LAS VEGAS — Tom McDonald got “porched” last Sunday morning, which left the salesman for one of the country’s top solar outfits alone on the porch of an empty home. Residents gone. Appointment moot.
It allowed the diehard Bears fan to slip into the Green Valley Ranch sportsbook and watch his team play the Patriots at Soldier Field, another home-team no-show.
McDonald, 41, was born in Ohio, but his father, Dave, hails from the South Side. The Bears are in the family’s DNA. Tom has seen a half-dozen games at Soldier Field, his first Nov. 8, 1992, an overtime loss to the Bengals.
He moved to Vegas two years ago. On Sunday, he popped into the book in time to see the Patriots boot a field goal for a 16-3 lead. He was downcast but not lighter in the wallet. He does not wager on Bears games.
“It’s too crazy of a football team to bet on,” McDonald said. “One game, they score four touchdowns. The defense plays great against the Jaguars. But when we play good teams, we just get smashed.
“When you can’t get 200 yards of offense, then you know you’re in for a long season.”
The curse
The Bears went into last Sunday as one of three NFL squads with an undefeated home record against the line. At least those going to Soldier Field with bets on the home side had profited at 3-0.
The Colts and Commanders, both 4-0 ATS on their own turf, had been experiencing similar fortune.
All three, though, failed to cover last week at home. The Colts were getting four points but lost 30-20 to the Bills. The Commanders were giving three but lost 28-27 to the Steelers.
The Bears gave six to the 2-7 Patriots, but they never led in a 19-3 defeat. They are now underwater with a 4-5 record, with the toughest part of the schedule ahead of them.
The records of their remaining foes are a combined 63.2%, toughest of the NFL’s 32 teams.
“They might win one more game,” Bears fan Jerry Gentile said. “I don’t have high hopes for them.”
The GVR book featured the Steelers-Commanders on a huge screen, its volume bellowing from ceiling speakers. Two others were divided into four, which showed the morning’s six other games.
Patriots-Bears aired on one of those quadrants. In sofa-like seats, behind a row of cubicles and a dozen tall, circular tables sat Gentile (rhymes with Chantilly) and his friend, two Chicago natives in Bears gear.
The 73-year-old Gentile, who retired five years ago and splits his time between Hoffman Estates and Vegas, won his under 38.5 bet on the Bears game.
“I don’t bet on the Bears, but I don’t bet against the Bears, either,” he said. “It’s frustrating. You have high hopes for them, and they keep letting you down, letting you down, letting you down.
“I call it the McCaskey Curse. Seems like everything they’ve touched since 1985 goes to [expletive].”
The Packers, 25-3 in their last 28 games against the Bears, visit Soldier Field on Sunday and opened on the look-ahead line 10 days ago as a three-point favorite. It moved to 6.5 early in the week before settling at 6.
The Packers are 13-1 in their last 14 games in Chicago, the average score favoring Green Bay 27-18.
“Unfortunately,” Gentile said, “the Bears are gonna get their ass kicked.”
Clueless
At the Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN), senior broadcaster/scribe Matt Youmans envisioned all of this in his preseason crystal football, which we chronicled here.
An Indiana native and Purdue graduate who long ago covered Chicago sports for the Times of Northwest Indiana, Youmans believed general manager Ryan Poles made a sound move in March 2023, dealing the No. 1 draft pick to the Panthers for a haul.
(The Panthers took Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, a 4-17 bust.)
However, Youmans was just as certain that Poles bungled the team’s two top-10 picks in the April draft by not taking quarterback Jayden Daniels first and by nabbing wide receiver Rome Odunze ninth.
“Daniels was always my top-rated quarterback,” Youmans told me Tuesday, “and Poles needed to build the offensive line instead of getting a first-round receiver, a common mistake that fans always want and bad GMs make.
“Daniels was lucky to land in Washington and not in Chicago, where his development would have been stunted by a weak coaching staff.”
Two days after Poles was hired in January 2022, he hired coach Matt Eberflus. The Bears are 14-29 since. Only the Cardinals (14-30) and Panthers (12-32) have been worse.
Eberflus began this week by sacking offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and promoting passing coordinator Thomas Brown to that post. Players supposedly wanted Williams benched before Waldron got bounced.
Tyson Bagent, who has three career NFL touchdown passes and six interceptions, backs up Williams.
“It has been evident for a long time that Eberflus is a clueless coach,” Youmans said. “The Bears needed to go after Jim Harbaugh [now leading the Chargers] or Ben Johnson [the Lions’ offensive coordinator].”
Youmans doesn’t wager on NFL favorites giving more than three points.
“The good news for the Bears is the Cowboys [3-6] and Jets [3-7] are bigger disasters,” he said. “I didn’t like the Caleb Williams pick, but he’s not a bust or lost cause because he needs a new and improved coaching staff.”
Lost the team
McDonald had wanted the Bears to stick with their former quarterback.
“Justin Fields was the man,” he said. “He’d been through so much, and he carried that team on his shoulders. Against the Broncos, he looked like a Super Bowl MVP. After going through all that he went through, I felt he’d be ready for any battle.”
In Week 4 last season, Fields connected on four touchdown passes that gave the Bears a 28-7, third-quarter edge over the Broncos at Soldier Field. The defense collapsed, though, in a 31-28 defeat.
Fields landed in Pittsburgh. The Bears average 278 yards of offense, 30th in the 32-team league. Over their last three games, they’ve averaged a league-worst 230 yards. The Packers average 390 yards, third in the NFL.
“I wish [Poles] would stop drafting like an idiot,” McDonald said. “You have to fill the trenches with studs, then build around the offensive line. To settle for such an unproven rookie quarterback … also, Eberflus isn’t the guy.”
However, McDonald believed the Bears’ defense will rattle Packers quarterback Jordan Love to key an upset victory.
Gentile disagreed.
“They have to do something because Eberflus has lost the team,” Gentile said. “They have [seven] picks in the next draft, and five better be offensive linemen. They’re terrible.
“I didn’t want Caleb. I wanted them to trade it. Seems like the Bears can never pick a quarterback. I’d rather get a veteran, pay him $25 million or $30 million. At least they’d have someone who can throw the ball.”
By the middle of the fourth quarter last Sunday, Gentile’s pal had bolted. He’d seen enough.
“Too disgusted,” Gentile said.
Gentile took a step and stopped.
“Every week, you think it can’t get worse . . . and it does.”