Green Bay Packers Look To Keep Their Winning Ways Against Bears

NFL News - December 8th, 2009 - Written by Bryan

In a heated division battle, Green Bay will take on Chicago this week. Green Bay will be looking to build off of their dominating defensive performance Monday night, and continue their quest for the NFC Wild card. Chicago had high hopes entering this year, but those aspirations have failed to pan out. The Bears still have a slim chance to make the playoffs, but this week turns more to the role of spoiler, and there is nothing they would rather do than ruin the playoff chances of a division foe.

The 27-14 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night was one Green Bay needed. Allowing the Ravens only 185 total yards on offense, the Packers took advantage of four turnovers, which allowed quarterback Aaron Rogers to throw for three touchdowns in a critical win. Chicago too had won their game last week, beating St. Louis with quarterback Jay Cutler throwing for a touchdown, with no interceptions, bouncing back from a four game slide.

Green Bay comes to Soldier Field this week as three point favorites to get the win on the road. Odd makers expect there to be at least some scoring in this contest as they currently have the NFL Week 14 Betting odds for the over/under installed at 43.

In their previous meeting this year, Green Bay took down the Bar 21-16 at home. In that game, the Packers were 4 1/2 point favorites to protect their home field and with the six point win, they had covered the spread. With the games total between the two teams finishing at 46, the game went the under as the O/U sat at 47.

No doubt odd makers are expecting a similar contest, as evidence shown by the betting lines this week.

The Packers' win over the Ravens on Monday night bumped their record to 8-4, currently maintaining a spot in the playoff, controlling their own destiny. The performance by the defense did not go unnoticed by anyone, especially not Rogers.

"If our defense plays like it did tonight, we're going to be tough to beat," Rodgers said in a press conference following the game.

Having lost four in a row, and six of their last seven, no team was hungrier for a win on Sunday than the Chicago Bears. They got it, as they won 17-9 at home over the Rams. It has been a while since the Bears won a game, and no one knew that more than Cutler.

"It feels like it's been a long time," he said after the game. "It wasn't the prettiest game but we pulled it out. Defensively I thought we did a great job."

After throwing for 131-yards and a touchdown in the first half, Cutler was held to only 12-yards passing in the second half. Chicago will have to make offensive adjustments if they hope to move the ball on a confident Packer defense.

Other betting trends indicate that the Packers are 3-0-1 ATS in their last four contests and are 4-1-1 ATS when facing a team with a losing record. Chicago is 5-7.

Chicago's last four games have gone the under.