What better way to illustrate the Chicago Bears’ American football betting underdogginess than the fact that the fans actually cheered for quarterback C.J. Beathard’s injury. Unlike the gladiator in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Beathard presumably didn’t expect to be “butchered to make a Roman holiday.” “Our starting quarterback got hurt, and people are cheering before he even stands up, and that pisses me off, so I’m disappointed in our fans,” strong safety Eric Reid said. The feeling is mutual, Eric. The feeling’s mutual.
Online Football Betting odds for fans who bet on NFL:
- Date: Sunday, 3rd December
- Time: 1:05 PM
- Venue: Soldier Field
49ers +3½ (-110) 40 (-110)
Bears -3½ (-110) 40 (-110)
Oh yeah… Jimmy played pretty good
“It’s disappointing that when a man is hurt – people don’t understand what we go through as football players. And what our bodies go through. And he’s laying down on the ground and people are cheering. That’s messed up,” Reid added. The question is, were the fans cheering Beathard’s injury or Jimmy Garoppolo’s debut with the team?
Garoppolo ran for four yards on his first snap (oooh snap!), threw an eight-yard completion to Aldrick Robinson, and a touchdown pass to Louis Murphy. The Niners nonetheless lost 13-24 to the Seahawks. It has yet to be seen whether Garoppolo will make his first start for the 49ers, which depends greatly on whether Beathard’s injury is serious, which doesn’t appear to be the case. But speaking of injuries, the Niners are working with a skeleton crew including Murphy, Kendrick Bourne, and two undrafted rookies in the two tackle spots. The 49ers are 1-4 straight-up and against the American football betting spread in their last five games, their lone win of the season thus far coming against the Giants on November 12th.
Bears dancing on the breadline
Bears head coach John Fox’s seat couldn’t be hotter if he was sitting on Noris Basin Geyser, and an unwritten rule in football is that whenever a head coach is fired rosters are almost always turned over. As a result, Chicago players are auditioning more than playing, and if their six-rushing-yard performance against the Eagles is any indication, many of them are on the callback list. It was the second-fewest rushing yards in a game in team history, as well as the lowest since 1952 when they rushed for 1 yard against the Los Angeles Rams. Chicago entered the game averaging 131.8 rushing yards per game, fifth best in the league, and had they rushed for 222 yards a week earlier, the third time this season they’ve run for more than 220 in a game. While they are not mathematically out of the playoffs, the Bears must win their remaining five games and would also need every NFC team that doesn’t already have eight wins to not finish .500 or better. Chicago has lost four straight games and have not covered the American football betting spread since late October. The Bears have never been .500 nor won five games in a row with Fox.