BY ADAM GREENE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to the continuing saga of the Baltimore Ravens vs COVID-19, we were without a Thursday Night Football game this week. Instead, we\u2019ll be blessed with not one, but two Monday games and then those same Ravens will host the Dallas Cowboys in a special Tuesday Night Football contest if they can keep from rubbing every handrail in Maryland across their gums for the next few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This late in the season we have another weak Featured\/Prime Time slate, with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Denver Broncos Sunday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers welcoming the Washington Football Team Monday afternoon and the aforementioned Ravens-Cowboys debacle Tuesday. The only good game in the bunch is the Buffalo Bills at San Francisco 49ers, the official MNF game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What that means is the Sunday afternoon selection is loaded with potential playoff match ups and games that could have postseason implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DETROIT<\/strong> LIONS AT CHICAGO BEARS (-3, O\/U: 44.5)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing gives an underperforming team a boost like sending a horrible head coach out the airlock. It also doesn\u2019t hurt that Chicago is starting Mitchell Trubisky again. Lions 31, Bears 17<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n CINCINNATI<\/strong> BENGALS AT MIAMI DOLPHINS (-11.5, O\/U: 42.5)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tua Tagovailoa might be held out of Sunday\u2019s game as he\u2019s still dealing with a thumb injury. You know what that means? Another classic Brandon Allen vs Ryan Fitzpatrick quarterback duel. NFL Red Zone\u2019s Scott Hansen going to have to break out the thesaurus to find new ways to apologize for showing this one when the other early games are in commercial breaks. Dolphins 20, Bengals 13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n INDIANAPOLIS<\/strong> COTLS AT HOUSTON TEXANS (+3.5, O\/U: 50)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Colts are holding onto a playoff spot by the skin of their hooves. It would be a shame for a team with more superstar talent, but serious coaching deficiencies to mess that up for them. Texans 23, Colts 20<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n JACKSONVILLE<\/strong> JAGUARS AT MINNESOTA VIKINGS (-10.5, O\/U: 50.5)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some day in the far future a horrible team will enter the season without Mike Glennon on their roster, ready to start in the event their No. 1 QB goes down. How far? I don\u2019t know. Maybe like 100 years or so. At some point you have to believe this dude is going to keep a roster spot somewhere until the sun burns to embers. Vikings 33, Jaguars 10<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n LAS VEGAS<\/strong> RAIDERS AT NEW YORK JETS (+9, O\/U: 47)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Raiders supposedly traveled to Atlanta to face the Falcons, but from their measly six points scored it\u2019d be hard to prove they actually showed up at all. They have another long trip to New York Sunday, but I have a feeling the Jets, with Sam Darnold at quarterback, will be much more hospitable. Raiders 34, Jets 13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NEW ORLEANS<\/strong> SAINTS AT ATLANTA FALCONS (+2.5, O\/U: 45)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of the Falcons, Atlanta finally discovered its offense about 12 weeks too late. What they can still do is mess up New Orleans\u2019 home field advantage hopes. Honestly, if you can\u2019t beat a team with Taysom Hill completing less than 10 passes in a game, you should just hang up this whole football thing altogether. Falcons 24, Saints 16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n CLEVELAND<\/strong> BROWNS AT TENNESSEE TITANS (-6, O\/U: 53.5)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In year\u2019s past, the Titans would see Cleveland coming up on the schedule and just go ahead and count the dub. Not anymore. While Mike Tomlin likely has the Coach of the Year award sewn up, the Browns\u2019 Kevin Stefanski deserves an honorable mention. If anything, now, Cleveland has shown these other teams that have either recently fired coaches (or hired guys that are obviously garbage \u2013 we\u2019re looking at you, Cowboys), that they should keep trying until they get it right. There\u2019s no reason to ride it out with someone who\u2019s obviously the wrong choice. In spite of saying all that I\u2019m still picking Tennessee. Titans 27, Browns 24<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NEW YORK<\/strong> GIANTS AT SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (-10, O\/U: 47.5)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n By my accounting, if the Giants win two more games they should make the playoffs by winning the NFC East with a 6-10 record. Unfortunately for New York, this week isn\u2019t bringing one of them. Seattle may not be the team they were back in September, but they\u2019re still two scores better than NY. Seahawks 27, Giants 17<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n LOS ANGELES RAMS AT ARIZONA CARDINALS (+3, O\/U: 48)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jared Goff says he\u2019s put his turnover problems behind him after serving the ball up 10 times over his last four games. If he keeps that pledge, LA will make a long playoff run. As for Arizona, their road to the postseason is not so clear with not one, but two games against Los Angeles on the schedule and one against a 49ers team that\u2019s not hanging it up just yet. Rams 37, Cardinals 23<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n PHILADELPHIA<\/strong> EAGLES AT GREEN BAY PACKERS (-9, O\/U: 47.5)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Three years ago, as Philadelphia was on its way to its first ever Super Bowl championship as a franchise, Carson Wentz was the frontrunner for the NFL\u2019s MVP award. Needless to say, his career has taken a weird trajectory since. Aaron Rodgers saw his own team draft his replacement in Jordan Love, then uncorked his own potential MVP campaign. The battle for the NFC East may be the only real drama in the NFC playoff race, even with five games to go. Philly will do nothing to help their case in this contest and Rodgers\u2019 MVP quest will continue. Packers 30, Eagles 21<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NEW ENGLAND<\/strong> PATRIOTS AT LOS ANGELES CHARGERS (pk, O\/U: 47.5)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that New England could still finish with not only a winning record, but a playoff spot should frighten everyone. Their lack of consistency could just be the first part of a strategy to get everyone overlooking them. They\u2019re not out of it until the math says they are, is what I\u2019m saying. As for Los Angeles, they might have the better team, but the coaching match up is thoroughly in NE\u2019s favor. Patriots 23, Chargers 21<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n LAST WEEK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Straight up: 12-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n Against the spread: 8-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n SEASON<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Straight up: 117-58-1<\/p>\n\n\n\n Against the spread: 90-86<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow our BetOnline Twitter accoun<\/a>t for the latest sports news and betting odds, and stay tuned on the Instagram feed<\/a> for more good information too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY ADAM GREENE Thanks to the continuing saga of the Baltimore Ravens vs COVID-19, we were without a Thursday Night…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":14671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14672,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14667\/revisions\/14672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}