NFL Week 15 Betting – Bears Hope to Spoil Saints’ Playoff Chances (MNF)

New Orleans Saints (-3, 54 o/u) at Chicago Bears

These days, fans of the Chicago Bears (5-8, 2-4 home) have to feel the season can’t end soon enough.

The Bears have lost five of their last seven games, and were demolished in their last outing against Dallas (41-28) on Thursday Night Football. The Bears fell way behind early and trailed 35-7 heading into the fourth quarter.  To its credit, the team didn’t quit and scored 21 in the final frame to make the final score respectable, but the gap proved insurmountable and the Bears lost both straight-up and ATS (as 3.5-point home dogs).

With the Bears already out of playoff contention with three games to go, season’s end could find change blow through the windy city. Quarterback Jay Cutler and head coach Marc Trestman are both receiving heaps of criticism for the team’s poor record. It’s more likely the latter will find himself elsewhere next season because the former (Cutler) recently signed a seven-year deal worth $126.7 million ($54 million guaranteed).

While Cutler has undoubtedly underperformed this season, the Bears probably aren’t ready to write off that kind of money just yet.

Even though Cutler’s play has Trestman on the hot-seat, the coach still believes in his QB, who has 21 turnovers on the year (15 interceptions and six fumbles).

“Jay and I talk daily, I think he has a very good understanding of how we feel about him,” Trestman said. “There’s a lot of noise out there. We’re all aware of that. All we’re trying to do here is to get our football team in a position that we can be better on Monday night. The focus inside this building is exactly that and has always been exactly that, week to week. That’s all that’s been important to all of us here.”

This week, the Bears host the disappointing New Orleans Saints (5-8, 2-4 away). Despite being crushed at home, 41-10, by division rival Carolina last weekend and falling three games below .500, the Saints can take sole possession of the NFC South lead with a win tonight.

It’s a virtual certainty that, whoever wins the horrendous NFC South, will do so with a losing record. Saints head coach Sean Payton said, “The only reason we’re sitting here still with that small sliver of hope is just because the way the division has unfolded this year.”

The biggest issue for the Saints this season has been the defense, which is giving up 398 yards per game (second-worst in the league) and 27.6 points per game (third-worst in the league).

“Guys understand, hey, this is serious,” Payton said. “It’s their profession. It’s our profession. It’s going to be our job and the leaders of this team to lead. This is exactly when you find out who your guys are.”

Proving how bad the Saints defense is, the pick in this Monday Night Football contest is the Bears money line (+131).

(Photo credit: Mike Morbeck (originally posted to Flickr as Jay Cutler) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)