Week 16 odds have arrived, which means only three weeks remaining of a full slate of NFL odds to dig into.
This is a big Christmas weekend with a slew of games on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I’m focusing on the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day contests as I analyze the defensive player props.
Let’s just say that Santa won’t be the only fat man bringing a sack this Christmas (please don’t tell Fletcher Cox I called him fat), and Dre Greenlaw will also be ringing plenty of bells against the Ravens. Here are my best free sack and tackle NFL picks for Week 16.
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Aaron Rodgers returns to the field on Monday night as the New York Jets head to Levi’s Stadium to face the San Francisco 49ers. Early money has poured in on the visitors and the Under, but my early Jets vs. 49ers predictions are going against the line movement.
Here are my best free NFL picks for this Week 1 showdown.
Jets vs 49ers predictions
Early spread lean49ers -4.5 (-105 at FanDuel)
My analysisThis spread opened with the San Francisco 49ers installed as 6-point favorites and slimmed as low as -3.5 before ticking back up to -4.5.
Super Bowl runners-up have gone 4-19 ATS in their following Week 1 openers since 2000. That said, most Super Bowl losers have plenty of roster turnover and tend to be due for regression aft…
This article is part of the Guardian’s Women’s World Cup 2023 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 20 July.
Overview
With the expansion of the tournament to accommodate 32 teams, China found their path to qualification smoothed considerably thanks to the availability of at least five places in the Asian Football Confederation (especially with Australia qualifying as hosts). After triumphing 3-1 over Vietnam in the quarter-final of the 2022 AFC Asian Cup, the Steel Roses secured their place.
Joshua Zirkzee marked his first Netherlands start with a goal and an assist as Ronald Koeman s side kicked off their Nations League campaign with a 5-2 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Manchester United forward opened the scoring early on at the Philips Stadion.
A quiet start to proceedings burst into life in the 13th minute as Simons deflected effort dropped kindly for Zirkzee, who nodded the ball beyond Nikola Vasilj.
But with their second shot on target, Bosnia snatched an equaliser after Denis Huseinbasic s defence-splitting pass picked out Ermedin Demirovic, who finished smartly.
Teed up by Zirkzee, Tijjani Reijnders restored the hosts advantage before teeing up Cody Gakpo, who maintained the goalscoring form he displayed at Euro 2024.
Bos…
Istanbul will finally get to stage the Champions League final in 2023, UEFA has announced.
The Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Turkey was originally due to put on Europe s biggest club match in 2020, only for the coronavirus pandemic to mean the closing stages of the tournament were shifted to Lisbon.
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final were all played in Portugal s capital, with Istanbul awarded the 2021 final instead.
However, that too was taken away when UEFA moved the match between Chelsea and Manchester City to Porto, this time because Turkey was on the United Kingdom s travel red list amid the continuing COVID-19 health crisis.
Supporters of the two English clubs would have been unable to make the trip to Istanbul, but restrictions on travel to P…
Germany coach Joachim Low described his team s 1-0 win over Spain on Tuesday as the perfect end to the year.
The World Cup winners edged to their victory thanks to an 89th-minute goal from Toni Kroos at the Estadio de Balaidos.
Low said it was the ideal way to finish 2014, a year which saw Germany win the World Cup for a fourth time.
I don t think you can ask for a better end to the year than that, he said.
As for his team s performance, Low said there were plenty of areas for his side to work on.
I was very pleased in the second half with the attacking play. We had better action than in the first, he said.
We must continue to develop and improve in some things further. That was a very good start today.
Low was most pleased wit…
Domenico Tedesco says Belgium are still hurting after their Euro 2024 exit to France as they prepare to meet them in the Nations League on Monday.
Belgium suffered a 1-0 defeat to France in the round of 16 at the Euros, conceding an 85th-minute Jan Vertonghen own goal to send them crashing out after a poor tournament.
It was a tight affair when the sides met in July, with both only managing two shots on target, though France s came from 19 overall attempts compared to Belgium s five.
And Tedesco would rather forget about that meeting as he targets a more positive result this time around.
At the European Championship, it was a close one against France. We could have won too,” Tedesco told reporters.
France were a bit better, they deserved to wi…
One of the best games on the Week 17 NFL betting slate will take place on the Ohio River at Paul Brown Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs will travel to face the Cincinnati Bengals.
Kansas City extended its win streak to eight games last week and can secure the top seed and a bye in the AFC on Sunday, while the hosts remain on top of a bizarrely competitive AFC North.
Here are our NFL picks and predictions for Chiefs vs. Bengals, with kickoff on January 2.
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The New England Patriots and the Arizona Cardinals will wrap up Week 14 at State Farm Stadium on Monday Night Football.
If the Cardinals want to play spoiler against the playoff-eligible Patriots, they’ll need a big effort from running back James Conner. With that in mind, here are my three favorite James Conner props for Monday, December 12.
Be sure to also check out Josh Inglis’ three favorite MNF player prop bets as well as Jason Logan’s MNF full-game betting preview!
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The Cleveland Browns head to the Lone Star State on Sunday to face off against the Houston Texans. Despite dealing with injuries, both teams are on a path to the playoffs, with the 9-5 Browns looking to keep their momentum going for the Week 16 odds with veteran Joe Flacco now at quarterback.
Meanwhile, the Texans look like they’ll miss star QB C.J. Stroud for the second straight game. With that in mind, NFL odds opened with the Browns as 2.5-point road favorites for this contest, with the Over/Under at 40.5. Here are my best free NFL picks and predictions for Browns vs. Texans on December 24.
Browns vs Texans odds
Browns vs Texans predictions
One of the weirdest stats this season …