{"id":17640,"date":"2011-09-10T20:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T01:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17640"},"modified":"2011-09-11T00:58:59","modified_gmt":"2011-09-11T05:58:59","slug":"nfl-betting-preview-atlanta-falcons-at-chicago-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-betting-preview-atlanta-falcons-at-chicago-bears-17640\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Betting Preview: Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears
\nSunday, 9\/11\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Atlanta PK
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 41
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 40.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Atlanta Falcons made a huge move in acquiring wide receiver Julio Jones in this year's draft<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atlanta begins a season as a road favorite for the second consecutive season, failing to win in Pittsburgh a year ago.\u00a0 The Falcons were bounced out of the 2010 playoffs in the divisional round by eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay and is hungry to get back into the postseason.\u00a0 The team made a big move during the draft in moving up to acquire former Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones, who knows what\u2019s at stake this season.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t get complacent with expectations,\u201d stated Jones.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re here as a team and we\u2019re going to play as a team.\u201d\u00a0 Atlanta is 16-7 ATS as a favorite the last two years.<\/p>\n

The Falcons have won the last two meetings and the overall series is knotted at 12 wins apiece.\u00a0 Atlanta\u2019s quarterback Matt Ryan is likely to lead the team to victory Sunday due to picking up 33 wins as a starter in his first three years, which is the most wins for a signal-caller over that span since Dan Marino.\u00a0 The team\u2019s passing attack could open more holes for running back Michael Turner, who ran for 1,371 yards and 12 touchdowns a season ago.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, the defense will rely heavily again on defensive end John Abraham rushing from his defensive end spot.\u00a0 He led the team with 13 sacks in 2010.<\/p>\n

Chicago still has high expectations heading into a new season after dropping the NFC Championship Game against division rival Green Bay.\u00a0 \u201cExpectations should be high,\u201d commented Bears newly-acquired wide receiver Roy Williams.\u00a0 \u201cI want them high.\u201d\u00a0 The Bears are hoping the former Lions and Cowboys wide receiver will catch fire in offensive coordinator Mike Martz\u2019s offense, as he enjoyed prior success in the system while in the Motor City.\u00a0 Quarterback Jay Cutler is just looking to get time to throw downfield, as the offensive line surrendered a NFL-high 52 sacks last year.\u00a0 Chicago is 4-3 ATS as a home underdog of three points or less.<\/p>\n

The Bears have a major offensive weapon that Cutler can hand the ball off to in running back Matt Forte, who gained 1,616 total yards from scrimmage a year ago.\u00a0 Many are questioning his commitment to the team during camp after not getting a contract extension that he was seeking.\u00a0 The same problem may be true for star linebacker Lance Briggs, as the team didn\u2019t fulfill his request of wanting more money as well.\u00a0 Chicago has won the last five in the series when playing in the Windy City, but the last such contest was played in 2005.<\/p>\n

Bettors will find that the Falcons are 10-3 ATS in Week 1, while the Bears are 3-7 ATS when opening a season.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears Sunday, 9\/11\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Atlanta PK Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 41 Current Total:\u00a0 40.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Atlanta begins a season as a road favorite for the second consecutive season, failing to win in Pittsburgh a year ago.\u00a0 The Falcons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":17238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[123,359,763,5255,5340,422],"class_list":["post-17640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-chicago-bears","tag-jay-cutler","tag-julio-jones","tag-lance-briggs","tag-matt-ryan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17640"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17645,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17640\/revisions\/17645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}