If you do weekly NFL predictions like I do, you understand how hard it can be sometimes to pick how things are going to go in this league. The good news for this week, however, is that my beloved Miami Dolphins (did I just admit that?) are back on the schedule.
With that being said, even them losing in this particular week isn’t a guarantee, as they play the Washington Redskins. The Redskins may not be as bad as the Dolphins, but they’re pretty close, so this is a pretty winnable game for the South Beach losers. So as you see, go ahead and chalk up this week to be another tough slate to pick, because we don’t even have the luxury of the lowly Miami Dolphins.
Here in Week 6, you can expect a few blowouts, as some of the top football betting sites has three different games with double-digit point spreads, including: the New England Patriots over the New York Giants at -17, the Baltimore Ravens over the Cincinnati Bengals at -11.5 and the Dallas Cowboys over the New York Jets at -10. Take advantage of those three games, because you can use them to counter your misses in the five toss-up contests (three points or less with the point spread) that we have this weekend.
We’re still early in the season, so playoff implications aren’t major yet, but we do have a solid amount of games that will eventually have an impact on division races at the end of the season, as well as with wild-card spots. This is especially true in the NFC, particularly with teams such as the Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions, and Minnesota Vikings.
Let’s go over the biggest games to bet on this week followed by my prediction with each, and then afterwards, I’ll be giving you my picks for the rest of the Week 6 slate in the National Football League. After you read and get your advice from me, you can then place your bet(s) over at BetOnline. From Los Angeles to New York City to London, let’s go!
Daniel Jones would have an incredible breakout game a few weeks ago against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, throwing for 336 yards and two touchdowns, as well as another two scores on the ground including one that would put them ahead to win the game. Since then, however, it hasn’t been the best football from the Duke University stud. With that being said, he needs a game to be able to turn his bad fortune around, but unfortunately for him, it won’t be happening this weekend as his New York Giants take on the New England Patriots (and on the road at that, and did I already mentioned that the game is on national television?) — the pressure.
Not everything is lost for Jones and the Giants this weekend though. With it looking like they won’t be qualifying for the playoffs this year, this week’s game may be an opportunity for Jones to learn some lessons. Some may be hard-learned, but regardless, it’s knowledge to carry with him into the future as the franchise quarterback for the New York Giants. As far as the Patriots are concerned, expect it to be a slaughter in their direction, with Tom Brady carving up their defense. Can they cover the spread, you ask? Sure, I’ll take that bet.
You can be sure that former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, now Carolina Panther Gerald McCoy is excited about this game, but probably a little bummed out that the game is in London, England rather than Tampa Bay. Regardless, McCoy and the Panthers will be aiming to score some revenge after they would lose to the Buccaneers back in Week 2. And not just that, but Carolina hopes to sustain their position in both races for a spot in the playoffs, and even for the NFC South championship, despite not having Cam Newton as their starting quarterback. As far as this particular matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Carolina Panthers would lose the first game to the Bucs because their running back Christian McCaffrey would get shut down by the Tampa Bay defense. This go around, I have a hard time seeing that happen, and as a result, you’ve got to give Carolina the potent win.
To the Cleveland Browns’ credit, they would recover quite well the last time they were man-handled on national television, getting a win over the Baltimore Rivals to keep them in the division race. This go-around, things are a bit different, as the Seattle Seahawks are a much better team than the Ravens, so if Nick Chubb wants to have another big game, he’ll need to figure out how to get around Pete Carroll’s defense. The Seahawks are ranked fourth in the National Football League when it comes to rushing yards allowed-per-game. So, what are the Browns to do knowing they aren’t going to be able to rush like they did against Baltimore? That’s right, you guessed it. They’ll have to rely on Baker Mayfield, his enormous mouth/ego and nothing to show for it at the quarterback position. Yeah, good luck with that one, especially against someone like Russell Wilson who is having a career season this year. Give me the Seahawks by 10.
Last weekend in a 19-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, Patrick Mahomes would prove himself to be a human after all. Who knew, right? As a result of this major news development, though the Kansas City Chiefs remain a favorite coming into a game, they’ve actually dropped below a touchdown as far as the point spread is concerned. With that being said, I would expect a massive amount of points in this game, from both teams, but only if the weather cooperates. On defense, both teams haven’t exactly been the best, with the Chiefs allowing 113 points in five games to opposing teams. For the Houston Texans, they’ve allowed 110. As you see though, both are bad, yes, but they’re also nearly equal — oh, the entertainment value. For the Chiefs in particular though, it’s definitely been a big weakness for them.
When you look at the yardage statistics, there’s only been a hand-full of teams that have allowed more yards on defense than Kansas City, five to be exact. In five games, they’ve allowed a total of 1,969 yards against them, and it gets even worse when you look at their opposition’s combined record: 5-19-1. With that being said, Deshaun Watson and Houston will have to take advantage of every opportunity that they can against that defense, because they’ll have to outscore Mahomes and the Chiefs who are going to absolutely carve up the Texans’ secondary. Chiefs by a late field goal.
The odds are very interesting with this game, and would develop that way. When the books first opened, the game was a thoroughbred pick ’em contest with no team having the edge. As time has progressed, however, the oddsmakers have leaned in the direction of the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is quite surprising. Despite Drew Brees being out, the New Orleans Saints have compiled an undefeated record with Teddy Bridgewater as their starting quarterback and have kept things going business as usual. As far as the Jaguars and their once-intimidating defense, well, it’s not exactly intimidating anymore. So yeah, I’m not getting the odds here. I do, on the other hand, get why the odds are so close. When you look at the numbers and compare each team, both are nearly exactly the same when it comes to both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
On top of that, both their back-up quarterbacks and rushing games are nearly identical as well. What should give the Saints the edge though is Alvin Kamara, someone who Jacksonville will have such a tough time stopping. With him having a big day, you’ve got to go with “The Big Easy.”
Throughout the year, the Philadelphia Eagles’ pass defense has been struggling, but they would do a solid job against the New York Jets, as if that’s saying anything. For the Minnesota Vikings, it’s been their passing offense that has been having the problems this season, however, they would look great against the New York Giants, but again, as if that’s saying anything. But the biggest tell-tale sign won’t have anything to do with passing at all. Instead, everything lays on how effective Minnesota makes Dalvin Cook in the rushing attack. The reason why that’s such a big deal is because the Eagles have the best rushing defense in the league when you look at how many yards they’ve allowed, so if Cook isn’t effective, this game obviously will lean in the direction of Philadelphia. If he is, it should be homecooking for the Vikings.
A similar challenge that Minnesota would face would be against the Chicago Bears earlier in the season, but that was before Kirk Cousins would work out the kinks. Give me a highly-contested square off in this one, but I think Cook is effective enough, along with Cousins and the rest of the offense for the Vikings to squeak out a victory at home.
At this point in the season, it’s safe to say that Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers are legitimate, but with that being said, their toughest challenge of the season (by far) is coming up this week in the Los Angeles Rams. The 49ers looked really good last week against the Cleveland Browns though, hammering them for a 31-3 victory. For the Rams, they could easily be 4-1 right now if things would have went their way against the Seattle Seahawks. Jared Goff was absolutely on point in the fourth quarter and would nearly lead them to the win with some final drives, but a missed field goal would halt them from achieving the victory. Los Angeles has another tough test themselves this week, facing off against the fourth best scoring defense in the NFL in San Francisco. Their offense is potent enough to contain the 49ers’ on the defensive side, particularly with their passing rush, but the Rams will certainly have to bring their best plays in order to put some points up against San Francisco. On extra’s weeks rest and having Sean McVay as their head coach, however, you have to trust the Los Angeles Rams to pull that off to get the win in this one.
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