The division-leading Bears head to Detroit to face a Lions team coming off an upset win in a game that will kick off the Thanksgiving festivities for the NFL, and it should be an interesting matchup. On one hand, the Bears will likely be without their starting quarterback, pushing career backup Chase Daniel into the starting lineup for a crucial divisional game. On the other, the Lions are missing a pair of key player on offense with Kerryon Johnson and Marvin Jones both ruled out on Wednesday.
You can stream the game on CBS All Access or fuboTV (Try for free), but you're here because you want to know which team is going to cover in this matchup. You can find all our expert picks for the game below.
What NFL picks can you make with confidence in Week 12? And which Super Bowl contender gets a huge scare? Visit SportsLine now to see which NFL teams are winning more than 50 percent of simulations, all from the model that has beaten 98 percent of experts over the past two years.
Listen to Will Brinson and Jason La Canfora break this game down on Wednesday's Pick Six podcast:
Bears at Lions
- Time: Thursday, 12:30 p.m. ET (CBS)
- Open: Bears -3.5
- Current: Bears -3
"The Bears are riding high and they are playing great defense, which will challenge the Lions' offensive line. The Lions have won four of their last five on Thanksgiving, and I think with a nice game from Matt Stafford they will make it five of six. With Chase Daniel almost certainly in as quarterback for the Bears, it gives the Lions a little more an edge. I liked the Lions in an upset even if Trubisky played." -- Pete Prisco on why he's predicting the Lions pull off the outright win
"Grin and bear it (pun intended) situation here, with a Lions team that was heavily overmatched by the Bears two weeks ago. However, Matthew Stafford has a pretty good history on Thanksgiving, even against tough defenses, and the Mitchell Trubisky injury situation, which might end up with Chase Daniel starting for Chicago has me leaning Detroit. Plus, the Bears played on Sunday night and now have to play Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET. That's an incredibly short turnaround." -- Will Brinson on why he's taking the Lions.
When it comes to Bears vs. Lions, you need to hear what SportsLine senior analyst Larry Hartstein has to say. Hartstein is 12-6 in his last 18 picks involving the Bears -- he knows when to back them, when to fade them. When these teams met in Week 10, Hartstein was all over the Bears (-6.5), writing: "Khalil Mack is coming back and the Bears are going to keep Matthew Stafford under duress. Lay it." The result? Mack had two of Chicago's six sacks as the Bears dominated, 34-22. Now, Hartstein has locked in a strong against-the-spread pick for Bears vs. Lions, and you can check it out over at SportsLine. You can also check out what the SportsLine Projection Model thinks about the final score, total and money-line odds.
"The Bears are coming off their most impressive win of the season and while Mitchell Trubisky wasn't flawless, he at times looked capable of becoming the franchise quarterback general manager Ryan Pace envisioned when he drafted him second overall in 2017. Unfortunately, a right shoulder injury will limit Trubisky ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving Day showdown with the Lions and there's apparently a pretty good chance backup Chase Daniel is forced into duty. But Daniel knows coach Matt Nagy's offense well from their time together in Kansas City and at this stage of their respective careers, Daniel could be more consistent than Trubisky. Added bonus: Chicago owns the league's best defense. Either way, this is a huge NFC North matchup with playoff implications." -- Ryan Wilson, who thinks the Bears will cover in a low-scoring game
"The thing about this game is that I don't feel like much has changed since their last meeting. When these two teams played back on Nov. 11, the Bears jumped out to a 26-0 lead and eventually won 34-22 in a game where they sacked Matthew Stafford six times. If I'm Stafford, I wouldn't ever want to see the Bears defense again, let alone 11 days after they beat me to a pulp. The one small advantage the Lions will have in this game is that Chicago will basically be playing on zero rest. Not only did they have to play Sunday night against Minnesota, but now, they have to turn around and play the early game on Thanksgiving. Of course, the Bears are so much better than the Lions this probably won't matter. Instead of winning by 12 like they did last time, they'll probably only win by 10, and instead of sacking Stafford six times, they'll only sack him five times." -- John Breech, who thinks the Bears cover even without Mitchell Trubisky
