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After 17 weeks of regular season football, the NFC South champion, New Orleans Saints will take on the Chicago Bears in the Wild Card round of the 2021 NFL Playoffs. The second seed Saints will be making their fourth-straight playoff appearance. Meanwhile, the Bears will be the newly-added seventh seed, which was added this offseason. This is a rematch from earlier this season, where the Saints won 26-23 over the Bears at Soldier Field.
Here’s a look at the opening odds of this matchup between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2020 NFL Playoffs. Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.
Chicago Bears @ New Orleans Saints
Point spread: Saints -9
Point total: 48.5
Moneyline: Bears +330, Saints -435
The Saints (12-4) defeated the Carolina Panthers 33-7 in Week 17 to wrap up the second seed in the NFC. New Orleans did this without the services of superstar running back Alvin Kamara and wide receiver Michael Thomas. Surprisingly, this has been the story of the Saints’ season as they lost starting quarterback Drew Brees for a multiple weeks and had to start Taysom Hill at quarterback. Brees is now back under center and will be looking to bounce-back from last season’s Wild Card round playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
As for the Bears (8-8), they lost 35-16 to the Green Bay Packers to end the regular season. However, since the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17, it allowed the Bears to get in as the final wild card team in the NFC. Chicago went on a second half run, thanks to the play of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and running back David Montgomery. The Bears struggled to run the ball earlier in the season, but will need to stick with it against one of the league’s best defenses in the Saints.
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