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The 5-3 Chicago Bears travel to Nashville, Tennessee in Week 9 to take on the 5-2 Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium.
Both the Bears and Titans are struggling right now, as each team enters Week 9 on a two-game losing streak. Chicago has lost to the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints, while Tennessee came up short against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals.
As of this writing, the game between the Bears and Titans is still on despite the COVID-19 outbreak in Chicago. The Bears had to shut down Halas Hall on Thursday after multiple players tested positive for COVID-19. The Windy City team will be doing virtual walkthroughs moving forward, putting them at a slight disadvantage against the Titans.
Assuming the Bears-Titans game stays on, here are four bold predictions for the contest from a Chicago point of view.
1. Nick Foles throws one touchdown, two interceptions
Since taking over for Mitchell Trubisky in the second half of the Bears' Week 3 game against the Atlanta Falcons, Nick Foles has thrown eight touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 64.8 percent of his passes. He's racked up 1,411 yards through the air, but the Bears' offense hasn't looked all that better with Foles under center over Trubisky.
Foles has thrown an interception in every game this season, so he'll likely continue that trend in Week 9 against the Titans. The 31-year-old is going to be under a lot of pressure since the Bears have arguably the worst offensive line in football and could be starting four backups due to COVID-19 and injuries.
Some Chicago fans want head coach Matt Nagy to go back to Trubisky, but that's not possible anymore. The former No. 2 overall pick hurt his shoulder in Week 8 against the New Orleans Saints when he came in for a running play and reports have stated he may need to have season-ending surgery.
2. Allen Robinson catches one touchdown pass
We said Foles is going to throw one touchdown pass along with his two picks. Look for Allen Robinson to catch that touchdown pass from Foles. The star wideout has three touchdown catches on the season for the Bears along with 50 receptions for 631 yards.
All of Robinson's touchdowns this season have come from Foles, who looks for ARob a lot since the Detroit native is one of the best route runners in the NFL. We are guessing the Titans will put Malcolm Butler on Robinson for most of the game. During his run with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Robinson faced the Titans five times. He caught 38 balls for 551 yards and three touchdowns.
The Bears have the worst rushing attack in the NFL, which makes sense since their offensive line is putrid. With that being said, Nagy has been forced to call a lot of passing plays. Look for that trend to continue against the Titans and Foles and Robinson to connect on a few nice plays for the Bears.
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3. Derrick Henry scores two touchdowns
While the Bears have one of the better defenses in the NFL and a physical defensive line led by Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks, they have struggled to stop the run and tackle in the open field.
With that being said, we can see Titans superstar running back Derrick Henry having a big day against Chicago. Look for the 6-foot-3 tailback to break a lot of tackles against the Bears and score two touchdowns on the ground. Henry has carried the ball 161 times this season for 775 yards and eight touchdowns. He's very difficult to tackle, which doesn't bode well for the Bears since Chicago has been very poor at tackling this season.
Once the Titans get their running game going with Henry, it will set up the play-action pass for Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
4. Bears lose to Titans to drop to 5-4
Reality is starting to set in for the Bears. They started the season at 5-1, but the only good team they defeated during that stretch was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Against the Rams and Saints, the Bears got outcoached and outplayed in all three phases of the game. Something is definitely going on behind the scenes with Foles and Nagy, as they don't appear to be on the same page. What started out as a promising season for the Bears after last year's regression has quickly turned into a disaster.
We wouldn't be shocked if the Bears somehow defeated the Titans on the road since Tennessee lost to the Bengals in Week 8 and Chicago is 3-1 on the road this season. However, all the numbers show that the Titans are the better team.
