We saw some good and some bad on Saturday, with a lot of the good coming at night. Mississippi-Tennessee under 84 was easy money, I managed to hit an upset pick with UTEP over Louisiana Tech and Virginia ripped the doors off Duke as my weekly lock. Unfortunately, I also picked Nebraska and Texas and saw several soccer bets fall by the wayside to start the day, so it wasn’t a complete victory. But we are back at it for an NFL Sunday of spreads, so here are my best bets for October 17.
VIKINGS +1.5, -110
We’re starting to see a bit more of Bad Sam Darnold in Charlotte, and the Panthers still won’t have Christian McCaffery on the field for this one. Minnesota has been annoying as heck to bet this year, but the Vikings are a talented team who should be 5-0 right now, and they should be able to handle the Panthers unless Darnold shows better than what he has for the past few weeks.
PACKERS -4.5, -110
Who owns the Bears? Did you say the McCaskey family? It’s actually Aaron Rodgers, who is 21-4 all-time against Chicago in his career. In fact, the entire Packers squad has made Chicago into Lambeau Field South, as the Packers have covered in 17 of their past 22 trips to Soldier Field. The Bears are better against the run than the pass, and Green Bay much prefers to throw. The Packers should get another result in Illinois.
RAMS -7.5, -110
The Rams are crossing three time zones, but that shouldn’t be an issue in this one because they played Thursday and had an extra three days to recover and adjust their body clocks. It’s the Giants who have had to adjust, as they’ve spent the week trying to prepare without knowing if they’d have Daniel Jones on the field. Jones has actually played a lot better this season, but the Rams’ defense will probably make life very difficult for the Duke product. I’d rather be on Sean McVay’s side here.
BROWNS -3.5, -110
I’ll trust the Rams to cross multiple time zones against the Giants. I will not trust the Cardinals to do the same thing against the Browns. Arizona has a long, dark history in the Eastern Time Zone, and heavy rain in the forecast means that the Cardinals are likely to struggle with their passing attack. This game looks like it will favor Cleveland’s run-heavy style, and I’ll back the Browns to get the cover here.
CHIEFS -6.5, -110
The over is probably a better bet here, as neither the Chiefs nor Washington plays anything resembling defense in 2021. But I trust Patrick Mahomes to get things turned around, and I think that WFT just isn’t going to be able to keep up with the Chiefs’ scoring in this one. The Football Team doesn’t get to the quarterback and doesn’t stop passes, and that means they likely won’t stop Mahomes here.
