Bears close Week 9 slate against Buccaneers with NFC North lead on the line

The Chicago Bears get the last word on the Week 9 Sunday schedule. ESPN's highlights tracker for the 13-game day ends with the Bears hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. By kickoff at Soldier Field, Chicago will know how the afternoon went for the rest of its division. One of the early games pits Green Bay against New England, two teams that came into Sunday at 5-3, so the Packers will either be tied with the 6-2 Bears or a game back when Chicago takes the field.

The Bears come in playing their best football of the season. They have won three straight, at Atlanta, at home against New England and at Seattle, and CBS Sports notes they scored 95 points across those three games. According to the team's own preview, a win would give Chicago six victories in its last seven games. The same preview ranks the Bears' offense third in the league in total yards at 387.3 per game. Caleb Williams has been playing well enough that ESPN's Courtney Cronin wrote this week about his place in the MVP conversation.

Tampa Bay is 3-5, but it is not the same team that started 0-4. The Buccaneers have won two in a row, and in those two games they ran for 582 yards, according to CBS Sports. Their defense allows 285.9 yards per game, third fewest in the league. Last week against Atlanta, Bucky Irving ran for 170 yards and Kenny Gainwell for 140, both career highs. Baker Mayfield missed three starts with a dislocated right thumb on his throwing hand. Sports Talk Florida reports that he practiced fully all week and has no injury designation. On the Chicago side, running back Kyle Monangai returned to practice and is listed as questionable. Bears coach Ben Johnson said of the Buccaneers, "This is a good football team."

What it means for Sunday night

The season numbers favor Chicago. The Bears have scored 214 points and allowed 160 in eight games, which works out to about 26.8 points per game against 20.0. They are 3-1 at home, and their only home loss was a 9-3 game against Minnesota. Their other loss was a 31-7 defeat at Green Bay, and that division result is why the Packers game earlier on Sunday matters. The Buccaneers.com preview frames the game as a test of which team can keep its streak going. The main matchup is Chicago's offense against a Tampa Bay defense that is first in the league against the run. On the other side, the Bears' front will have to slow a running game that averages a league-high 168.6 yards per game.

The Bears are favored on this site's board, which tracks 11 venues. Novig has Chicago at -239 on the moneyline and Tampa Bay at +233. Novig's spread is Bears -6.5 at +108. The best Bears number anywhere is Pinnacle's -6 at -104, so the venues are half a point apart. Sportsbook hold on the spread runs from 2.4% to 5.0%, and from 2.8% to 5.6% on the moneyline. The total is 47.5 at Novig, with the over at -106 and the under at -100.

Kickoff is 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC. A Chicago win would push the Bears to 7-2 going into the second half of the season.