{"id":18201,"date":"2011-10-01T14:04:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T19:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18201"},"modified":"2011-10-01T14:04:24","modified_gmt":"2011-10-01T19:04:24","slug":"nfl-week-4-betting-preview-carolina-panthers-at-chicago-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-4-betting-preview-carolina-panthers-at-chicago-bears-18201\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 4 Betting Preview: Carolina Panthers at Chicago Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carolina Panthers at Chicago Bears
\nSunday, 10\/2\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -6.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 44
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 42.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Chicago<\/a>
The Chicago Bears will look to snap a two-game slide Sunday when hosting the Carolina Panthers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carolina picked up its first win of the year last week with a 16-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars as 3.5-point home favorites.\u00a0 The Panthers were able to pull it off without a sterling performance from quarterback Cam Newton, who threw for just 158 yards after throwing for 400-plus yards in the first two weeks.\u00a0 He has a good chance of bouncing back this week, facing a Bears defense that ranks 26th against the pass and 19th in terms of points allowed.\u00a0 Carolina is 4-9 ATS as an underdog of 3.5 to 9.5 points and 7-11 ATS on the road.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will likely target tight end Greg Olsen in this week\u2019s contest, as he\u2019ll be highly motivated after being traded for a No. 1 pick before training camp started.\u00a0 He caught just 41 passes for 404 yards and two touchdowns in 2010, but averaged 57 catches for 593 yards and 13 touchdowns during the 2008-09 seasons.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m excited to be here and I think this is an exciting team with a lot of energy around it,\u201d Olsen stated this week.\u00a0 \u201cI think we\u2019re on the rise.\u201d\u00a0 Wide receiver Steve Smith is still a dangerous target on the outside, as his 349 receiving yards ranks third in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Chicago has dropped consecutive games to two of the premiere teams in the NFL, falling 30-13 in New Orleans before being handed a 27-17 loss by the Green Bay Packers as four-point home underdogs.\u00a0 The Bears absolutely need to find some balance offensively, as they\u2019ve ran the ball just 20 times and passed 82 times in the last two games.\u00a0 It would be a welcomed idea to get the ball in the hands of running back Matt Forte as much as possible, as he ran for a career-high 166 yards in last year\u2019s meeting.\u00a0 Chicago is 0-2 ATS as a home favorite of 3.5 to 7 points the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Bears defense hasn\u2019t been very good against the run this year, failing to hold a single team under 100 rushing yards, while opponents have averaged 4.6 yards per carry.\u00a0 Chicago will be facing Carolina\u2019s talented duo of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, but the new-look team has gone away from its power rushing game of year\u2019s past, gaining just 3.0 yards per carry combined.\u00a0 Bears linebacker Lance Briggs continues to lead the defense with Brian Urlacher, leading the team with 37 tackles through three games.\u00a0 \u201cEach game he\u2019s gotten better this year,\u201d commented defensive coordinator Ron Marinelli.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Bears due to their 4-1-1 ATS mark as a favorite, while the Panthers are 0-4 ATS as a road underdog.<\/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":"

Carolina Panthers at Chicago Bears Sunday, 10\/2\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -6.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 44 Current Total:\u00a0 42.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Carolina picked up its first win of the year last week with a 16-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars as 3.5-point home favorites.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[5341,3365,279,359,1068,5340],"class_list":["post-18201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-brian-urlacher","tag-cam-newton","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-chicago-bears","tag-greg-olsen","tag-lance-briggs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18201","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=18201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18202,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18201\/revisions\/18202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}