The Chicago Bears, the -435 money line pre-game favourites of the more competitive New Jersey sportsbooks, did what they were expected to do in the NFL’s Week 15 on Sunday.
Playing at home, they beat Green Bay Packers 24-7 to join the New Orleans Saints, the Rams and Chargers, both of Los Angeles, and Kansas City Chiefs as early qualifiers for the season-ending Playoffs.
As you will see from the weekend’ results below, the game’s total score of 41 also got pretty close to the bookmaker’s 45.5 over/under odds.
As the Saints have already done in the NFC South and the Rams in the NFC West divisions, the Bears, who arguably have the sharpest and toughest defense in the NFL, were also able to capture the title in their division, the NFC North – and this for the first time since 2010.
Although Chiefs and the Chargers are now also sure of a place in the playoffs, the two teams must continue their battle for AFC West division honours as a result of the Chargers unexpected 29-28 victory over the Chiefs on Thursday night.
That win took the Chargers’ season tally to 11-3 and into a tie with Chiefs who went into the game as the pre-match favourites with money line odds of -195.
But if this was the first upset of Week 15, there were more and bigger shocks to come on Sunday, oddly most of them in the later afternoon and evening games.
Biggest was probably the second-successive defeat of the Rams who only a few short weeks ago were looking almost unstoppable.
This time it was the seemly out-of-the-running and a clearly-desperate 2018 Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles who did it.
A loss would have killed the Eagles hopes of defending their title, but their 30-22 away win and the coincidental and unexpected 0-23 loss and first shut-out since 2013 of the NFC East Division leaders Dallas Cowboys to the underdog Indianapolis Colts has instead hoisted the Eagles onto the very heels of the Cowboys with 7-7 win-loss record as against the 8-6 of the Cowboys.
And that wasn’t the only turn-up for the books. Another was the loss of yet another of the top four or five Super Bowl favourites, The New England Patriots, who, in their first second-straight December defeat since 2002, went down 10-17 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The result didn’t change any positions in the NFL Standings, however.
The Patriots now with a 9-5 win-loss record held on to their lead over the Miami Dolphins (7-7) in the AFC East Division while the Steelers (8-5-1) clung precariously to their narrowest of leads over the Baltimore Ravens (8-6) in the AFC North division.
Nobody is expecting the Saints to lose to the Carolina Panthers on Monday evening so perhaps the final shock of Week 15 was the unexpected 26-23 victory by San Francisco 49ers (4-10) over the Seattle Seahawks (8-6).
Their win lifted San Francisco off the bottom of the standings, leaving fellow Northern Californian stranglers, the once mighty Oakland Raiders, to now share it with Arizona Cardinals. Both have 3-11 win-loss records.
Raiders were beaten 26-23 by the Cincinnati Bengals this week and the Cardinals were thumped 40-14 by the Atlanta Falcons in matches of no real consequence.
THE SCORES
(Win-loss-tie records in round brackets, pre-match over-/under odds in square brackets)
THURSDAY NIGHT (Final scores)
Chargers (11-3) 29-28 at Chiefs (11-3) [o/u 53]
SATURDAY (Final scores)
4:30pm – Texans (10-4) 29-22 at Jets (4-10) [o/u 41.5]
8:20pm – Browns (7-6-1) 17-16 at Broncos (7-7) [o/u 45.5]
SUNDAY (Final scores)
1:00pm – Packers (5-8-1) 17-24 at Bears (10-4) [o/u 45}
1:00pm – Lions (5-9) 13-14 at Bills (5-9) [o/u 38.5]
1:00pm – Buccaneers (5-9) 12-20 at Ravens (8-6) [o/u 46.5]
1:00pm – Cardinals (3-11) 14-40 at Falcons (5-9) [o/u 44]
1:00pm – Raiders (3-11) 6 16-30 at Bengals (6-8) [o/u 45.5]
1:00pm – Titans (8-6) 17-0 at Giants (5-9) [o/u 43.5]
1:00pm – Dolphins (5-9) 17-41 at Vikings (8-6) [o/u 44.5]
1:00pm – Redskins (7-7) 16-13 at Jaguars (4-10) [o/u 36]
1:00pm – Cowboys (8-6) 0-23 at Colts (8-6) [o/u 47]
4:05pm – Seahawks (8-6) 23-26 at 49ers (4-10) [o/u 43.5]
4:25pm – Patriots (9-5) 10-17 at Steelers (8-5-1) [o/u 52]
8:20pm – Eagles (7-7) 30-23 at Rams (11-3) [o/u 53.5]
MONDAY (still to be played)
8:15pm- Saints (-250) at Panthers (+200) [o/u 52]