Ricky Dimon
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Week 7 in the NFL wraps up with what should be a fun installment of Monday Night Football. It pits the 5-1 Chicago Bears against the 4-2 Los Angeles Rams.
This one is worth watching no matter what, if for no other reason than good football. Of course, if you have a dog in the fight it makes it even bigger. And you can have a dog—or several—in the fight even if you aren’t a fan of the Bears or Rams, because the new same-game parlay feature from DraftKings and PointsBet can present a lucrative betting opportunity.
Let’s take a look at the best such option for this primetime matchup. You can also check out our full preview of the game, including picks on the side and total, as well as our best player props.
Rams -9.5 alternate spread (+150)
Under 40.5 alternate total (+155)
Nick Foles under 246.5 passing yards (-110)
Jared Goff under 245.5 passing yards (-110)
Parlay odds: +1430
The value of same-game parlays, of course, is that all components of it can be correlated if you so choose. That is the case for most of these particular plays. If both Nick Foles and Jared Goff finish below their passing-yardage totals, it stands to reason that the game would be lower scoring than expected. Although Goff failing to go off does not help a bet on the Rams, they should be more than capable of beating the Bears even without scoring a ton of points. And the good news is you get better value on your bet if one or more of the parlay components are not correlated.
Rams -9.5 alternate spread (+150)
Don’t be fooled by the Bears’ 5-1 record. They are a decent team but far from spectacular, which is why you could find them at No. 10 in our Week 7 Power Rankings. Although they do boast a solid 20-19 win over Tampa Bay, three of their victories have come by exactly four points apiece at the expense of lowly competition (Detroit, the Giants, and Atlanta). Chicago also beat Carolina 23-16. Foles replacing Mitchell Trubisky under center has not done much for the offense, which will have its hands full against Aaron Donald and a formidable Los Angeles defense. We have the Rams at -6 based on the actual line, but there is no reason why they can’t win this game by double-digits.
Under 40.5 alternate total (+155)
The Bears’ offense is one of the worst in the league, perhaps better than only the 0-7 Jets. It is hard to see how things will change on Monday when Foles is going to be pressured by Donald while trying to throw the ball past cornerback Jalen Ramsey. It is worth noting that the Rams are surrendering only 14.3 points per game over the past three weeks. At the same time, Goff is likely going to have problems with linebacker Khalil Mack and a vaunted Chicago defense. But L.A. is more than capable of prevailing by a sizable margin even in a relatively low-scoring contest. Something like 24-10 sounds about right—and would comfortably win the first two components of this parlay.
Nick Foles under 246.5 (-110)
Foles is averaging an anemic 5.8 yards per attempt and has been picked off once in each of his four appearances this season. He has not averaged more than 6.5 yards per attempt on any occasion in 2020, nor has he passed for more than 249 yards. The Rams are No. 4 in the NFL in passing defense and No. 1 in yards per pass allowed. Give me Donald and the L.A. defense over Foles any day of the week… and twice on Mondays.
Jared Goff under 245.5 passing yards (-110)
Goff is also unlikely to light it up on Monday night. He has never been especially impressive when being pressured, and Chicago can bring it. The Bears, who are 11th in the league in passing defense, have made 15 quarterback sacks so far. They are also fifth in yards per pass allowed. Another reason for an under play here is that we think the Rams are going to be playing from ahead the whole way and can therefore give a steady diet of rushing attempts to Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown.
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