The National Football League stretched their 16 game schedule over four playing dates this weekend. Three games on Thanksgiving, one on Friday and 11 today before tomorrow’s Monday Night Football contest in Minnesota between the Vikings and Chicago Bears. Two sites today have rain in their forecast, Tennessee, where the Titans host the Carolina Panthers, and in Cincinnati, where the Bengals meet the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Jacksonville Jaguars battle the Houston Texans on the road today with first place in the AFC South Division up for grabs. The Texans have reversed recent horrible seasons to be competitive with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud having one of the best seasons ever for a first-year signal caller.
Today, the Texans have an opportunity with a win to take over first place in their competitive division race. They come into action today one game behind the division leading Jaguars, but having already won the first of two meetings this year between these two rivals a victory today would push them into a first place tie in the standings and owners of the all-important first tiebreaker, head-to-head competition.
It is a great story for Stroud and the upstart Texans, but they meet a Jaguars team a year ahead in their development and our numbers tell us this one belongs to the visitors. It is one of the rated plays now posted on this site.
In Arizona this afternoon, the Los Angeles Rams visit the Cardinals in a battle between NFC West also-rans. Both teams come into action today with losing records, the Rams with four wins on the season and the Cardinals only two.
In recent years the Rams have dominated Arizona, including an opening playoff victory on their way to a Super Bowl triumph two years ago. But, in recent weeks it is the Cardinals who have played with more enthusiasm after the return of Kyler Murray at quarterback. Arizona looks to get their third win of the season at the expense of the Rams, and we think they will.
As for the public today, their three favorite plays of the week are the Philadelphia Eagles (-3) over Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens (-3) over the Los Angeles Chargers and Tennessee Titans (-3½) over the Carolina Panthers.
Last week, we had our first Bullet Play of the season and for first year clients a query on how they come to be was raised. Bullet Plays are delivered when a game that the public is backing and the books move the line to make a wager on the popular play easier. It is an obvious attempt for the books to attract more money on a side they have determined is likely going to lose. Last week, while nearly 70% of the public action was backing the Los Angeles Chargers over the Green Bay Packers, the books added vig to a Green Bay wager about thirty-five minutes before kickoff. That prompted us to post the Packers play at 9:43 a.m. Pacific Time.
If a Bullet Play develops today, it will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m.