It could be said that the NFL games featured on Thanksgiving Day yesterday were not among the most popular ones that could have been selected, but they both still proved to keep football entertained. With COVID-19 keeping holiday plans to a minimum, at least there was a great way to spend several hours watching four teams tear it up on the gridiron. If it hadn’t been for the Baltimore Ravens, there would have been six teams.

The Detroit Lions, featuring Matthew Stafford and his record for most Thanksgiving Day yardage, and the Houston Texans met up yesterday, and the game started with the Lions jumping out to a 7-0 lead a little more than halfway through the first quarter. The Texans responded almost immediately, thanks to their big defensive man J.J. Watt, who snagged a Stafford pass out of the air and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown. As the Lions got the ball back following that embarrassment, they fumbled on the series and the Texans scored another TD – two in about a minute and a half. Before heading to the lockers for the mid-game break, the Lions would rack three consecutive turnovers.

After that, it was a Texans ball game for the rest of the afternoon. Starting in his first Thanksgiving Day game as quarterback for Houston, Deshaun Watson ended his day with four touchdown passes and a passer rating of 150.4, the fourth-highest for Thanksgiving NFL football. Detroit continued to become unglued in the second half, and all the team could do was try to hold on until the clock ran out. By the time it did, they were looking at a 41-25 loss.

The Washington Football Team continues to fight in order to show its appreciation for head coach Ron Rivera, who has been battling cancer. As they took the field against the Dallas Cowboys yesterday, they showed no mercy. The defense sacked Cowboys quarterback Andy Dalton three times, intercepted him once for a touchdown and otherwise just had one of the best games it has had all year. The offense did an excellent job, as well, with rookie running back Antonio Gibson recording 20 carries for 115 yards and three touchdowns.

There has been talk that the Seattle Seahawks might part ways with defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. after the end of the current NFL season. If his line gave any indication last night against the Arizona Cardinals, the three-time Super Bowl champ and three-time Pro Bowler just gave himself a little more job security. The Seahawks defense was able to break through the Cardinals offense again and again to put pressure on quarterback Kyler Murray, becoming a major reason for the Seahawks’ 28-21 win. With that, Seattle improves to 7-2 and is on top of the NFC West, with only six weeks left in the regular season. 

Thursday Night Football found two NFC West teams vying for position and it was a case of “anything could happen” before the game. Both the Seahawks and the Cardinals have turned up the heat as the season progresses and the two teams came into the game ready to battle to the death. Seattle got out to an early lead as quarterback Russell Wilson and wide receiver DK Metcalf became a perfect combination, and the three sacks recorded by the Seahawks defense kept Arizona scrambling. 

The Cardinals had some tricks of their own last night. They also recorded three sacks as they dropped to 6-4 on the season, but Murray was still able to put up two touchdowns as he racked up 269 yards in the air. He found open receivers, like Larry Fitzgerald, Jr. and DeAndre Hopkins, to make several key advances, but the touchdowns by Chase Edmonds and Dan Arnold were the biggest threats to Seattle’s dominance. 

A couple of errors in the game could have had the score going either way. The Cardinals picked up 115 yards in penalties, including a questionable holding call in their own end zone that led to a safety. However, they were down by just a touchdown after recovering from the sting, and were able to come knocking on the Seahawks’ door with a series of plays that was setting them up for a potential game-tying score. With under a minute to go and no more timeouts, and well behind midfield, the Cardinals attempted several long passes to pick up the touchdown, but were denied each time. Looking at fourth and ten, Murray was taken down by defensive end Carlos Dunlap. 

First, the good news. There is still plenty of football left in the season and, with the NBA season beginning on December 22, sports fans are going to have a lot of action coming up. The bad news, though, is that we’re already more than halfway through the 2020 NFL season, which means the countdown to the end is running. Teams are running out of time if they plan on making an appearance in the playoffs, and yesterday’s slate of games may have given a preview of what to expect. 

The Tennessee Titans were forced to take a loss yesterday after they couldn’t get anywhere against the Indianapolis Colts. The two teams swapped places on top of the AFC South as a result of the 34-17 game after Colts quarterback Philip Rivers threw for 308 yards and a touchdown, while the Titans were falling apart. Both teams are now 6-3 after the Titans logged their third loss in four games. Neither team has it easy in Week 11, as the Colts are set to play the Green Bay Packers and the Titans take on the Baltimore Ravens. 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made up for their embarrassing loss to the New Orleans Saints when they made easy work of the Carolina Panthers. Quarterback Tom Brady and the rest of the Bucs squad got off to a slow start and Carolina made sure it took advantage of every opportunity. However, things flipped in the second half, with Brady ending the day with 341 yards and three touchdowns to secure a 46-23 win. The Panthers defense was dominated completely during the last two quarters, with the Bucs able to record a total of 544 offensive yards in the game, including a 322-35 differential in the second half. With that, the Bucs gave themselves a boost to threaten the NFC South leaderboard, which currently has the Saints just slightly ahead of them.

The Saints aren’t too considered, at least not yet. They faced a beat-up San Francisco 49ers team yesterday, easily taking the win with a score of 27-13. It was a costly victory, however, as quarterback Drew Brees was taken out by a shot to the ribs in the second quarter. He almost immediately headed out for an MRI, allowing backup QB Jameis Winston a chance to come in and show his stuff. That wasn’t the last of the injuries for the Saints, however, as wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith and tight end Josh Hill suffered concussions, and three other players were forced to leave the game. 

Thursday Night Football (TNF) featured two AFC South teams vying for position and a solid shot at the playoffs after the NFL’s regular season wraps up. The Tennessee Titans hosted the Indianapolis Colts and, ahead of the game, even oddsmakers were unclear on who might come out on top. When the game got underway, the Titans came out strong, but the Colts weren’t having it. They rebounded from a 17-13 halftime score to take complete control of the second half, and never looked back. 

The Titans led the AFC South heading into the game, but the Colts were on a mission. They kept Tennessee out of the end zone for the entire second half as they cruised to a 34-17 victory. In doing so, they toppled the Titans and took over the division while, at the same time, picking up bragging rights for being able to go 3-0 against Tennessee in their last three games. 

Colts running back Nyheim Hines deserves some of the credit for firing up his squad. He scored his second touchdown on the night when Indianapolis launched its offensive surprises in the third quarter, giving his teammates a shot of energy. That was compounded later when linebacker E.J. Speed blocked a punt that allowed cornerback T.J. Carrie to scoop up the ball and head into the end zone to add six to the Colts’ score and continue the team’s onslaught. That punt attempt was made by Trevor Daniel, making his debut with the Titans, and the decision to put him in the game proved costly.

The Colts defense, ranked first in terms of fewest yards allowed, continuously threatened Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, forcing him to throw one incomplete pass after another. He ended the night just 15 for 27 with 147 yards and only one touchdown, not being able to produce the results that had led the team to a 6-2 record. He also took a hit from Colts defensive end Denico Autry for a sack, adding to the difficult night Tannehill was having. 

That was a close one. The New York Jets almost screwed up their perfect record by coming close to beating the New England Patriots in Monday Night Football (MNF). The team is now 0-9 on the season, which is very good news for them as they look to next season. A win would have made it difficult to be able to take the first pick in next year’s NFL Draft and it would have also served no purpose for the current season. Fortunately, the Jets managed to pull off a last-second loss to keep their streak going. 

The Pats were -435 favorites heading into last night’s game – that’s how strongly all the books felt about their chances. However, they didn’t prove they were worth it and got stomped on by the Jets almost for the entire game. It wasn’t until Nick Folk, the Pats’ kicker, put up a 51-yard field goal with three seconds left in the game that New England could claim the victory, winning 30-27. While neither team has been great this season, coming that close to losing to a team that hasn’t won a single game has to be somewhat embarrassing. 

Pats quarterback Cam Newton finally did something he hasn’t done all season – score a first-quarter touchdown. It was also his own, as he ran the ball into the end zone for the score. However, apart from that, he was relatively unsuccessful for most of the game and the Jets would go up 20-10 by the end of the half. The New England defense wasn’t too much better, repeatedly allowing key plays and unable to drop Jets receivers to the turf. 

After the halftime break, the Pats came back and added a touchdown to open the third quarter. However, the Jets, led by quarterback Joe Flacco who was in for the injured Sam Darnold, responded with their own score late in the quarter to make it a 27-17 game. It suddenly looked like the Jets would pull off a win as the teams headed into the last quarter. 

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Usually, on a November weekend in the United States the sporting focus is on college football and the NFL. However, the biggest event this weekend is clearly the Masters, the most prestigious of the four major championships on the PGA/European Tours.

The Masters is usually held in early April at Augusta National Golf Club, but the coronavirus scuttled the event back in the spring. The tournament has never been held past the month of April so it will be very interesting to see if Augusta National plays any differently. Certainly, some of that will be determined by the weather. It will look a bit different, for sure, as the azaleas aren’t blooming this time of year.

One thing golf bettors will notice is earlier start times on the weekend both because of television rights owned by CBS and the fact that days are obviously a lot shorter in Georgia in November than they are in April. CBS has obligations to air an SEC game on Saturday evening and an NFL game on Sunday mid-afternoon so the Masters will finish earlier those days. If you are wondering, the Masters uses a sudden-death playoff format. The last one was in 2017 when Sergio Garcia beat Justin Rose.

The Week 9 NFL action on Sunday left a lot of sports fans stunned. Even those who aren’t fans of a particular team and one of the oldest veteran quarterbacks in the league were surprised by a blowout loss that most could have never seen coming. By the time the action wrapped up yesterday, two things were perfectly clear about the 2020 NFL season – anything is possible, and nothing is ever guaranteed.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had difficulty overrunning a team that had expected to put up little resistance. However, the Dallas Cowboys gave their best effort and almost managed to walk away with a win. Cowboys linebacker Vander Esch will have to accept his role in handing his team the loss, as he took a shot at Steelers running back Anthony McFarland, Jr. late in the fourth quarter that gave Pittsburgh great field position and a new set of downs. That single egregious act gave new life to the Steelers, who subsequently punched into the end zone to come from behind and take the win, 24-19. 

The Carolina Panthers found themselves facing the league-leading Kansas City Chiefs yesterday and had some addition help with running back Christian McCaffrey finally able to get back on the field after an injury suffered in Week 2. He picked up 18 rushes for 69 yards and tacked on a touchdown to ultimately make things very difficult for the Chiefs. McCaffrey has proven his value to the Panthers offense by being able to return to the action, and the Chiefs had to fight to win, only taking the game in the final seconds when Carolina failed to convert. The 33-31 score shows how strong the Panthers played against the defending Super Bowl champions. 

The Arizona Cardinals were getting -223 before they suited up to take on the +190 Miami Dolphins yesterday. More than few sports gamblers who decided to back the underdog and rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa are enjoying fatter wallets today, as Tag went on to throw for 248 yards and picked up two touchdowns to give the Fins a 34-31 win that also included a Miami defensive touchdown. The Cardinals had a chance to come from behind with just under four minutes on the clock, but the offense couldn’t move the ball far enough and a 49-yard field goal attempt came up empty.

The NFL has almost wrapped up Week 8 action – tonight’s Monday Night Football game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New York Giants will bring it home – and yesterday’s slate of games offered a little bit of everything. It’s becoming clear that several high-profile players don’t have the job security they may have thought they had and that some other players might need to consider anger management classes. As the season progresses, this week and next will give sports gamblers a pretty good idea of what to expect as the second half of the season comes into focus.

The Pittsburgh Steelers may have been put off as their game against the Baltimore Ravens got underway yesterday, but they didn’t let it get them down. On the very first possession of the game, Ravens linebacker Robert Spillane stole the ball for a pick-six that put Pittsburgh at a disadvantage. But, Ben Roethlisberger didn’t let it get him down and the quarterback bounced back to take control. Two second-half touchdown passes helped the Steelers overcome the interception and they went on to win, 28-24. With that victory, Pittsburgh can still claim to be the only undefeated team in the NFL this season, and the Ravens fall to 5-2.

The Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings gave fans a thrill yesterday. The first half saw both offenses working the field and scoring two touchdowns each, but the second half proved to be something different. The Packers suddenly found themselves scrambling against a defense that was sowing chaos at almost every turn, and the Vikings offense was in complete control. By the time it was over, the now 5-2 Vikings had handed the Packers just their second defeat of the season on their way to a 28-22 victory.

The Tennessee Titans were 5-1 going into their game against the 1-5-1 Cincinnati Bengals yesterday, and this game should have been an easy one for Tennessee to wrap up. The Bengals and quarterback Joe Burrow had other plans, though. The Titans were lackluster throughout the game and, after having gone 14-for-14 in red zone scoring this year, they suddenly found an unexpectedly tough defense that denied them from crossing the goal line. The Titans have now dropped two consecutive games as the Bengals improved to 2-5-1 with their 31-20 win.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Week 8 is actually a pretty good one in terms of teams on the bye because three of them in the Washington Football Team, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans are among the NFL’s worst clubs. The fourth off is a good Arizona Cardinals team.

It’s rare that an NFL team makes major news during its bye week short of firing a head coach, but the Miami Dolphins hijacked the football news last week when they were off with the fairly shocking decision to make rookie No. 5 overall pick Tua Tagovailoa as their first-time starter for this Sunday’s home game against the Los Angeles Rams.

On the one hand, it makes sense to make that call during a bye week to give Tua plenty of reps in practice, but on the other Ryan Fitzpatrick was playing quite well and had led the Dolphins to three wins in their past four and into the AFC East race. Miami is a 4-point underdog but has won 19 of its past 23 when hosting West Coast teams.