Betting Picks

In a Week 11 game that may not get anyone's pulse racing the methodical machine known as the Crimson Tide football team travels to Starkville for a showdown with a better-than-expected Mississippi State team.

Always in the hot seat, coaches live a life of uncertainty. As the NFL hits mid-season, several coaches already find themselves with their feet to the fire, wondering how much time they have left to turn around the fortunes of the team of which they are in charge. A year ago, Ben McAdoo took the Giants to the playoffs. This season, he may take them all the way to the bottom.

First and 10, do it again. The age-old football cheer takes on a different meaning this week for three teams. Michigan State improved to 7-2 by shocking Penn State, and now they must travel to Columbus to face an Ohio State team that was crushed by Iowa. Miami and Wisconsin both posted solid wins to remain unbeaten but can they do it again this week against another tough opponent?

Despite losing their No. 1 quarterback (Carson Palmer) and top running back (David Johnson) to injury, the Arizona Cardinals are hanging around the NFC West chase, just a game back of the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks, favored to win the division, find themselves just a game ahead of Arizona and a game back of the division-leading Los Angeles Rams, so to say this is a big one is an understatement.

During the NFL's 14-game season era from 1961-77, just one team, the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, managed to go 0-14. Since the league went to a 16-game campaign in 1978, just one team, the 2008 Detroit Lions, managed to go 0-16. But this season, both the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers, are flirting with 0-16. Could 2017 be remembered as the double nothing season?

Lambeau Field has hardly been a field of dreams for the Detroit Lions. Since the 1992 season, the Lions have won one game there, finally tasting victory in Green Bay in 2015 but overall in that span the Lions are a dismal 1-25 on the road against the Packers. But with Packers QB and Lions killer Aaron Rodgers on the shelf with a broken collarbone, it could be Detroit's time to shine.

The most highly anticipated race of the 2017 Breeders' Cup weekend, Saturday's Classic is also one of the world's richest races, with a total purse of $6 million. The race brings together a number of familiar rivals in the field of 11 to race 1 1/4 miles over the Del Mar dirt track.

Historically a race dominated by European bred or raced horses, the 2017 Breeders' Cup Turf includes some real good American runners and a couple live long shots. The race has drawn a full field of 14, and they'll go 1 1/2 miles on the grass, chasing a total purse of $4 million.

These two teams are heading in opposite directions as the season comes comes down to its final month, so why is the team that still has a pulse getting six points here?