Wannamakeabettors,
The Thanksgiving NFL trifecta of ugly games, bad officiating and coaches getting fired is complete. But that was followed by a wonderful Saturday of College football rivalry games that were certain to shake the balances of many accounts at Wannamakeabet.com.
Congrats to member “macjet” who won the Thanksgiving Cash League with 207,857 points. And also congrats to member “TideGirl” who racked up over 1.1 million points to win the Novermber All Sports cash league. Invitations are out for the December All Sports Cash League. Entry is free and you win cash based on how many active members are in the league. Click here for details.
Podcast Picks – Click here to listen to this week’s Podcast (and make sure to follow us on Spotify or Apple) or listen to the first 10 minutes from the home page of WANNA. There are 16 games this week so we’ve got a full plate this week. Season record is now 30-30 (50%) after losing by a 1/2 point on the Vikings going 2-3. Here’s our top five this week. All lines are from Wannamakeabet.com at the time of this newsletter.
Seattle Seahawks -1 over New York Jets
It’s a cold December morning in north Jersey. Not good for Aaron’s aging body and fragile psyche. And despite the bye last week, we see the Jets dysfunction continuing today. Seattle’s defense is really coming together nicely under new head coach Mike McDonald. The Jets have lost to much worse teams this year and it’s hard to fathom they come out of this one with a win. Fingers crossed Geno gets a little revenge on the team that sent him packing.
Arizona Cardinals +3.5 over Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings come home after a long road trip to face an Arizona team that is very much alive to win the NFC West and despite the egg they laid in Seattle last week, is an above average team across most metrics this season. And the Vikings defense is perhaps over rated based on the QBs they’ve faced and with the exception of Caleb Williams, none have been very mobile. We think the Cards hang around in this one and perhaps even pull off the upset as Sam Darnold appears to be leaking oil as we come down the stretch on the sesaon.
Atlanta Falcons +1 LA Chargers
Wrong team favored here. Huge rest and travel disadvantage for the Chargers here coming off the Monday Night loss to the Ravens, losing their starting RB (Dobbins) and now have to travel across the country to play at 1:00 PM game against the Falcons coming off a bye. The market obviously still thinks the Chargers are good based on this number but we believe they’re over valued based on their competition and we’re willing to give the Falcons a pass on the blowout loss to Denver two weeks ago. Falcons get back on track today.
Houston Texans -3.5 over Jacksonville Jags
The Texans arguably played their worst game of the season last week against the Titans but we’re coming back with them this week. The Jags returned from their bye and were surprised to see Coach Peterson in the locker room… “Oh wait, you’re still here??” and they will be putting the single worst defense in the NFL on the field to face yes, a struggling offense, but the #3 defense. Trevor is playing with a bad shoulder but this offensive line has been bad this season, and that doesn’t bode well when Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter have pent up anger from being torched by the Titans. Houston gets right today.
Philadelphia Eagles +2.5 over Baltimore Ravens
Possible Super Bowl preview here in the battle of eastern and western PA and we’re going with the “defense wins championships” theme as our reason for backing the Eagles here. The Eagles defense, currently ranked 5th go up against Baltimore at #15. The Eagles seemed to figure out the correct formula over the past month by featuring Saquan and his dynamic ability to run/pass but primarily to control the clock and play solid defense. That should work well today against Lamar and his inaccurate arm. Philly keeps this either very close or gets the outright win.
Good luck with your selections. Here’s a deep dive analysis on the Arizona / Minnesota game from staff analyst Thomas Quaynor.
Jack and Josh!