Ricky Dimon
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Week 9 of the NFL season kicked off with the Pittsburgh Steelers winning a close one over the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football and now we turn our attention to Sunday. Twelve more games are on the menu, including the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins squaring off in Germany plus Sunday Night Football between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals.
Below is my mega parlay for Week 9, and also be sure to check out all of our NFL picks.
Falcons -6.5 alternate spread (+132)
Rams ML (+136)
Giants ML (+115)
NFL parlay odds: +1077
For this parlay we are going with 2 underdogs on the money line and 1 favorite against an alternate spread. Let’s break down each of the 3 legs.
Atlanta Falcons -6.5 alternate spread over Minnesota Vikings (+132)
Like the other 2 picks in my Week 9 mega parlay, this isn’t so much tailing 1 team as it is fading the other. There are a lot of bad teams in the NFL these days and the Minnesota Vikings can be counted in that group. They were already struggling in advance of last weekend and then quarterback Kirk Cousins suffered a torn Achilles’ during a 24-10 win to the Green Bay Packers. Star receiver Justin Jefferson is out, too. Minnesota’s record stands at a decent 4-4, but it has only 1 good win (over the San Francisco 49ers) and that was clearly an aberration as opposed to the rule.
The Vikes traded for former Arizona Cardinals QB Joshua Dobbs prior to the trade deadline, but Dobbs isn’t yet ready to go for his new team and therefore Jaren Hall will be under center. Needless to say, that does not inspire any confidence. The Atlanta Falcons are in the midst of a quarterback change of their own, but going from Desmond Ridder to Taylor Heinicke isn’t a downgrade. In fact, it might be an upgrade given how well Heinicke performed in relief during a competitive loss at Tennessee last Sunday. Look for Atlanta to win by at least a touchdown this weekend.
Los Angeles Rams ML over Green Bay Packers (+136)
Both the Packers and Los Angeles Rams actually came out of the 2023 gates relatively strong, but things have begun to fall apart. The Packers are still questioning if Jordan Love is really the future and management hasn’t exactly been giving him a vote of confidence. Love has a 58% completion percentage and in general hasn’t looked that great since taking over as the starting quarterback. The Packers have also been the worst 1st-half team in the entire NFL this season. If they get behind early (again), they aren’t really built to come from behind since their offense is not particularly explosive. On the other side of the ball, Green Bay just traded away cornerback Rasul Douglas and its secondary was already bad to begin with. As such, Los Angeles should be able to do plenty of damage through the air no matter who is playing quarterback. Matthew Stafford is questionable, but Brett Rypien is a capable backup. Give me the Rams to add to the Packers’ woes.
New York Giants ML over Los Angeles Raiders (+115)
This quite simply may end up being the worst game of the week. The Los Angeles Raiders just fired a whole host of their staff — including head coach Josh McDaniels – and benched quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, so they are basically in full start-over mode. They might as well be tanking for the 2024 NFL Draft, even though they won’t admit it. Rookie QB Aidan O’Connell will be running the offense on Sunday and that probably doesn’t bode well against a stingy New York Giants defense. No, the Giants are far from a good football team; but they can at least play some D. As for their offense, at least Daniel Jones has been cleared to be play and is expected to be back in action. Saquon Barkley should be able to do some damage, as well, against a Raiders run defense that is not particularly stout. At plus money to win outright, New York has good value.
