Week 10 Showdowns: NFL’s Unmissable Matchups and Best Bets!
San Francisco 49ers @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Pardon My Take said it best about this game. It’s a fraud off. Which of these teams are for real and who isn’t as good as we thought they were? Both are coming off a bye, so that advantage has been canceled out. Brock Purdy’s confidence has surely taken a hit in the last month. He was flying up everyone’s quarterback power rankings back in September and October, but he’s had bad outings in three straight games. Hopefully Kyle Shanahan was able to get him to reset in the bye week and get back to playing at a higher level.
The Jaguars are the polar opposite of the 49ers right now. They’re on a five-game winning streak with no signs of slowing down, however, their competition hasn’t exactly been the toughest. Honestly, the bye week might have come at a bad time for them as they were finding their stride. They need to pick up right where they left off though because their schedule is tough over the next month in a half. A win over San Francisco to go to 7-2 would help a lot in their continued surge toward the one seed.
Cleveland Browns @ Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens come into this game winning 4 of their last 5. The Browns have arguably the best defense in the league, but when these two teams met back in September, Baltimore was able to hang 28 on them. Dorian Thompson-Robinson was the quarterback for Cleveland then and his three interceptions probably had something to do with that but still. Lamar is playing like an MVP quarterback again. His efficiency is off the charts and his completion percentage is over 71%. Cleveland has to shut him down though if they want to remain in a strong position regarding the playoffs. The Bengals, Chargers and Texans are all playing much better ball compared to the earlier months of the season and are catching up to the Browns in the standings. If they’re going to move to 6-3, this defense will be what gets them there.
New Orleans Saints @ Minnesota Vikings
This game most likely won’t have the fireworks of Detroit @ Los Angeles, but it has massive impacts on the NFC playoff race. Kirk Cousins tore his ACL two weeks ago and everyone wrote off the Minnesota Vikings. Since then, they’ve signed Joshua Dobbs and won a barn burner last week against Atlanta. They’ve won four in a row and after this game against New Orleans, they play Denver, Chicago and Las Vegas in that order. It’s not insane to think they could be 8-5 before their Week 15 match against Cincinnati. The Vikings are a fun team to root for and I’m hoping they can pull off something magical in this roller coaster of a season, but it has to start with a win over New Orleans.
Atlanta Falcons -1.5 @ Arizona Cardinals
I don’t care if Kyler Murray is coming back this week. The Atlanta Falcons are in desperation mode and the Cardinals have nothing to play for. I’m honestly shocked Murray is playing. Why rush back when your team is 1-8? They need the number one pick. Not to draft a quarterback, but to trade it for a multitude of picks, similar to what Chicago did last year. I don’t think they give Murray the keys to the offense when he hasn’t played football in a year. The Falcons will come out and do everything they can to get back on track. Heinicke already said this is their Super Bowl. I like the teams I bet on to have that kind of urgency.
New York Jets -1 @ Las Vegas Raiders
This pick has a similar handicap to the Atlanta Falcons one above. The Jets need a win badly. They’re back to 4-4 after a bad offensive showing last week against the Chargers. This defense is still elite and the main reason they’re even .500 to begin with. PFF has them ranked 1st in overall defense and FTN has their defensive DVOA ranking at 6th. This isn’t a fluke either as they’ve already played Buffalo, Dallas, Kansas City and Philadelphia. The Las Vegas offense isn’t even close to any of those four mentioned. I also think the “new coach bump” the Raiders received last weekend will be gone this Sunday. As long as Zach Wilson doesn’t turn the ball over, something he has been much better at throughout the season, the Jets should coast to an easy win here.
QB – Jared Goff – $8,000
RB – Najee Harris – $6,500
RB – Bijan Robinson – $6,600
WR – Amon Ra St. Brown – $8,600
WR – Tank Dell – $6,400
WR – Jahan Dotson – $6,200
TE – Dalton Schultz – $6,100
FLEX – DeAndre Hopkins – $7,100
D/ST – Pittsburgh Steelers – $4,300