Sunday Night Football Betting Picks: Chiefs at Bears
We started Week 16 off right with three winning NFL betting picks on Saturday. We hope to keep the hot streak alive through Sunday Night Football, as Mitch Trubisky and the Chicago Bears host Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field. The Chiefs opened -5 but the spread has been bet up to -6 at online sports betting sites as of early Sunday morning.
Use RotoGrinders odds comparison tool to view Week 16 NFL odds across online sportsbooks.
Sunday Night Football Betting Odds — Chiefs at Bears
- Spread: Chiefs -6
- Point Total: 44.5
80% of bets are on the Chiefs and the Over-Under is split evenly as of Sunday morning, per VegasInsider.com.
Sunday Night Football Betting Picks — Chiefs at Bears
On Sunday night, in front of the bright, prime-time lights of Week 16’s Sunday Night Football broadcast, the Bears will have their first regular-season encounter with 2018 MVP winner, Patrick Mahomes — the same quarterback that the Chicago Bears and GM Ryan Pace passed on after trading up for the No. 2 pick in the 2017 draft. Instead, the Bears selected Mitchell Trubisky out of North Carolina, and Mahomes, a gunslinger from West Texas, fell to Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs with the tenth overall pick, two spots ahead of Deshaun Watson.
Since that time, Mahomes became the youngest player to ever win NFL MVP, the Chiefs were one game — one play away from making the 2019 Super Bowl, and are now 12-4 with their eyes set on another playoff run. The Bears? They’re 7-7 and were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs after a Week 15 loss in Green Bay. Trubisky has been closer to losing his starting job than winning an MVP, and the Bears front office is left asking what exactly they saw in Trubisky that they didn’t see in Mahomes nearly three short years ago.
Just how much better has Mahomes been than Trubisky? Mahomes has more yards, more touchdowns, and fewer interceptions while playing 10 less regular-season games.
The comparisons are unavoidable, and they’ll certainly be so Sunday night. The Chiefs passing attack is just now reaching full health after dealing with injuries to both Mahomes and wide receiver Tyreek Hill throughout the season. Mahomes still appears slightly hobbled due to an ankle injury, and the Chiefs are not 100% at running back, but a healthy Hill makes all the difference in the world for this Chiefs passing attack.
We saw that last week as a blizzard couldn’t even slow down Mahomes & Co. The reigning MVP started the game by linking up with Hill on 41-yard touchdown pass. Hill caught five more receptions, but only accumulated 67 total yards. The real damage was done between Mahomes and Kelce, with the duo connecting 11 times for 142 yards. In snowy conditions and all, Mahomes racked up 340 passing yards with a 115.7 passer rating and 79% completion rate.
That passing attack poses a problem for the Bears defense. What was once one of the scariest defenses in the NFL has been exposed by opposing receivers in recent weeks. The Bears have allowed individual 100-yard receiving performances in each of their last three games. They may have held Aaron Rodgers to only 203 yards, but they let David Blough scorch them for 280 yards and two touchdowns in his first NFL start. Imagine what Mahomes is about to do…
I liked the Chiefs -5 at the beginning of the week, and unsurprisingly a lot of other NFL bettors did too. Public money appears to be pouring in on the Chiefs, moving the line to -6 at most sportsbooks early Sunday morning. I’m still comfortable with taking Kansas City -6, as I have a difficult time picturing Trubisky leading the Bears down the field enough to keep up with the potent Chiefs pass attack.
Sunday Night Football Betting Pick: Chiefs -6
Sunday Night Football Betting Picks — Player Props
Patrick Mahomes Over 267.5 Passing Yards -112 at FanDuel
Tyreek Hill Over 69.5 Receiving Yards -108
First Touchdown – Mecole Hardman +2400
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Image Credit: USA Today Sports Images