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Bears stick with all-navy home look for Sunday night date with Buccaneers
The 6-2 Bears will wear navy helmets and jerseys with white pants against Tampa Bay on Sunday night, and they are favored by 6.5 points at home.
Week 9 brings throwbacks across the league, but the Chicago Bears are not part of that. ESPN's league-wide uniform roundup has the Philadelphia Eagles in Kelly Green and the Los Angeles Chargers in their all-navy "Super Chargers" set. Chicago will wear its standard home uniform: navy helmet, navy jersey and white pants for Sunday night's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Soldier Field.
The visitors also stay with a standard look. ESPN lists Tampa Bay in pewter helmets, white jerseys and pewter pants, and the Buccaneers' official game preview confirms white over pewter for the trip to Chicago. That means the classic contrast for the NBC broadcast, which kicks off at 8:20 p.m. Central on November 8.
The uniforms are the least of what is at stake. As Windy City Gridiron notes, the game closes a run of three straight primetime games for the Bears, and the bye week comes next. A win would give Chicago four straight victories heading into the break.
What it means for Sunday night
Chicago is 6-2 and playing its best football of the season. The Bears won 34-17 at Seattle on Monday night, which followed a 30-24 home win over New England and a 31-23 win at Atlanta. The only blemishes are a 9-3 home loss to Minnesota and a 31-7 loss at Green Bay. Through eight games the Bears have scored 214 points and allowed 160, and they are 3-1 at Soldier Field.
Tampa Bay arrives at 3-5, but trending in the opposite direction from its start. The Buccaneers opened 0-4 and have since won three of four, including two in a row. The team's site says they lead the NFL in rushing and have averaged three takeaways a game over the last four weeks. That combination is the clearest path to keeping the game close and limiting Caleb Williams' possessions, and Windy City Gridiron identifies stopping the Tampa Bay run game as the key for Chicago's defense.
The market sees a clear favorite. On this site's board for the game, the Bears are favored at -257 to win outright on Novig, with the best price anywhere at -250 on theScore Bet. Tampa Bay is +245 on Novig. On the spread, Chicago is a 6.5-point favorite at +108 on Novig, while theScore Bet has the Bears at -6 for -105. The total sits at 47.5 on most of the board. Novig has the over at -106 and the under at -100. DraftKings has the best over price at -105, and theScore Bet has the under at 48.5 for -115.
The 11 venues are close to one another. Sportsbook hold runs from 3.7% to 4.6% on the moneyline and as high as 4.8% on the spread and total. Prices on the Chicago side differ by only a few cents.
The Bears beat Philadelphia 27-7 earlier this season, and a home win Sunday would send them into the bye with seven wins. More coverage of the season is on the Bears team page.