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| Friday, October 23, 2020 |
| After staying up until 2 a.m. to podcast last night, I stumbled out of bed this morning and fell on my face, which I'm only mentioning because I think I now know exactly how Daniel Jones felt last night. |
| In what will surely go down as the worst 80-yard run any quarterback ever, Jones lost a chance to score the easiest touchdown of his life after his legs completely gave out on him roughly 71 yards into the play (If you have not seen the Daniel Jones play yet, please click here to watch ). At the beginning of the play, it looked like Jones had been shot out of a cannon, but by the end of the play, he was stumbling around more than someone who had just spent nine straight hours drinking tequila on the Vegas strip. On a related note, don't ever drink tequila for nine straight hours on the Vegas strip. This is speaking from personal experience. |
| Including Jones' run, I was pleasantly surprised by how thrilling the game was on Thursday. Since two NFC East teams were playing, I thought the final score would be 3-0 and that I'd fall asleep at halftime. Instead, I watched every second, which I think marks the first time this year that I've watched every second of an NFC East game without feeling like I had just gotten tortured. |
| Alright, we've got a lot of ground to cover in today's newsletter, so let's get to the rundown. Oh, don't forget, if you want to share this newsletter with your friends (or enemies, I don't judge), just click here to grab the link so you can send it their way. |
| 1. Today's Show: Eagles trip up Giants in thriller |
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| I don't think I realized it until this week, but it appears that roughly half the people I work with are Eagles fans and because Eagles fans are pushy, two of them made their way on to our podcast for Thursday night's recap episode. Besides me, Will Brinson and Ryan Wilson, we were also joined by Cody Benjamin and Eric DeBerardinis. Eric is actually the producer of the show, but he becomes a full-fledged co-host anytime we start talking about the Eagles. |
| This was a wild recap that you're definitely going to want to listen to. We talked about everything from Daniel Jones' 80-yard run to Evan Engram's key drop in the fourth quarter to the Giants totally collapsing in the fourth quarter. And because the Eagles guys were on, we also spent an ungodly amount of time debating who's going to win the NFC East, where Carson Wentz falls on the list of best quarterbacks in the NFL and whether Eagles fans should be worried about their kicking situation. |
| Somehow, we also made time to talk about the Yannick Ngakoue trade while also spending several minutes chatting about how bad the Vikings are. |
| To listen to today's episode -- and subscribe to the podcast -- be sure to click here. |
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| 2. Today's show Part II: Picking Week 7 games |
| The best part about Friday -- besides the fact that it's Friday -- is that you get two episodes of the podcast in your feed. After the recap of the Thursday game, Brinson got tired of talking with me, Wilson and Cody so he kicked us to the curb and brought in Pete Prisco, R.J. White and Kenny White for a discussion about their best bets and picks for Week 7. |
| The guys spent nearly 60 minutes going over the best bets for every single game being played this week. Because I'm in a good mood, here's one best bet from each of them. |
Will Brinson: Lions (+2.5) to cover in Atlanta against the Falcons on Sunday.
Pete Prisco: Steelers (+1) to cover in Tennessee against the Titans.
Kenny White: Bears (+6) to cover on the road in L.A. against the Rams.
R.J. White: Panthers (+7) to cover on the road against the Saints. |
| If you're wondering how they did last week, the guys actually went 4-0 with the picks we featured in the newsletter. I'm not sure if they're just good at picks or if the newsletter has magic powers, but I'm not going to sit here and rule out that second one. |
| The group also has a three-team parlay that involves betting the Under (45) in the Bears-Rams game along with the Over (50.5) in the Steelers-Titans game and for the Buccaneers (-3.5) to cover against the Raiders. To hear what the rest of the best bets are for Week 7, be sure to click here so you can listen to the entire episode of the podcast. |
| 3. NFL makes late changes to Week 7 schedule |
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| Every week, it seems like there's at least one new team dealing with a COVID-related issue and this week, that team is the Las Vegas Raiders. The problem for the Raiders is that their ENTIRE offensive line is currently on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Although tackle Trent Brown was the only player who tested positive, he wasn't wearing his tracing device, so any player in close proximity to Brown over the past few days also had to go on the list and that includes center Rodney Hudson, guards Gabe Jackson and Denzelle Good, tackle Kolton Miller and Jonathan Abram. |
| Basically, the NFL has no idea if the Raiders are going to be able to play on Sunday and since they're scheduled to play on Sunday night, the league wanted to move them out of the primetime slot. Here's what the revised schedule for Week 7 looks like with only two game times changing: |
| Buccaneers-Raiders: Game was originally scheduled for 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC and will now kick off at 4:05 p.m. ET on Fox. Seahawks-Cardinals: Game was originally scheduled for 4:05 p.m. ET on Fox and will now kick off at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC. |
| You know the NFL is worried if its bumping TOM BRADY out of "Sunday Night Football." |
| As I wrote on Twitter the other day, the biggest loser in this schedule change is definitely Rob Gronkowski because there's no way he can stay out all night on Saturday and party on the strip in Vegas if he has a game at 1:05 p.m. PT the next day. The NFL clearly hates Gronk. |
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| 4. NFL Week 7 picks |
| In case you haven't noticed, we love to make picks here at CBS Sports, and since this is the final newsletter you'll be reading before all the action kicks off on Sunday, we've decided to load it up with even more picks. |
| Today, you'll be getting a best bet from CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora, along with picks from Will Brinson, Tom Fornelli and Jordan Dajani. Here's how things are going to work: I'm going to give you one pick from each guy and then direct you to the rest of their picks. That way, if you like their pick, you'll be able to read the rest of them, but if they pick against your favorite team, you can ignore the rest of their picks and move on. |
| Will Brinson: Washington 24-17 over Dallas. I'm not sure if this pick is based on what Brinson saw on Monday night or the fact that he hates Andy Dalton, but he currently has the Washington winning this game, which is a pick'em in Vegas. For the rest of Brinson's Week 7 picks, be sure to click here. |
| Jordan Dajani: Bengals 24-20 over Browns. It looks like Jordan has decided to jump on the Bengals bandwagon with me as he has Cincinnati pulling off the upset in this game, even though they're a three-point underdog. I will gladly welcome Jordan to the bandwagon, especially since he's 53-33-2 picking games against the spread this year. For the rest of Dajani's Week 7 picks, be sure to click here. |
| Tom Fornelli: Steelers 27-23 over Titans. Fornelli only makes three bets per week and so far, he's 10-7-1 on the season. I will personally be rooting for him to fall to 10-8-1, not because I hate Tom, but because I picked the Titans in this game. For the rest of Fornelli's Week 7 picks, be sure to click here. |
| Jason La Canfora: Bills (-13) cover against the Jets. This is the biggest point spread of Week 7 and although that might scare some people away, the fact of the matter is that the Jets are horrible. La Canfora knows it. I know it. I think the Jets even know it. They haven't covered the spread in a single game this year. For the rest of La Canfora's Week 7 best bets, be sure to click here. |
5. NFL Insider notebook: Bengals' deadline dilemma
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| Every Friday, CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones empties out his notebook for a column that I generally read while I'm enjoying my sixth cup of coffee (I drink a lot of coffee). This week, Jones has a lot of news and notes so let's take a look at at a couple of those. |
| Don't expect the Bengals to be sellers at the trade deadline: Last year, everyone was expecting the Bengals to trade Andy Dalton or A.J. Green at the deadline, but for some reason, that didn't happen. This year, the Bengals will be facing the same questions with big name players like Green and Geno Atkins. According to Jones, the Bengals aren't interested in holding a fire sale. The team would be willing to trade someone for the right price, but apparently, its "asking prices have been unreasonable" according to one NFC executive. Cowboys need to sign Earl Thomas: When you've given up more points than the Jets, you know your defense is bad, and that's where the Cowboys are right now. The defense somehow manages to get worse every week and things have gotten so bad that Jones thinks it might be time for the Cowboys to reach out to Earl Thomas. The Cowboys are now at the point where beggars can't be choosers, so reaching out definitely makes some sense, even if Thomas isn't a great locker room guy, and by all accounts, he's not. |
| For the rest of Jones' notebook, plus his picks for Week 7, be sure to click here. |
| 6. Sneak peek at Week 8: Chiefs favored by 21.5 points over Jets |
| Guys, I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but I was just peeking at the Week 8 schedule and apparently, the Jets are being sacrificed to the Chiefs. The only reason I'm bringing that up now is because oddsmakers have released their lookahead line for the game and, um, it's not pretty: The Chiefs are currently favored by 21.5 points (This could change based on whether any player from either team gets injured in Week 7). |
| If you're thinking about betting this game, here's a quick nugget from Jordan Dajani on why the Chiefs might not be the automatic play here even though they're going up against a Jets team that has yet to cover the spread this season (0-6). |
| Since 1978, there have been 13 NFL matchups that have closed with teams as at least 20-point favorites. Those favorites went 3-10 against the spread and only one of six teams covered a spread of 22 points or more. The last time an NFL team was favored by more than 20 came last year when the Cowboys covered as a 22-point favorite in a 31-6 win over the Dolphins. |
| For more on the the Week 8 lookahead lines, be sure to click here. |
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| 7. The Kicker! |
| Did I ever tell you guys about the time that an NFL kicker cost someone $240,000 due to a missed kick? No? Well, it happened last night. Someone who is far richer than me bet $250,000 on the Eagles (-3) to cover the first half point spread against the Giants. An Eagles cover would mean our gambling friend would walk away with a profit of $238,095.25. |
| With the Eagles leading 10-7 and just 17 seconds left in the half, all the bettor needed to get the cover was for Jake Elliott to make a 29-YARD FIELD GOAL. Going into Thursday, NFL kickers were hitting a combined 94.8% of field goals (74 of 78) on the season between 20 and 29 yards, and because I just told you that, I'm sure you can guess what happened. ELLIOTT MISSED and our bettor didn't win his money. |
| Guys, that's why I never bet $250,000 on anything. I hope none of you lose that kind of money over the weekend and I'll see you on Monday. |
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