NFL Week 11 parlay: Saints, Redskins, Rams
Find line reports, best bets, and subscribe to push notifications in the Betting News section.
For the second week in a row, the New York Jets ruined our parlay. Only quitters quit, though. And third time's the charm, right?
With that said, it's back to fading the Jets in our Week 11 parlay.
Saints ML -240 (at Buccaneers)
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are considered by many to be a live 'dog in this spot, but it's hard to imagine the New Orleans Saints dropping a second straight game. The Saints have demonstrated impressive resilience in the Sean Payton and Drew Brees era. Since the start of 2010, they've gone 22-6 straight up as the favorite when coming off a loss, which included a 28-14 victory in Tampa last season following a defeat to Dallas.
Brees was pedestrian at best in New Orleans' Week 10 loss to Atlanta, but there's no better remedy than facing Tampa's league-worst pass defense, which has allowed 298.9 yards per game through the air. Michael Thomas should feast in this contest; since the start of last season, he's posted 360 yards and three touchdowns combined in three matchups against the Bucs.
On defense, New Orleans will get after Jameis Winston. The Saints rank fourth in the NFL with a 27.4% pressure rate, and that should lead to some takeaways against the turnover-prone QB.
Redskins -1.5 (vs. Jets)
It seems like everyone is piling back onto the New York Jets bandwagon based on one victory over the New York Giants. Or maybe it's simply a case of bettors wanting nothing to do with the Dwayne Haskins-led Washington Redskins. Either way, the entire football world seems to have suddenly forgotten what a trainwreck this Jets team was just one week ago.
New York's inability to block for Sam Darnold has resulted in significant growing pains for Adam Gase's offense. The Jets found some success against the Giants because they were largely able to keep Darnold upright. The line will face a tougher test against a Redskins defense that ranks fifth with a 13.4% quarterback hurries rate - a significant step up from the 9.4% rate managed by the Giants. Meanwhile, Washington's defense has performed well of late, allowing 20 or more points just once over the last four weeks.
Sure, the offense has endured its share of struggles, but you can expect the Redskins to have a much friendlier game plan for Haskins to execute coming out of the bye. And while Haskins has struggled in limited action, his only start came on the road against a stingy Buffalo Bills secondary. He still moved the offense decently in that game given the circumstances and, most importantly, he protected the football. For the season, all four of his turnovers have come after he entered the game cold off the bench. Against a porous Jets secondary, Haskins will do enough to earn the first win of his young career.
Rams ML -280 (vs. Bears)
Don't let a 20-13 win over the Detroit Lions fool you - the Chicago Bears' offense is still an irreparable mess. The Bears went three-and-out on 58.3% of their possessions against Detroit, the highest rate of any team in Week 10. Chicago's 226 yards of offense also ranked last among all teams.
That was against the league's 30th-ranked defense. Next, Mitch Trubisky and Co. will travel to Los Angeles to face the much stronger Rams D, which will be playing angry following a disappointing loss in Pittsburgh.
The Rams' aggressive front seven will give Trubisky fits on Sunday night. L.A. leads the NFL with a hurry percentage of 16.7% and ranks second in quarterback pressures. It's hardly a spot for the Bears' offense to get on track, as Trubisky's 46.4 rating and 42% completion rate under pressure both rank 43rd among all NFL quarterbacks this season.
Jared Goff has hardly inspired much confidence with his play of late either, but his home/road splits are hard to ignore. He's a more confident quarterback at LA Memorial Coliseum, and he should get a lot of help from his running game in this matchup. The Bears' run defense has been gashed for an average of 120 yards over the past five contests.
Full parlay: Saints ML, Redskins -1.5, Rams ML ($100 to win $267.04)
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.