The Chicago Bears host the Atlanta Falcons in Week 17 of NFL action this afternoon. While the 6-9 Bears have less than a 1% chance of making the playoffs, they are playing their best football of the season while the 7-8 Falcons are just one game behind the Buccaneers in the NFC South.
NFL odds opened with the Bears installed as 3-point home favorites with the Over/Under at 37.5. Here are my best free NFL picks and predictions for the Falcons vs. Bears on December 31.
Falcons vs Bears odds
Falcons vs Bears predictions
The Atlanta Falcons are fifth in defensive EPA and first in defensive rush EPA. That said, they’ve benefited from playing one of the easiest schedules in the NFL and the best offense the…
A “Battle of the Birds” brings NFL Week 2 betting to an end when the Philadelphia Eagles host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football.
Philly put its poor finish to 2023 behind it with a big win over Green Bay in Brazil last Friday. Atlanta, however, fell flat in its Week 1 debut with expensive addition, QB Kirk Cousins, looking more like $18 than $180 million.
My early Falcons vs. Eagles predictions and NFL picks expect Philly to fly high once again in Week 2.
Falcons vs Eagles predictions
Early spread leanPhiladelphia Eagles -6.5 (-110 at FanDuel)
My analysisThe offseason odds painted a closer contest in Week 2, setting the Philadelphia Eagles as 3.5-point home favorites. The official Week 2 open…
It was billed as a glorious festival of football across 12 European cities, from Bilbao to Baku, with a final played at Wembley Stadium in July. But on Tuesday the Euro 2020 football championship became the biggest major sporting event to be postponed because of the coronavirus crisis, reset for 12 months later.
The decision was confirmed after European football’s governing body, Uefa, held a teleconference with the leagues, clubs and players’ union. Uefa’s hope is that postponing the tournament will free up space in the football calendar for the backlog of previously postponed domestic matches to be played in the summer. However, that will depend on the Covid-19 pandemic being subdued.
Euro 2020 postponed for a year by Uefa because…
Pep Guardiola has claimed that Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker and Riyad Mahrez were “perfect” during a night out enjoyed by the Manchester City players and some backroom staff on Sunday.
Video footage that went viral on social media showed the players apparently being turned away from a bar in Manchester, with the person who filmed it claiming Grealish was “drunk”. The club denied this and said no rules had been broken with regard to the timing of the evening because Monday was a day off.
Guardiola brushed off the incident by joking: “I’m so upset because they didn’t invite me. I don’t like it – hopefully next time they can invite me for dinner. The video didn’t show exactly what happened.”
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The word was that it had been an arranged marriage, organised behind Sandro Tonali’s back. Throughout Newcastle’s pre-season tour of the United States Eddie Howe’s £55m Italy midfielder appeared dispirited at times, surly even. It seemed his affections still lay elsewhere.
Italian journalists reported that the 23-year-old turned tearful when Milan told him the offer from north‑east England was too good to reject and Tonali subsequently described the move as a “very difficult decision” and the “start of a hard uphill journey”.
Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekendRead more
Six minutes into his Premier League debut, that ascent suddenly looked considerably less challenging. Tonali’s …
The WNBA will usher in a pair of rule changes for the 2024 season, revising the replay challenge format while also eliminating 20-second timeouts. Teams will be awarded a second coach's challenge if the first one was successful. In a continuation of the previous rule, teams still will need to have a timeout in order to initiate a replay challenge. Challenges are limited to a foul call, an out-of-bounds violation, goaltending or basket interference. Teams will now have five "team" timeouts and one "reset" timeout, in a change from four full team timeouts and two 20-second timeouts in previous seasons. A reset timeout allows teams to advance the ball and make substitutions but not huddle with coaches. Teams can use a reset timeout in the final two minutes of re…
As the chase to the Stanley Cup begins, the Eastern and Western Conferences have completely different outlooks. Colorado or Calgary look the part to be the Western Conference champions, and I’m not sure there’s anything the rest of the field of six can do about it. The Eastern Conference is as wide open as ever with tough, but imaginable paths, to a Stanley Cup Final for most of that side of the bracket. Instead of looking at why any of the 16 NHL teams left standing will be the ones to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup, I’m looking at why each of them won’t be the chosen ones. I’ll be right about 15 and guaranteed to be incorrect about only one. I like those odds. I have a prediction for who’ll win the Stanley Cup but that doesn’t matter here. Florida Panthers source: Getty Ima…
It would be very….I guess we call it “this age” as 2021 hasn’t really separated itself from 2020 yet, for leagues like the NBA, NHL, various soccer leagues, and UEFA as a whole to avoid the Olympics like the plague, and then watch them canceled. Earlier on Thursday, The Times of London r eported that Japan was deadset on not hosting the games and they would have to be canceled. At this point, it would be too late to find an alternative venue, unless the IOC allowed Vladimir Putin or a protege to completely bulldoze some area of their country and put it up there. And they just might! The idea of having hundreds of thousands flocking to Japan during a pandemic — and the odds that this would all be over by the end of July seems a crock — is a nightmare that even the IOC wouldn…
Chris Rock is hosting the Oscars this year, and he took the gig long before the nominees were announced and everyone got pissed because all of them were white. So here we have one of the greatest social commentators of his generation presiding over a ceremony that is in DESPERATE need of a public flagellation. Sounds potentially promising, right? WRONG. Here’s what’s gonna happen Sunday night: Rock is gonna come out onto that stage, and he’s gonna take his jabs, and that audience—the fucking lifeless audience of plasticized actors, each of whom needs six publicists just to do basic addition—will go OOH, like someone slapped a baby in front of them. OMG HE JUST SAID A TRUE THING, SHOULD I CLAP? And then the monologue will peter out and the show will go on—and on and on and on…
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was just reinstated to the NFL after an eight-game suspension. That's good. Police are already investigating him for another incident. That's bad. Police were called to the parking garage of Newport on the Levee Tuesday night, on reports of a pair of disorderly customers. Investigators say Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry and another man, Alston Desious Dyneal fought with a valet parking attendant after they tried to park their car without paying.
An argument allegedly ensued, with Henry reportedly saying "don't you know who I am." Levee Security was called, but the pair left. The report says both Henry and Alston were banned from the Levee and were asked to leave. No one has been arrested. Yes. Henry said, "…