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Thanksgiving Football Predictions - 2016

One of my favorite holidays is upon us: Thanksgiving! Besides for family and great food (which everyone should enjoy even if you're not fond of your family or great food), Thanksgiving is not complete without football. This Thanksgiving, we are blessed (or may I say THANKFUL!) with two very good divisional games and one game that was supposed to be hotly contest but nonetheless will still be intriguing even without Andrew Luck.

Here are our score predictions for the Turkey games.

Minnesota 22
Detroit 19

Washington 24
Dallas 30

Pittsburgh 27
Indianapolis 24

Here are our reasons.

  • Minnesota is actually favored to win by 2.61 points according to the GE model but they are an underdog by 2.5 points. We all know that Minnesota has struggled lately and that Detroit plays well at home. However, Minnesota is a better football team than Detroit. The Vikings still have a very good defense and Detroit's offense is quite predictable with no run game. Also, Minnesota's offense finally got going last week and Detroit's pass D is awful. Expect a lot of field goals in this contest but in the end, Minnesota will win this slugfest 22 - 19. We will even put the Vikings in our Big Five Bets for Week 12 which is due to come out on Friday.

  • We get a very traditional Thanksgiving game between the Cowboys and Redskins and both teams have been playing well offensively. This game should be very, very entertaining and close. Even though the Cowboys are favored to win by 7 points according to most sportsbooks, I don't expect Dallas to run away with this one. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this game goes to overtime. Still, you have to stick with the home team to win straight up here since the GE model has the Cowboys winning by 6.17 points. It just means we are going to take the points with the Redskins! Dallas can control the tempo of the game well and I think they beat the Redskins in OT with a dramatic TD (not sure who will score it but there are plenty of good options). Dallas 30 - 24 in OT with the Skins covering the spread.

  • Finally, we get the Steelers and Colts in the late game. This was supposed to be a very exciting game to watch but some people are skeptical that this affair will be entertaining without Andrew Luck. The odds makers are clearly favoring the Steelers heavily with the line now at -9.5 in favor of Pittsburgh but I think the Colts can make this one close. The GE model has the Steelers winning by just 1.98 points but of course an adjustment is needed with Luck not playing. Is the absence of Luck really worth an extra TD? I love Luck but I think that is too much. I really like taking home dogs if they are not all that bad and the Steelers are still a far cry from being an elite team after experiencing a 4 game losing streak not that long ago. Scott Tolzien is largely an unknown but he could surprise us. Steelers win but by a field goal or 27 - 24 so Colts cover.

We will be back on Friday for our Big Five Bets and we already know Minnesota is one of those teams.