Leading up to this week the people have asked if Bick’s Picks would make a holiday appearance. In response I’ll paraphrase the late, great John Madden: there’s no place that I would rather be today on Thanksgiving than right here, right now than placing some bets on a football game. There’s just certain things that go together. The turkey, the family, the gambling, the tradition, football. And we have it all today. We also have a lot of big spreads which could mean blowouts or maybe just maybe a stunning upset. Since it’s a special blog we’ll switch it up for fun and hopefully win ourselves some extra money for Black Friday shopping. Now let’s dig into the picks.

Feasting Favorites Teaser

Lions (-6.5), Cowboys (-6.5), 49ers (-6.5)

Usually we’re a fan of the dawgs here at Bick’s Picks but not today. Historically Thanksgiving has been a BIG day for favorites. Since 2000 favorites have been 39-23 against the spread and have a truly lopsided 51-11 straight up record. If we look at each game there’s plenty of reason to believe that all the favorites will deliver. The 8-2 Lions flat out look like one of the best teams in football and already took care of the Packers in Lambeau earlier in the season. The 7-3 Cowboys have been dominating bad competition and Washington’s defense just got cooked by Tommy “makings of a varsity athlete” Devito. The 7-3 Niners look dominant again now that they’re healthy and the Seahawks come into the game with both Kenneth Walker and Geno Smith banged up. Now you avid bettors will notice I moved all these lines down because the actual lines are Lions (-8), Cowboys (-13.5) and 49ers (-7). If all these lines close at 7 points favorites it’ll be the first time since the inception of the triple slate that we’ve had three touchdown favorites. Honestly I don’t see any Turkey Day upsets happening so why not parlay all three games together. John Madden once said if you want big ol’ turkeys, you have to give ’em more legs. Parlay the favorites however you like and I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Lions (-6.5), Cowboys (-6.5) and 49ers (-6.5) (+321)

Lions (-8), Cowboys (-13.5) and 49ers (-7) (+601)

Touchdown Triducken

Anytime TDs Parlay: David Montgomery, CeeDee Lamb & Christian McCaffrey

In case you can’t tell on Thanksgiving I’m the guy who likes to put a little bit of everything on their plate. So I’m treating myself to another Turkey Day parlay. For this one I’m borrowing the name Madden accidentally gave the turducken when he first introduced it to America in 1997. The three TD scorers I picked frankly just seemed to me to be the most likely to get the job done. Although Gibbs has been hot, Montgomery remains the Lions’ goal line running back and had 3 TDs the last time these teams met earlier in the year. Washington’s secondary has been getting carved up all year and we just love to leave a team’s number one threat uncovered so Ceedee should find the endzone. Do I have to explain CMC? Now I will admit I did consider LaPorta so we could have a running back TD, inside a wide receiver TD, inside a tight end TD to truly complete the Madden homage but felt like Montgomery was the safer pick. 

Anytime TDs: David Montgomery, CeeDee Lamb & Christian McCaffrey (+286)

Anytime TDs: Sam LaPorta, CeeDee Lamb & Christian McCaffrey (+475)

Bezos’ Leftovers

Dolphins (-10) @ Jets

Here we are once again forced to watch another thrilling game brought to us by the fine people at Amazon. But seriously it doesn’t matter how much Amazon spent, they can’t seem to buy a good game. I mean they really spent $100M just to share UConn legend Tim Boyle with America. Sure we don’t have to watch Zach Wilson, but I’m highly skeptical things get any better for the Jets offense. Remember when I mentioned Boyle was a UConn legend? Yea the dude made eight career starts at QB over his three seasons at UConn with 1-13 TD-INT ratio. How this guy is a starting QB in the NFL is truly beyond me. Respect to the Jets defense but I got the feeling they’re gonna be on the field all day. I’ve looked to the Fins to cover big spreads before and barring a made up report by Charissa Thompson about a miracle Rodgers comeback coming true I think they get the job done for me again. 

Dolphins (-10) @ Jets