300 or higher before the season and I don’t remember the last time the public didn’t love them. We are nearing that reality. “It hasn’t been great,” professional bettor Slice said. “I dropped them three points after the loss to Oklahoma State. I still want to see one more bad game before I get nuts. And I’m not sure that’s going to happen with [Dan] Lanning. “I’ll be looking to bet ‘em at a cheap price against USC.”