Week 12 NFL Survivor Friday Update: Pats Roll, But Who’s Left?

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday and the fact that our official weekly Survivor pick already played on Turkey Day, this Friday update is going to be short and sweet.

Here’s what’s new since Wednesday’s original Week 12 Survivor advice post:

  • As our official pick of Week 12, the New England Patriots cruised to a 49-19 victory over the New York Jets, thanks to a turnover-fueled 35-point second quarter. So we get the benefit of watching Sunday’s games with no pressure. And with almost 80% surviving entries on either Cincinnati or Denver this week, if you took the Pats, you know who to root for: the mighty Raiders and the dominating Chiefs.
  • Ranking as probably our fourth best pick of the week as of Wednesday, the Cowboys were upset by the Redskins.
  • However, as of Friday, the Titans’ money line has now improved from -158 to -195, meaning that Tennessee is now the clear best of Wednesday’s listed Tier 2 pick options.
  • Pittsburgh’s money line has gotten substantially worse, and is now only -121 (from -154). As a result, the Steelers are now a Tier 3 / AVOID.
  • Indianapolis’ odds have also gotten slightly worse. They’re not quite an AVOID yet, but Tennessee is clearly a better pick than the Colts now, as are probably several other of the Tier 2’s from Wednesday (besides Pittsburgh).
  • Several major sports books still have not posted betting odds for the Chicago vs. Minnesota game, and Chicago ranked as a likely Tier 1 pick as of Wednesday. According to SBRodds as of 5pm ET on Friday, Bears/Vikings is currently listed at only two sports books; Chicago is a 6.5 point favorite at BetOnline and a 5 point favorite at bwin. With only that information to go on, it’s risky to trust too much in it. If you’re still considering Chicago, your best option is to keep waiting and see where the lines end up once many sports books release. If you need to pick before then, and have the Bengals available, we’d go with Cincy due to the uncertainty.
We need to cut it off there today, but there’s plenty more detail about our rundown of all the Week 12 survivor options in the Wednesday post.