Lions vs. Bears Free NFL Picks for Week 4

The winless Lions visit their divisional opponents in Chicago who are still not sure who their QB will be for the game. It’s safe to say these teams would have hoped for better starts to the season, the Lions come in winless and the Bears are 1-2 after a win against the Bengals.

Will the Lions get off the bottom of the division here? Let' see their NFL odds.

Detroit Lions vs. Chicago Bears

Sunday, October 3, 2021 – 1:00 PM at Soldier Field

Who Is Going to Start at QB for the Bears?

This is the key question for this matchup, and frankly, we have no idea. It seems that even Matt Nagy has no idea who will be starting under center for his team. I think Dalton will be out again with his knee, and Justin Fields didn’t just perform terribly this week, he picked up a knock as well so it could be a shock return for Nick Foles. From reports, it looks like Fields' hand injury wasn’t serious and he himself has said he’s fine, so I would expect it to be him starting again.

They will have to change their gameplan though. Last week was atrocious. To finish a game with just 47 yards of total offense is un-heard of in the recent game, that number turning into one net yard of passing offense is shambolic. It was the lack of designed runs for an obviously mobile QB that was most obvious. You have to think they’ll be working on a game-plan this week instead of trying to get Fields to copy the Dalton playbook.

https://youtu.be/C2JOW2bBzhw

Matt Nagy has been getting killed in the media and rightly so. They need to show this week that the Fields pick was correct and despite Chicago never making coaching moves during the season, you have to assume that he is now fighting for his job, something I wrote about over the summer.

Can the Lions Take Advantage of the Bears' Miss-Firing?

From the outside most wouldn’t have expected the Lions to have won any games by now and that’s the case after losses to the 49ers, Packers and Ravens this last weekend. There have been a few shoots of hope in each game though, they came back late in week 1 to get things close, they led at the half against Green Bay and should have won against the Ravens last week had it not been for the officials missing the clocks hitting 00 with the Ravens driving for their game winning field goal.

Conceding the longest field goal ever scored in the NFL with the last kick of the game was a typical Lions way of losing a game, but to get that close to beating Baltimore showed some promise and they easily covered the top betting sites' spread line.

T.J. Hockenson #88 of the Detroit Lions in Jacksonville, Florida. James Gilbert/Getty Images/AFP

It’s not going to be easy for the Goff-led Lions who have one of the worst WR groups in the league, “led” last week by Kalif Raymond who is good with the ball in his hands. Quintez Cephus has tried to step up and rookies Trinity Benson and Amon-ra St. Brown round out a poor set of players.

They are getting good production from their running backs, especially through the air with D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams both putting up good numbers in each game so far. Those two will probably get a lot of targets in this one as well. Each of them found the endzone on the ground last week too which is a good sign for them going forward.

They will be looking to get TJ Hockenson more involved after the Ravens managed to close him down. He’d had 16 receptions from 19 targets in the first game and was showing why a lot of people were high on his stats coming into the year.

Jared Goff #16 of the Detroit Lions signals against the Green Bay Packers on September 20, 2021 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Wesley Hitt/Getty Images/AFP

Then Who Wins This?

This is a tough one, and all down to Nagy really. He must be feeling the pressure after the abject failure of last weekend, but that was against Myles Garrett and the Browns. I don’t think the Lions can generate as much pressure as them.

I’m not sure. I would have liked closer to a TD on the spread for the Lions, they have shown they can put up points but there’s too much variance on the Bears side for me to take them only getting three points.

So I’m going to assume the Bears will be able to put up some points against a poor defense and take the over on this one for my NFL picks.

NFL Pick: (visit our Sportsbook Review)

*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.