{"id":8265,"date":"2010-09-27T15:22:40","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T20:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=8265"},"modified":"2010-09-27T15:22:40","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T20:22:40","slug":"football-picks-packers-vs-bears-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/football-picks-packers-vs-bears-predictions-8265\/","title":{"rendered":"Football Picks: Packers Vs Bears Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Packers
Aaron Rodgers leads the Green Bay Packers as 3 point road favorites on Monday Night<\/figcaption><\/figure>The Chicago Bears (2-0) and Green Bay Packers (2-0) will be playing the first real meaningful game in the oldest NFL rivalry post-Favre when they meet at Soldier Field on Monday Night Football.\u00a0 Of course Bears and Packers fans alike would argue every game between the two bitter NFC North rivals is meaningful, but this is exactly the type of game Chicago envisioned playing when the team went out and traded for quarterback Jay Cutler before last season.<\/p>\n

Cutler failed his first test against Green Bay in last year\u2019s season opener en route to a 21-15 loss, throwing four interceptions and just one touchdown.\u00a0 He did not fare any better in the second meeting later in the year with two more interceptions during a 21-14 loss.\u00a0 However, Cutler has thrived in new offensive coordinator Mike Martz\u2019s scheme so far this season and hopes to show even more growth as the NFL\u2019s top-rated passer through the first two games.<\/p>\n

Running back Ryan Grant was a major factor for the Packers in that second game against the Bears a year ago, rushing for 137 yards on 20 carries and scoring both touchdowns.\u00a0 But Grant will not be available after suffering a season-ending ankle injury in the season-opening 27-20 victory at Philadelphia.\u00a0 Brandon Jackson remains the starter despite finishing with only 29 yards on 11 carries in last week\u2019s 34-7 win over Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s defense has been stingy against the run in the first two games, allowing an NFL-low 56 rushing yards combined to Detroit and Dallas.\u00a0 That could mean Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers will instead look to exploit a secondary that has been shaky at times by throwing more than he has in the team\u2019s first two wins against the Eagles and Bills.<\/p>\n

Rodgers\u2019 passing numbers have yet to really take off and mirror last season, although he still has 443 yards and four touchdowns for the highest-scoring offense in the NFC (30.5 points per game).\u00a0 He may be without starting left tackle Chad Clifton due to a knee injury, which means rookie Bryan Bulaga would have the responsibility of stopping Bears defensive end Julius Peppers.<\/p>\n

The offensive line for Chicago is also in question since former first-round pick Chris Williams went down with a hamstring injury in last week\u2019s 27-20 win at Dallas.\u00a0 Williams has been ruled out, which means Frank Omiyale will have to play left tackle and try to contain the league\u2019s top sack leader Clay Matthews.<\/p>\n

If the Bears are not able to stop the pass rush, it could be a long day for Cutler and the offense.\u00a0 Running backs Matt Forte and Chester Taylor have not been able to generate any kind of a rushing attack so far and have only been a factor in the passing game.<\/p>\n

The Packers have covered the last four meetings with Chicago, although the Bears have won seven of the last 12 games between the teams since Lovie Smith became head coach.\u00a0 The UNDER has cashed in each of the last four meetings along with six of the past eight.<\/p>\n

Maddux Sports is coming off another winning Sunday and will close the week 3 card with another win tonight.\u00a0 Get\u00a0our football picks winner\u00a0for Monday night by visiting our winning NFL picks page of the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bears (2-0) and Green Bay Packers (2-0) will be playing the first real meaningful game in the oldest NFL rivalry post-Favre when they meet at Soldier Field on Monday Night Football.\u00a0 Of course Bears and Packers fans alike would argue every game between the two bitter NFC North rivals is meaningful, but this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":5440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[3171,359,2539,2839,2508,1119,3003,1930,1922],"class_list":["post-8265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-bears-packers-preview","tag-chicago-bears","tag-football-betting","tag-football-picks","tag-free-nfl-pick","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-monday-night-football-picks","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265","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\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8291,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions\/8291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}