After another 2-1 week, we’ll look to continue our winning ways in Week 10.
There’s plenty on the board this week including the Battle for New York in the NFL, the New York Knicks reunion with Kristaps Porzingis and the epic LSU-Alabama showdown in college football.
Here’s a look at our best bets of the week:
New York Giants at New York Jets
Date: Sunday, November 10th
The Battle for New York is here. The Jets and Giants have combined for just three wins this season but they are two completely different franchises right now. The Giants are competing each week and could have probably won a few of these games had rookie quarterback Daniel Jones not been so generous with the turnovers.
Meanwhile, the Jets are an unmitigated disaster both on and off the field. Quarterback Sam Darnold has lost confidence, management has embarrassed themselves and head coach Adam Gase is looking like a one-and-done.
The Jets are coming off a humiliating loss to the previously winless Miami Dolphins. Shockingly, now the Jets are actually below the Dolphins in the standings. Star running back Le’Veon Bell didn’t practice on Wednesday and might not be able to play on Sunday.
For the Giants, the battle for New York is pretty simple. If they can cut down on the turnovers, they’ll probably win. Jones’ 16 giveaways are more than all but two of the NFL’s 32 teams, so he needs to cut that down. At any rate, I’m not laying points with the Jets in any scenario.
Pick: Giants +3
Arizona Cardinals at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Odds: Cardinals +4.5 at DraftKings
Date: Sunday, November 10th
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a six-point favorite on Sunday but I’m not sure they deserve to be laying this kind of number. To start, they don’t offer much of a home-field advantage as they have yet to win a game at home. Secondly, they had quite the crazy travel schedule over the last six weeks.
They’ve gone from Los Angeles to New Orleans, to London, to a bye week, to Tennessee, to Seattle, and now they’re finally home. Their last home game came back in Week 3. Fatigue could be a big factor.
Arizona has definitely been up and down this season but for the most part, they’ve been competitive. They’ve won three of their last five and lost by three to the undefeated San Francisco 49ers last Thursday. They’ll now have 10 days to prepare for the Bucs.
Tampa Bay’s pass defense is the second-worst in the NFL in terms of yards per game and Arizona is a passing team. I’m expecting that to be a big factor here as Arizona should be able to hang around within this spread throughout the entire game.
Arizona is not great themselves – they’re ranked 29th in pass defense – so this isn’t a great matchup for them, but I do think there will be a good opportunity for them to back door in the worst-case scenario.
Pick: Cardinals +6
Carolina Panthers at Green Bay Packers
Odds: Panthers +5.5 at FanDuel
Date: Sunday, November 10th
A lot of people will be assuming that Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers bounce back after an ugly loss at the Los Angeles Chargers but I’m not sure this will be so easy.
Rodgers was incredible as the Packers won four in a row but had just 161 passing yards with only one touchdown last week in the 26-11 loss.
A big issue for the Packers has been their run defense as they can’t seem to stop anyone on the ground. The Chargers, who had been one of the worst running teams in the NFL, actually compiled 159 rushing yards with a 4.2 yards-per-carry average with a pair of touchdowns.
Since holding the Chicago Bears to just 46 rushing yards in the opener, the Packers are allowing 137.9 rushing yards per game.
This week, they’ll have to take on Christian McCaffrey, who has been an absolute monster out of the backfield. We’re talking about a man who is on pace for nearly 2500 combined yards this season.
McCaffrey is averaging 5.3 yards-per-carry and has averaged 119.3 rushing yards per game over his last six with eight touchdowns.
More importantly, the snow has fallen on Lambeau Field, which means that the ground games will be even more central in the wintery conditions. The Packers probably win but the Panthers should cover.
Pick: Panthers +6
Other Things To Watch This Week
No. 2 LSU at No. 3 Alabama – The LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide are a touch lower in the College Football Poll than most expected but everything should come out in the wash. The winner of this game should move up to No. 1. The main question for this contest is the health of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who had ankle surgery just a few weeks ago.
No. 4 Penn State at No. 17 Minnesota – Although Alabama-LSU will get most of the attention this week, these two teams are both undefeated at 8-0. This game becomes doubly important for Penn State as they’re one of the top four teams in the country right now and could move up to No. 3 with a win as (obviously) Alabama or LSU will lose.
New York Knicks at Dallas Mavericks – On Friday, it will be a reunion of sorts as the Knicks visit Kristaps Porzingis and the Mavericks. As you might recall, the Knicks traded the former All-Star to the Mavericks in the offseason. The Mavs have been happy with the early results as Porzingis is averaging 20.5 points per game with 8.2 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, 2.5 threes and 2.2 assists per game.
See you same time next week when we start off the week with our Best Bets Of The Week!
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