The same situational angles we highlight for NFL betting each week are out there lurking for the average person during Thanksgiving Week.

Travel troubles and scheduling nightmares are abundant. Look-ahead spots are too, with big plans in place for family and friends. And even letdowns are looming, as you remember why you live on the other side of the country and rarely keep in touch with your hometown crowd.

Ah, the holidays.

I chow down on the always-tricky NFL Week 12 slate and highlight similar pitfalls in three NFL spot bets to consider when capping the odds. 

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A pair of division leaders in the AFC will meet in the wind (and possibly rain) in Week 15 odds as MVP-hopeful Lamar Jackson takes the Baltimore Ravens into Jacksonville as NFL odds favorites opposite the Jaguars.

With so much on the line, should bettors be backing Jackson on the ground in a setting that could suppress passing volume in the SNF odds?

Find out in my NFL picks for Ravens vs. Jaguars on December 17, and be sure to check out our SNF prop picks and Lamar Jackson spotlight as well!

Ravens vs Jaguars odds

Ravens vs Jaguars predictions

THE BLITZ projects Lamar Jackson to reach 72.95 rushing yards, far surpassing his current rushing total of 47.5. With wild wind conditions in play, this coul…

This Saturday we see the Panthers vs Bills in Buffalo, with both teams hoping to finish their preparation for the regular season in style. Given the early team news out of both camps, our Panthers vs. Bills predictions focus on the total. 

Find out why my NFL picks are backing the Under on Saturday, August 24.

Panthers vs Bills prediction

My best betUnder 31.5 (-109 at BetRivers)

My analysisThe markets have seen a lot of movement for the Carolina Panthers at Buffalo Bills since opening with news impacting the potential for this game. As always preseason is about how much we’ll see from the starters and in particular the quarterbacks.

Heading into this game we’ve had Dave Canales confirm that the Panthers st…

When Hope Powell reminisces about the childhood she spent scurrying across the streets of south London, she thinks of football. Perhaps that is no surprise: over the past 40 years, it has given her a career of firsts – after a trophy-laden playing career, she became England’s first female coach, first Black coach and youngest coach. Today, the 54-year-old is the manager of Brighton in the rapidly growing Women’s Super League.

Over the course of Powell’s career, the women’s game has evolved beyond recognition. Her football education began in the late 70s, just a few years after the Football Association lifted its ban on women’s football, in 1971. She idolised Kevin Keegan and Ray Wilkins but had no female players to look up to. Sh…

Mohamed Salah has revealed he is “devastated” at missing out on Champions League football and says Liverpool have no excuse for failing to claim a top-four finish.

Manchester United’s 4-1 win over Chelsea on Thursday night meant Liverpool’s slim hopes of a Champions League place were extinguished after a disappointing season. Jürgen Klopp’s side have paid the price for failing to bring in midfield reinforcements during the summer and it was only their current 10-match unbeaten run – including a sequence of seven victories – which gave them a remote chance of qualifying for Europe’s elite club competition.

But their participation in the Europa League, the first time Klopp has not made the top four in…

Oh! It’s you! My dearest, most refined holiday compatriot! My apologies, I didn’t see you were at the door. [Puts down snifter] [Gets up from satin armchair] Come in, come in! I was just sitting by the fire, partaking of my nightly dram of Harveys Bristol Cream and reading fine George Eliot novels. What can I say? It’s my guilty pleasure. A ha! A ha a ha a ha a ha a HA! My friend, you look pale. Are you all right? I hope the sight of my houseservant, Mrs. Barker, staring hauntingly at you from the upstairs window as you came up the driveway didn’t frighten you. She’s really quite lovely. We like to think of her as part of the family. Perhaps you’re worn down by your travels. Or, perhaps you’re frazzled by the fact that you now live in a surrealist dystopia where a cab…

Are you wondering what to get the beloved boozebags in your life? I bet you're not, right? You're just going to give them all bottles of randomly selected $30 brown liquor, or maybe those stupid little chocolates stuffed with a quarter-squirt of skanky schnapps, or the first gin-and-martini-glasses boxed set you see at the liquor store on your last-minute trip to make sure there's enough Bailey's for grandma's coffee.
Come on, don't be like that. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the alcholophiles in your life would have a broader range of interests if only they had a little more reason to believe in their fellow man's good intentions? Show them you care this year, and maybe by this time next year they'll be fully evolved humans capable …