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A Chicago Bears Week 7 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders pits two teams battling injuries woes before doing battle against one another. Each team has its starting quarterback looking likely to miss Sunday's game; that, on top of neither offense being very good through six weeks of the 2023 season. The Raiders rank 27th in scoring in the league so far, averaging under 17 points a game. The Bears rank 19th with just over 21 points per game, an average inflated by a 40-point outburst against the Washington Commanders in Week 5.
While Bears fans were hoping that comfortable win over Washington was the first step on getting the offense into high gear, that looks less likely now with QB Justin Fields nursing a dislocated thumb. To make matters worse, the Bears are down their top-two running backs as well, as RB Khalil Herbert hit the IR last week and RB Roschon Johnson remains in concussion protocol. Good luck making your first NFL start Tyson Bagent!
Bold problems require bold solutions, as they say. Unfortunately for Chicago fans, we cannot offer those here. But we can offer some bold speculation — let's get into our Bears Week 7 predictions.
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50+ receiving yards for Cole Kmet
Chicago's tight end clearly felt the sting of losing Fields to injury in Week 6's 19-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Kmet finished the contest with just two catches for nine yards on three targets. Tyson Bagent, who came off the bench to relieve Fields after his thumb injury, didn't look Kmet's way at all.
But as the Bears prepare to start Bagent, the game plan should have a healthy dose of quick throws and easy completions for Bagent. Kmet has garnered five or more targets in four of six games this season. He should be the main beneficiary of this adjustment to the offense, so expect more production than last week's effort.
Three turnovers from Tyson Bagent
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Let's just stipulate that we are not rooting against Bagent here. A Division-II quarterback not only making an NFL roster, but earning a backup job as a rookie is impressive stuff. Bagent balling out would be a great story, no doubt about it.
But it's easy to see Bagent pressing in this big opportunity. He knows he'll only get so many looks in the NFL, and he has to make the most of them. That could be seen in his play last week, when Bagent fumbled the ball that was then recovered for a return touchdown, and threw a crucial interception that halted any chance of a comeback.
Bagent sounds ready to be aggressive and in attack mode against the Raiders. That attitude can cut both ways, however, and lead to even more turnovers from the new QB1.
Bears' D'Onta Foreman outduels Raiders' Josh Jacobs
As mentioned earlier, these are two pretty bad offenses facing off against one another, with Justin Fields and Jimmy Garoppolo both likely to be on the sidelines for it. As a result, the running game is going to take on paramount importance like it's the 1980s all over again. Here is where these teams separate from one another.
The Bears enjoy the NFL's fifth-best yards per carry average (4.8) while the Raiders sit in dead last (3.0.) Raiders' star Josh Jacobs has had an abysmal start to his 2023 season, averaging 2.9 yards per carry and having failed to top 80 yards in a game.
Meanwhile, D'Onta Foreman's 65 rushing yards last week would've bested all but two of Jacobs' 2023 efforts. Obviously, the Raiders' struggles to rush the ball effectively go beyond Jacobs. But the Bears have shown an ability to control the ground game, whether it's Foreman, Herbert, or Johnson toting the rock. We expect Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy to dial up plenty of Foreman to help take the pressure off of Bagent, which will lead to the Chicago back out-producing his Raiders' counterpart.
