By AJ Olona

Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8:20 p.m. ET

NFL Network

SPREAD: Buccaneers, -6.0

Week 5 finally marks the week in which the NFL will open up with two winning teams on Thursday Night Football. Last week, we were treated to a game between two winless teams in the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos. Now we are getting to watch two teams fight it out as they both sit at 3-1 records. While the Chicago Bears started the season 3-0, they are coming off of a loss at home against the Indianapolis Colts. On the other side of the ball, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on a three-game winning streak after starting the season with a loss to New Orleans.

Chicago Bears

Week 3 officially marked the end of the Mitchell Trubisky era in Chicago. The Bears officially made the switch to Nick Foles under center heading into their Week 4 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts but things did not go as planned. Nick Foles and the Bears would lose their matchup against the Colts in a 19-11 defensive matchup. In this game, the Bears were not able to get anything going offensively. Their only trip to the endzone didn’t come until there was only 1:35 left on the clock. It wasn’t until the game was already essentially over when the Bears offense was able to get anything going.

Nick Foles finished the day completing just 26 of his 42 pass attempts for only 249 yards. Again, a good chunk of those yards didn’t come until the game was all but over. For most of the day, the Indianapolis defense was able to keep Nick Foles in check. To be fair, Foles was starting his first game for Chicago against one of the stingiest defenses in the entire league. Through 4 games, the Colts have the number one pass defense in the entire league. No opposing quarterback has thrown for more than 200 yards against the Colts defense until Nick Foles. He also threw 1 touchdown and 1 interception on the day.

Foles was also not able to get any help whatsoever from his running game on the day. The Bears were held to just 28 rushing yards on 16 carries on the day. A week after losing Tarik Cohen, it was clear the Bears were going to struggle to move the ball. David Montgomery has not been able to take control of the backfield since entering the league in 2019. If the Bears are not able to consistently run the ball against their opponents, it is only going to make things that much harder on Nick Foles going forward.

While the offense has struggled through four games, the defense has luckily been good enough to keep them in almost every game. Through four games, the Bears defense is only allowing 230.3 passing yards per game and are only allowing 20.3 points per game. The Bears defense is going to need to step it up once again this week because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are averaging over 30 points a game and they are coming off of a game in which they scored 38 points against the Los Angeles Chargers. Through each passing week, the Buccaneers and Tom Brady are seeming as if they are finding their groove more and more. In Week 4, Tom Brady was able to find his old form as he threw for five touchdowns to five different series. The Bears defense is going to need to show up to this game big time. They cannot allow this game to turn into a shoot out, or else they will have some problems. However, last time we saw a shootout between Tom Brady and Nick Foles, things did not turn out too bad for Nick Foles.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tom Brady and the Buccaneers seem as though they are finally finding their groove. Each week, we see more and more Tom Brady getting comfortable with Bruce Arians’ offense and his new weapons in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers are sitting at the top of their division after their 38-31 win against the Lost Angeles Chargers. In this game, 43-year old Tom Brady found himself in a shootout with a guy that is almost half his age in 22-year old Justin Herbert.

In that game, Brady started off by throwing a pick-six in the first quarter. This marked the fourth pick-six that Tom Brady has thrown in the last six games. The Chargers quickly scored again after the pick-six and quickly found themselves on top of the Patriots 21-7 late in the 2nd quarter. That is when Tom Brady turned it on, finishing the game with 369 passing yards and 5 touchdowns to 5 different pass catchers. Brady was not sacked a single time in this game and the Bucs were able to get the rushing game going as well, even with Leonard Fournette not playing in this game. Ronald Jones was able to finish the game with 111 rushing yards on 20 carries. With Brady able to sling the football around to everyone on the team, and with the running game getting going, this Buccaneers offense is going to be a big issue for teams to stop.

On the other side of the ball, the Buccaneers’ defense is playing lights out as well. Through 4 weeks, they are one of the top teams in each defensive category. They are allowing only 312 total yards a game, which ranks fourth in the league (third if you take into account that the Steelers have only played 3 games). The crazy stat that stands out the most about how good this Tampa Bay defense is is their opposing teams rushing numbers. The Buccaneers are only allowing 64.3 rushing yards a game. If they can consistently keep their opponents one dimensional, they are going to continue to have a lot of success on that side of the ball.

The Prediction

While these two teams are coming into this game with the same record, they are coming off of two very different games. The Bears were completely shut down by the Colts defense in Week 4. They were unable to get anything going on offense. The Bears were already struggling to establish a running game before they lost Tarik Cohen and without him, things looked even worse. If the Bears cannot establish a running game to compliment Nick Foles, they are going to struggle heavily for the rest of the season. Things will not be easier as they are going to struggle once again to run the ball. Nick Foles has had a tough task starting off his time as the Bears starter against two of the top defenses in the NFL. Against the Buccaneers on Thursday night, the Bears are going to struggle offensively once again.

While Brady is looking more and more comfortable with each passing week in this new offense, do not expect him to throw for another 5 touchdowns in this game. The Bears defense is much better than the Chargers defense, so Brady is not going to be able to pick them apart this week. However, he may not have to. If the Bucs can keep the momentum going with Ronald Jones,  Brady should be able to sit back and just take what the defense is giving him.

SHAWN’S PREDICTION: Buccaneers 30 - 16

AJ’S PREDICTION: Buccaneers 32 - 19

JAKE’S PREDICTION: Buccaneers 27 - 24

CADE’S PREDICTION: Bears 21 - 14

TIMOTHY’S PREDICTION: Buccaneers 31 - 17

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