NFL Week 9 parlay: Panthers, Eagles, Jets
Our Week 8 parlay was cool, if you like money.
The game in New Orleans stayed under the total, the contest in Jacksonville went over, and Seattle took care of business in Atlanta. All in all, we managed a profit of $236.36 on a $50 parlay.
Let's keep the good times going in Week 9:
Panthers ML -210 (vs. Titans)
No one will be more disgusted with how last week unfolded than the Carolina Panthers. In a game between two of the NFC's hottest teams, the Panthers fell behind early and couldn't stop the bleeding as the San Francisco 49ers hammered them 51-13.
Carolina is 7-1 ATS when coming off a double-digit defeat over the last two years, proving itself a resilient squad under Ron Rivera. The loss to the 49ers was a throw-out-the-tape game. The Panthers are an excellent football team loaded with talent, and they're about to take out their frustrations on the Tennessee Titans.
Ryan Tannehill has led something of a resurgence for the Titans, who have won their last two. But home games against the Los Angeles Chargers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers pale in comparison to a trip to face the Panthers. Carolina is the better team on both sides of the ball, and its ferocious front seven will give Tannehill fits. The Titans' defense might help them hang around, but they're too overmatched to leave Carolina with a third successive win.
Eagles ML -220 (vs. Bears)
There isn't a whole lot going right for the Chicago Bears these days. The Mitch Trubisky-led offense is an unmitigated disaster. The kicking issues have resurfaced. The defense, likely discouraged by the anemic offense, is playing uninspired football.
Losing to the Los Angeles Chargers on a missed last-second field goal was a gut punch for this Chicago team. Squandering a chance to move to 4-3, the Bears lost their third straight to slump below .500, effectively knocking them out of the NFC North race. After something like that, how does a team bounce back?
Well, the Philadelphia Eagles managed to do just that in Week 8, following up a pair of heavy defeats with a crucial, season-rescuing win in Buffalo. The victory spoke volumes about the character of the team, as well as its players' belief in head coach Doug Pederson. The Eagles are trending up, but it looks like things in Chicago will get a lot worse before they get better. It's a bad time for the Bears to visit one of the most hostile stadiums in the NFL.
Jets -3 (vs. Dolphins)
Adam Gase doesn't forget.
The New York Jets head coach has a lot of shortcomings, but his memory isn't one of them. Gase has earned a reputation as a vengeful figure around the league, keen to embarrass his former teams when the opportunity arises. He spent time as an offensive coordinator in Denver and Chicago, and he's 2-0 ATS against them as a head coach. When Gase was in Miami, his Dolphins attempted a fourth-quarter onside kick with a 33-9 lead over the Broncos, who parted ways with him following the 2014 season. Miami won 35-9, despite coming into the game as a one-point underdog. This time, it's the Dolphins at the focal point of Gase's ire after they fired the head coach at the conclusion of last season.
The Jets would kill for a Gase revenge win right now, and the timing couldn't be much better: An undermanned Miami team just placed star cornerback Xavien Howard on injured reserve, the latest in a laundry list of injuries. The Dolphins were competitive in Pittsburgh on Monday night, but their hot start was quickly stifled as the Steelers outscored them 27-14 over the final three quarters. New York has its issues, but this is a get-right game for the Jets' offense against the worst team in football.
Parlay: Panthers ML, Eagles ML, Jets -3 ($50 to win $154.95)
Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.