Chicago Bears vs. New York Giants Pick ATS 8/16/19

Chicago Bears (0-1 SU, 0-1 ATS) vs. New York Giants (1-0 SU, 1-0 ATS), 8/16/19
Time: 7:30 pm ET Friday, Aug. 16
Where: Met Life Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ
TV: NFL Network

Point spread: Chi +2/NYG -2
Moneyline: New York -130 / Bears +115 (BetNow)
Over/Under: 42

The Bears are preparing for another run toward the playoffs while the Giants are working on their future, heading into a Week 2 pre-season bout Thursday night in New Jersey. How are we betting against the spread?

NFL Betting Odds

Week 2’s NFL exhibition betting odds opened New York at -1 over Chicago, with an over/under of 41. Early betting action then bumped the Giants to -2 and the total to 42.

Bears vs. Giants Set-Up

Chicago opened its 2019 exhibition season with a 23-13 loss at home to Carolina last Thursday. The Bears spotted the Panthers the first six points of the game, bounced back to lead 10-6 at the half but lost the second half 17-3 and coughed up the cash as three-point favorites.

On the night Chicago produced just 252 yards of total offense, but the defense only allowed 269.

Back-up quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Tyler Bray combined to go 19/30 passing for 205 yards, with zero touchdowns or picks.

Starting QB Mitch Trubisky might get a couple of series in Thursday night, but we would expect Daniel and Bray to handle most of those duties again.

New York, meanwhile, opened its exhibition season with a 31-22 win over the Jets last Thursday. The Giants trailed that game 15-14 late into the second quarter but used a 17-0 run to take control, winning outright as three-point underdogs.

On the night the Giants out-gained the Jets 414-286 and scored on a pick-six.

Starting QB Eli Manning played minimally; back-ups Daniel Jones, Alex Tanney, and Kyle Lauletta then combined to go 28/36 passing for 373 yards and three touchdowns, without an interception.

Manning also might see a couple of series Thursday night, but we expect the back-ups to man the station for the most part again.

These teams just met back in Week 13 of last season, a 30-27 Giants overtime victory. Daniel started at QB that day for the Bears in place of an injured Trubisky, threw an early pick-six, then played well after that. Chicago forced OT with a touchdown on a halfback-lateral pass on the last play of the game, but New York prevailed in extra time.

The Bears were favored by four points that day, so that was an upset.

NFL Betting Trends

• Chicago is now 2-4 SU, 3-3 ATS in exhibition games under Coach Nagy.
• New York is 3-2 both SU and ATS in exhibition games under Coach Shurmur.
• Underdogs on the NFL betting lines won seven of 16 games outright during Week 1 of this exhibition season.

Totals Report

Chicago’s loss to Carolina last week sneaked over a total of 35.

New York’s win over the Jets last week cruised over a total of 35.

Overs played 9-7-1 in Week 1 (plus the Hall of Fame game) of this exhibition season, as the games averaged 41 points against an average over/under of 36. This week the average over/under sits at right around 42.

Free NFL Pick

The Giants would probably like this one more than the Bears, and their collection of back-up QB’s looked good last week. In New York people are playing for jobs; with Chicago, they’re just trying to reach the regular season in good health. We like the Giants in this spot for our free NFL exhibition pick.