The National Football League’s seventh week of regular season action continues today with a dozen games, and half of them involve division opponents, as was Thursday's game when the Philadelphia Eagles edged the New York Giants by a point, 22-21.
Weather at the seven outdoor venues is mostly mild, although snow will fall in Denver where the Broncos host the Kansas City Chiefs and rain is expected in Washington for the contest between the Redskins and Dallas Cowboys.
Our Top Pick for Week Seven involves two teams that have not won a game since opening day, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers. Tyrod Taylor was the quarterback for the Chargers in that opening game and led Los Angeles to a narrow win in Cincinnati over the Bengals, 16-13.
Before Taylor was able to start the Chargers home opener the following week, a pregame accident by his medical team punctured his lung and sidelined him for two weeks. Head coach Anthony Lynn chose to stay with the opening day backup, Justin Herbert, after he was impressive as a rookie in his first two starts.
It is difficult when a quarterback loses his starting job due to an injury, but downright criminal when the team’s medical staff sidelines a player and he is then benched in favor of his backup.
The Chargers like what they see in their rookie out of Oregon. They drafted Herbert in the first round with the sixth pick in last spring's draft, and while he is still looking to guide Los Angeles to their first win with him behind center he has been impressive in four straight losses.
What?
That’s right, the only quarterback to lead the Chargers to a win this season has been replaced by a rookie they are high on but is yet to win a game. In his first start, he went head-to-head with Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and the game went overtime before the defending Super Bowl Champions prevailed.
The homestanding Chargers were eight point underdogs in that game, and Herbert has two more times earned Los Angeles point spread wins. As a 7½ point underdog to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay, the Chargers lost the game by a touchdown, 38-31. In his most recent outing, a Monday Night Football matchup against Drew Brees, the Chargers young QB once again got his team to overtime, only to lose the game by a field goal while getting a touchdown on the spread.
In his only effort as a favorite, the Chargers were beaten at home by the Carolina Panthers, 21-16, four weeks ago. He leads Los Angeles into today’s home game favored once again, this time by 7½ points over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Who, like the Chargers, won their opening day game but haven’t outscored an opponent since.
By my charts, taking more than a touchdown on the spread against a quarterback who has never won an NFL game is a solid opportunity.
As for the public’s favorite plays of the day, they have tabbed three road favorites beginning with the Buffalo Bills (-10) over the New York Jets and followed by the Green Bay Packers (-3) over the Houston Texans. The third most bet game by the public this week is tonight’s NFC West matchup in Arizona where they have the Seattle Seahawks (-3½) over the Cardinals.
Our rated selections are now posted on this site, and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour leading up to the day’s first kickoff, that contest will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m. Pacific time.