Big Five Picks for 2018 NFL Week 12

by Gus Elmashni

With Thanksgiving behind us and the holiday shopping season in full swing, we need to get serious about generating some extra cash for Christmas presents! Whether you are in a pool at work or making your picks with a legitmate book, the next few weeks will pretty much dictate your end-of-the-season bottom line.

I have some road travels and Christmas decorating to do this weekend so we will keep this short and sweet. If you read our Thanksgiving article two days ago, we had Washington in our Big Five Picks for Week 12 which of course didn't work out too well for us. Here are our four other picks with the lines provided by Westgate and our model's predicted point spread in parentheses.

Jacksonville -3 (-9.31)

NY Giants +6 (-1.72)

LA Chargers -12.5 (-18.84)

Green Bay +3.5 (-3.08)

We will keep our analysis brief.

  1. Buffalo is still the worst offense in the league and the Jaguars have a solid defense. This game, much like their wild card playoff match last season, will be low scoring. Expect a 13-3 or 17-7 type of game here with of course Jacksonville winning and covering.

  2. The Giants are actually not that bad of a team and apparently they don't care to get another top pick in the draft. They are playing to win! The Eagles are reeling right now and by getting 6 points for a team that we think could outright win, that is way too good value to pass up. By the way, the two best players on the field in this game belong to New York, not Philadelphia. Go money line with the Giants.

  3. The Chargers will be eager to bounce back after a tough loss in Denver. The remedy ... a weak team at home. Arizona's offense is just as bad as Buffalo's. The Chargers have Joey Bosa back. Josh Rosen will be running for his life. The Chargers should win this game by about 20 points.

  4. Lastly, we get a classic NFC North battle on Sunday Night Football. The Packers need to win this game badly if they wish to get back into the playoff hunt. We all know that Aaron Rodgers is the best at late game heroics. With a +3.5 point spread, we get a QB who has a great chance at a game winning drive and if he falls short by a field goal, we still cover. Just like the Giants, this is great value and consider going money line with the Packers here.

OK, short and sweet like I promised! Sometimes brevity is the way to go! Enjoy the long weekend and we will check in again next week!