The Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts will kick off their second preseason game of 2023 on Saturday night, with the Colts as -4.5 NFL odds favorites.
Last week, the Bears played incredible offense in the first quarter and held on to beat the Tennessee Titans. Meanwhile, the Colts starters struggled and gave up an early lead they were unable to recover from against the Buffalo Bills.
I analyze the point spread and total and give my best NFL picks and predictions for the Bears vs. Colts below.
Bears vs Colts odds
Bears vs Colts predictions
It was an unbelievable start to the 2023 preseason for Bears fans hoping to see Justin Fields and the offense improvements. Fields went a perfect 3/3 passing for 129 yards and two touchdowns. Both DJ Moore and Khalil Herbert were able to take short passes and convert them into 62- and 56-yard touchdowns respectively.
The defense wasn’t great in the first half, but they really put the clamps down in the second half despite switching to reserves going up against the same two quarterbacks. The reserves were able to compile four sacks and an interception in five second-half drives. This is huge for Chicago, as they had one of the worst defensive lines in the league last year.
On the other end, it wasn’t a great start to the Anthony Richardson era in Indy. He threw a bad interception in his third pass of his preseason career, overshooting a wideout running an out and hitting a wide-open defender. He was able to bounce back and lead two long drives, but one ended in a turnover on downs and the other in a missed field goal.
The Colts will be looking to get some more reps for their fourth overall pick as he has officially been named the Week 1 starter. However, he will not have Jonathan Taylor, as he stepped away from the team yet again this week, just days after his return. Nonetheless, he will have some solid receivers to find as there is a legitimate battle for first-team slot receiver between Josh Downs and Isaiah McKenzie.
Head coach Matt Eberflus said that Fields and other select starters will not play in this game due to seeing enough in the joint practices. P.J. Walker will get the start after struggling in his four series last week. Also with some minor injuries, I would expect many of the defensive starters to sit for Chicago.
This leads my best bet of the game to be for the Colts to cover the first-half spread. Even if Richardson struggles again, Gardner Minshew will see first-half snaps and lead the Colts and bettors to victory against Chicago reserves.
My best bet: Colts first half -3.5 (+102 at DraftKings)
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