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‘Tis Game Day. For a night game. We’ve got a lot of time before kickoff.
Carson Wentz passed his debut with flying colors at home against Cleveland last week, but now he and we are on to Chicago. Like the Browns, the Bears are team with a lot of issues, but they look to offer stiffer competition.
Jay Cutler to Alshon Jeffrey is a much more formidable duo than Robert Griffin to Terrelle Pryor, and the Bears defense is more talented than the Browns and John Fox and Vic Fangio are top tier defensive minds. Not to mention the game is in Chicago.
That said, if the Browns were the ideal team to debut a rookie QB against, the Bears look like a pretty good team for Carson Wentz to start his second game against. Chicago’s defense ranked in the bottom third of the league in many traditional statistical categories last year and were even worse in advanced stats, ranking 31st in DVOA. Part of that was injuries, only two Bears defenders started 16 games last year, but part of that is talent. The Bears brought in some new faces this year but they’re still a work in progress.
On offense, they might be an even worse matchup than the Browns. The Bears offensive line is a weakness, they have no real run game to speak of, and Jay Cutler turns the ball over at a higher rate than RGIII does. The Eagles short handed secondary could be a big problem, but the advantages they have up front are significant.
The Eagles are more rounded than the Bears, but this is going to be a season of peaks and valleys as the team takes its lumps with a rookie QB starting. It could mean an ugly Monday night. It could be a special one. It’ll probably be a close one. This is a rebuilding season, more about the journey than the destination for 2016, so if Carson Wentz plays well but the team loses, it’s not the worst outcome.
My predictions:
Score prediction: 23-17 Eagles
Bold prediction: Carson Wentz once again puts up 2 TDs and 0 INTs.
Your predictions:
Leave your own predictions in the comments.
Score prediction:
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