The Chicago Bears (3-4) will battle the Dallas Cowboys (5-2) on Sunday, where Chicago is looking to get back to .500.
The Bears are riding a wave of momentum coming off Monday night’s dominant 33-14 win over the New England Patriots (3-4). The hope is this team can build on that success, but they’ve got quite a challenge ahead of them in the Cowboys.
Will Chicago pull off another upset on the road against Dallas in Week 8? Our Bears Wire staff share their game picks for Sunday’s matchup.
Alyssa Barbieri (3-4): Cowboys 20, Bears 17
There are many expecting this game not to be close, even with the Bears coming off a dominating win against the Patriots. Before Monday’s win, I had this game being an ugly affair. I don’t necessarily think that’s the case now.
As we’ve seen with this Matt Eberflus team, the Bears are going to keep games close and competitive, even despite their roster deficiencies. Chicago’s defense has kept them in games all season, and they’ll contend with what’s been an underwhelming Cowboys offense that struggled early against a terrible Lions defense.
Chicago seems to have finally found their offensive identity, which continues to be to run the ball and use Justin Fields’ athleticism as a weapon. Which, in turn, should help a struggling passing game. Fields is coming off his best game as a pro, and there’s an opportunity to build off it. But it’s going to be a challenge against a dominant Cowboys defense.
My one concern is, on the rare occasions that the Bears have managed to build momentum (Week 1 vs. 49ers and Week 5 vs. Vikings), they’ve typically followed that up with a disappointing outing (Week 2 vs. Packers and Week 6 vs. Commanders). I’d love nothing more than for the Bears to prove me wrong.
Brendan Sugrue (2-5): Bears 21, Cowboys 19
This Bears team has managed to surprise me at every turn, winning when they’re expected to lose and vice versa, which makes predicting the outcome of their games incredibly difficult. At first blush, my instinct is to pick against the Bears. They’re coming off one of the best wins we’ve seen in years and are immediately undercut with the trade of team captain Robert Quinn two days later. But while that could negatively affect other teams, I believe it’s going to galvanize this group and with Monday’s win, lead to their first two-game winning streak of the season.
The young guns have been getting it done all season long and now it’s time for the defensive line to step up with Quinn now gone. But aside from them, this Bears defense as a whole is playing solid football and is finding ways to create turnovers. Dallas’ weapons don’t scare anyone and Dak Prescott is still working to shake the rust off after returning from his injury. With all of those factors, the Bears should be able to keep them at bay.
The biggest challenge will be with the offense. The Cowboys defense is for real and has playmakers at every level, most notably at linebacker with Micah Parsons. If the Bears can build on their gameplan from Monday by utilizing Justin Fields’ talents on the ground and through the air, while also taking Parsons out of plays like they did with Matthew Judon, they’ll have a chance. This team is playing with some swagger right now and will find themselves with a nice mid-season run before the schedule clamps down on them.
Ryan Fedrau (4-3): Cowboys 24, Bears 17
Despite the Bears looking good against the Patriots, the Cowboys are a much better football team than New England.
Dallas is coming off of a 24-6 win against the Lions, with Dak Prescott getting the rust off after missing several weeks due to his thumb injury. I think this will be a close game, but the Cowboys take this one at home.
The Bears defense keeps their offense in it, but I don’t see Justin Fields playing as well as he did on Monday night against Dallas. I hope I’m wrong.
Jarrett Bailey (5-2): Bears 23, Cowboys 20
I think the Bears will surprise Dallas. That’s not to say I think the Bears build momentum into becoming a playoff team, they are still a ways away from that. However, Dallas struggled against a bad Lions defense. Dak Prescott is still shaking off the rust from being absent for over a month, while Chicago is riding high off a win no one expected them to get. Why not make it two in a row?
