A Look at Week 13 in the NFL
December is here and the NFL has now entered the final month of the regular season. Only six weeks remain and it is becoming more and more clear who is playing for playoff spots and who is playing for draft position. With 12 weeks of data to work from, it should be easier to find the best sports bets of the day for the Week 13 games.
Mike White was a big story from Week 12 after having a big game against the Bears’ pitiful defense. However, now he must play at 9-2 Minnesota in a much tougher situation. The Vikings are only 3-point favorites when it should probably be closer to 5 points. The Jets defense is very good and still could potentially keep things close, so taking under 44.5 total points would also be a fine bet.
The Titans are currently 4.5-point underdogs at Philadelphia. This line opened at +6.5, so it’s not quite as valuable now but the Titans are still well-coached enough by Mike Vrabel to keep this within four points. The Eagles’ run defense has been suspect recently and with Derrick Henry the Titans should use a similar gameplan that Washington used to hand Philadelphia their only loss which is controlling time of possession with a strong run game.
The Giants being home underdogs to Washington is somewhat surprising. Both teams are roughly the same skill level and with the Giants being 2.5-point dogs at home, the market is essentially saying the Commanders are 5.5 points better which just seems incorrect. Taking the Giants’ moneyline at plus money looks like a pretty solid bet to make. Under 40.5 points would also be a smart bet to take here. Both teams are much better on defense than offense, and Taylor Heinicke and Daniel Jones are both very susceptible to turnovers and sacks.
The Chiefs and Bengals may be the biggest game of the day Sunday. The Bengals are 2.5-point home underdogs, but betting against Patrick Mahomes is a big risk that would not be advised. Actually, the best bet of this game may be under 52.5 points. Both the Chiefs and Bengals have played pretty strong defense of late and the teams should be pretty familiar with each other after playing in the AFC Championship game last year. Both offenses should also try to use a lot of clock on each drive in an attempt to keep the opposing quarterback off the field. A shootout feels pretty unlikely here.
The biggest non-football story this week has been the return of Deshaun Watson to football and to Houston as the Browns’ quarterback. Off-field issues aside, Watson couldn’t have asked for a better spot to return to than against the Texans’ defense. The Dolphins rested their offensive starters for most of the second half last week due to their success against this Houston defense. Sure, the Texans will likely play their most motivated football of the year in this game, but the Browns being 7-point favorites still feels like a low number. Cleveland could easily be favored by 9.5 or more points and no one would bat an eye.
