Betting Picks

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?

It's backup quarterback week in the NFL. Drew Stanton is in for the injured Carson Palmer for Arizona, and he'll be opposite C.J. Beathard, San Francisco's designated placeholder until newly-acquired Jimmy Garoppolo is ready to assume the role, as the Cardinals face the 49ers. In Denver, the Broncos finally tired of watching Trevor Siemian complete passes to the other team and will go with Brock Osweiler.

Everywhere you look, there are big games on the NCAA football schedule. In the Big 12, Oklahoma tangles with Oklahoma State. In a Big Ten match-up, Penn State faces its third straight top-25 team in Michigan State. No. 4 Clemson is at North Carolina State in a key ACC showdown, while the big SEC game sees LSU visiting second-ranked Alabama. Stanford-Washington State and USC-Arizona are huge Pac 12 tilts.

For the 2017 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Del Mar, the Filly & Mare Turf will be run at a shorter distance than usual of only 1 1/8 miles, which should benefit front-running horses. A full field of 14 have drawn into Saturday's race, and they'll be going after a purse of $2 million.