It’s one of the best times of the year as football fans, especially with DraftKings offering all players a $100 offer Thanksgiving Parlay promotion!
We’ve got previews and picks on all three games as well as a look at the NFL betting odds, point spread, moneyline, and totals.
$100 Thanksgiving Parlay:
Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions
The Chicago Bears are in the midst of a tumultuous season but they’ve somewhat turned things around over their last three games. They’ve won two of the three games and much-maligned quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is coming off a season-high 278-yard effort on Sunday.
Make no mistakes about it: this team is a shadow of their former selves. They’re nowhere near the team that won 12 games last season. However, they should be able to beat the Detroit Lions on Thursday, who are simply too shorthanded.
The Lions are without Matt Stafford for Thursday’s game and now backup quarterback Jeff Driskel has picked up a hamstring injury. Even if he plays, he’s been mostly bad as he is coming off a loss to the Washington Redskins where he had just one touchdown and three picks. The team is also without running back Kerryon Johnson and tight end T.J. Hockenson.
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The Lions have lost four in a row and seven of eight. They deserve credit for fighting as they’ve mostly been in all of those games. They probably will be here too, to an extent, but the Bears defense should be able to hold them to almost nothing.
As for the Bears, their offense tends to struggle when they can’t run the ball. The Lions run defense has been fairly strong all season and has allowed just 80.7 rushing yards per game over their last three. If the Bears can’t run, they won’t be scoring much either. That’s likely to lead us to a very low-scoring affair in this one.
Pick: Under 38.5
Buffalo Bills at Dallas Cowboys
Odds: Cowboys -6.5 at DraftKings
After losing to the New England Patriots last week, the Cowboys have now lost all four of their games against winning teams this season. That’s likely a stat you’ll hear plenty about in the run-up to this week’s game. However, I do think that will change on Thursday as they have a very manageable opponent in front of them.
The Bills are essentially in the same boat but they’ve taken advantage of a much easier schedule than the Cowboys. The Bills have lost to the New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, and Cleveland Browns.
What’s interesting to note with the Bills is that they’ve held opponents to just 709 rushing yards in their eight wins, which boils down to 88.6 rushing yards per game. However, against the three teams they lost to, they’ve been exposed. They gave up 439 rushing yards in those three losses, which averages out at 146.3 per contest.
The Cowboys rarely struggle when they’re able to run the ball and I expect them to be able to do it in this game. It’s a big line to cover here and while I didn’t want to lay the -8 that it opened at or even the -7 that the game was at earlier, I like the Cowboys at -6.5 now.
Pick: Cowboys -6.5
New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons
Odds: Saints -6.5 at DraftKings
The New Orleans Saints are going to have some revenge on their minds in this spot. The Atlanta Falcons beat them just three weeks ago and are the only team to beat the Saints in their last nine contests. That was a 26-9 loss by the Saints in a game where they were a double-digit favorite.
The Saints offense was uncharacteristically ineffective as they were just three-of-12 on third downs, gave up six sacks and held the ball for just 26:14 in terms of time of possession. As a team, they also had 12 penalties for 90 yards.
The difference in the game was that the Falcons were able to run the ball with ease as they compiled 143 rushing yards. They just kept moving the chains, milking the clock and leaving the Saints offense on the sidelines.
I’m not sure that the Saints defense will be much better in this spot. They gave up 334 yards of offense to Tampa Bay after the Atlanta loss and really only limited to 17 points because they forced four turnovers. Last week, the Saints gave up 31 to the Carolina Panthers.
What I am expecting here is a high-scoring game as the Falcons should still be able to move the ball but in the rematch, I expect the Saints offense to be much better. We saw the Falcons defense give up 35 to Tampa Bay last week. New Orleans should approach 30 and help get this game over the number.
Pick: Over 49
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