Rams-Bears early odds: Chicago big road dogs vs. Los Angeles Rams in Week 11

The struggling Los Angeles Rams are heavy favorites over the equally-struggling Chicago Bears during Sunday Night Football.

Sunday Night Football features the Los Angeles Rams (5-4) host the Chicago Bears (4-5) during Week 11’s NFL regular season matchup Sunday, Nov. 17th, at 8:20 p.m. ET at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The game can be watched on NBC. The Rams enter as the solid favorite, according to odds from BetMGM.

The Rams (-295) are favored by 6.5 (-115) points against the spread (ATS) over the Bears. New to sports betting? With a spread of -6.5, that means the Rams need to not only beat the Bears, but they need to win by at least seven points for an ATS wager on them to cash. That half-point is referred to as a hook.

Looking to place a bet on this game or others? Get some action in the game at BetMGM. Sign up and bet at BetMGM now!

Feeling a upset? A $10 wager on the Bears (+230) would pay $23.00 in profit should they win outright. Meanwhile, a $10 wager on the Rams to win outright returns a profit of just $3.39.

The Over/Under on the Bears/Rams game has been set at 41.5, with a +105 line on the Over and an -125 on the Under for this Week 11 NFL matchup.

Want to get some action on this game? Place a sports bet at BetMGM now. For more sports betting picks and tips, access SportsbookWire.com.

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Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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Bears LB Nick Kwiatkoski steps up in place of injured LB Danny Trevathan

The Bears lost starting LB Danny Trevathan to a gruesome elbow injury, but reserve LB Nick Kwiatkoski stepped up in his absence.

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When Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan suffered a gruesome elbow injury, backup Nick Kwiatkoski rose to the occasion in his place in Chicago’s 20-13 victory over the Lions.

Trevathan left the game in the first quarter after his arm bent the wrong way as he attempted to sack Lions quarterback Jeff Driskel. Trevathan immediately left the field, knowing that something was wrong.

While Bears coach Matt Nagy didn’t offer an update on Trevathan’s injury, it appeared to be similar to defensive tackle Akiem Hick’s elbow dislocation, perhaps worse.

Kwiatkoski relieved Trevathan with one of the best games of his career. He finished second in tackles with 9, recorded a sack and had the Bears’ lone takeaway — an interception of Driskel early in the third quarter, which led to a Bears scoring drive.

Kwiakoski once again proved to not only be an adamant fill-in but a productive one, just like he did earlier this season in place of linebacker Roquan Smith, who was a healthy scratch against the Minnesota Vikings.

‘‘It’s just preparation,’’ he said, via the Sun-Times. ‘‘As a linebacker, you plan on playing. Things happen throughout the course of a season, and you have to be ready for it.’’

Trevathan looks to be out awhile with his elbow injury, and Kwiatkoski suddenly has a big opportunity in front of him.

‘‘It’s not the way I want it to happen,” Kwiatkoski said. “Danny’s a close friend of mine.’’

But Kwiatkoski will get his chance this week as the Bears travel to Los Angeles to play the Rams on Sunday Night Football.

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Golden Tate to Giants fans: ‘Trust the process’

New York Giants coaches and players apologized to the fan base on Sunday, but asked that they continue to trust the process.

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New York Giants veteran wide receiver Golden Tate had a message for Big Blue fans following a 34-27 loss to the New York Jets on Sunday at MetLife Stadium and it’s not the sort of message they are interested in hearing right now.

“You know, well first I’m going to apologize to the Giants pride because I know how important this game is. I know we were expecting to come out and get a big time win against the other New York team, but we didn’t,” Tate told reporters. “The only thing I can ask at this point is just be patient and try to trust the process. Just know the people inside the building, we’re working, we still believe we can, we’ve just got to go out there and do it.”

This is like a broken record for Giants fans, who have been blindly “trusting the process” since 2012. And all they’ve gotten for their faith is one of the worst stretches in the history of Giants football.

“I think they should be as disappointed with the fact that we lost as I am. That’s what I would say,” head coach Pat Shurmur said when asked what he’d say to the fans.

An admittedly “embarrassed” Jabrill Peppers, who very clearly wasn’t interested in discussing the latest loss but fielded questions like a champ anyway, was equally as blunt when asked about his message to fans.

“We are fed up too. At the end of the day, everybody can feel how they feel, we are going to go back to the drawing board, put together a good two weeks of work and come out of this bye week ready to go,” Peppers said.

So there you have it, Giants fans. The team is sorry and asking you to trust the process.

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Sunday’s NFL upsets were a bloodbath for survivor pools

Week 10 destroyed survivor pools everywhere.

If you lost in your NFL survivor pool (in case you don’t know what that is: you enter a pool of contestants who pick one outright winner per week and can’t use that team again the rest of the season; the overall winner “survives” when everyone else is eliminated) this weekend, you already know about what an awful Sunday it was for entrants.

Perhaps if you picked the Baltimore Ravens to run all over the Cincinnati Bengals, you survived.

But let’s review: the Kansas City Chiefs had Patrick Mahomes return and lost to the Tennessee Titans. The New Orleans Saints put up a whole nine points against the woeful Atlanta Falcons defense. The Miami Dolphins won their second straight game (!) in a victory over the Indianapolis Colts, who were without their starting QB. You could even throw in the Pittsburgh Steelers defeating the Los Angeles Rams.

That was bad news for anyone who picked those favorites:

The Falcons leaned into it:

Brutal.

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PODCAST: Did the Bills offense hand the Browns a win?

Buffalo Bills podcast following Week 10 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

The Buffalo Bills failed to defeat the Cleveland Browns, falling 19-16 in Cleveland to fall to 6-3 on the season. While at first glance, it’s easy to point the finger at kicker Stephen Haushcka for missing a game-tying field goal, the problem is much deeper, yet obvious.

For months, many of the Bills critics have questioned the Bills offense, with much push back from biased “Billievers” and Josh Allen apologists. If this game doesn’t change those opinions, nothing will. Poor clock management, conservative play-calling and key plays not extending drives were all a major part of this team’s misfortunes in Cleveland.
Daboll has been a figure who, if this Bills season goes south quick, could find himself as the scapegoat when it comes to appeasing the fan base at the end of the season. His play calling has seemingly limited this offenses potential, and does not look as explosive as it could. It has even led many to believe that Josh Allen isn’t the franchise quarterback that the team thought he was.
Fortunately for Buffalo, if there is anything positive to examine, the Bills are not down and out, and have the opportunity to build their cushion as the first Wild Card spot, although there are some teams beginning to catch up.
Billswire Podcast Hosts Matt and Jeremy discuss the Week 10 loss to the Cleveland Browns:

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Jeff Driskel on Matthew Stafford: ‘having his presence there was huge’

Stafford still showed leadership and competitiveness despite not being able to play

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Jeff Driskel made his debut as the Detroit Lions starting quarterback in Week 10. He wasn’t terrible, guiding the team to a field goal on the opening drive and leading the Lions in rushing while completing 26-of-38 pass attempts.

Driskel was in the lineup only because Matthew Stafford was forced to end his 136 consecutive game streak with broken bones in his back. But Stafford was still actively involved on the Detroit sideline, advising Driskel after every possession.

The young backup clearly appreciated the help from Stafford. Driskel was asked if he leaned on Stafford on the sidelines.

“I think his presence is huge,” Driskel said after the game. “He’s the unquestioned leader of this team and one of the toughest dudes I’ve ever been around, most competitive people I’ve ever been around. So yeah, having his presence there was huge, not just for me but for the whole team. So yeah, it was awesome to have him there and he had my back just like I have his back when he’s out there.”

Driskel realized how tough it must be for Stafford to not be out there leading the team on the field. He talked about how great of a leader that makes No. 9.

“Yeah, I’m sure it was tough, everybody wants to be out there competing on the field and he’s done it for a long time at a high level, don’t know the exact number of starts that he’s had in a row, but it’s definitely up there. I think it’s since 2011 he hasn’t missed a start. It’s just a testament to him as a person, as a teammate and a competitor.”

Stafford’s status is undetermined for Week 11 and beyond. Driskel showed enough in his relief role to at least give the Lions a fighting chance…with Stafford in his ear helping out.

Colts’ snap counts from Week 10 loss to Dolphins

Snap counts from the Week 10 loss.

The Indianapolis Colts (5-4) woke up to the reality that the lowly Miami Dolphins (2-7) came into their home at Lucas Oil Stadium and utterly dominated en route to a 16-12 loss for Indy.

It was a shocking and pathetic performance from a team that is supposed to compete for a spot in the AFC playoffs. No, they weren’t at full strength, but this is still a game they should have won with ease.

Here’s a look at the offensive snap counts from the Week 10 loss:

Behind the offensive line and quarterback Brian Hoyer, wide receivers Zach Pascal and Marcus Johnson led the way playing 99% and 80% of the snaps, respectively. Johnson was called up the day prior from the practice squad.

After publicly venting his frustrations, tight end Eric Ebron out-snapped Jack Doyle while Marlon Mack and Nyheim Hines split snaps in the backfield due to game script.

Here’s a look at the defensive and special teams snap counts:

It seems rookie safety Khari Willis is officially taking over the strong safety role. He played 91% of the snaps while veteran Clayton Geathers saw just six(!) plays on defense.

Rookie defensive end Ben Banogu only played on 24% of the snaps while cornerback Marvell Tell continues to get more playing time—logging 71% of the defensive snaps on Sunday.

DeAndre Jordan: Nets need to ‘pay attention to the gameplan’

DeAndre Jordan explained some of the reasons the Brooklyn Nets’ have struggled on the defensive end.

A lot went wrong for the Brooklyn Nets in Sunday’s 138-112 loss to the Phoenix Suns. Specifically, the defense was an issue — which shouldn’t come as a surprise given how many points the Suns posted.

Defense has been far from Brooklyn’s strong suit to start the 2019-20 season. Though, each night there seems to be some different wrong with the defense.

After the loss, DeAndre Jordan explained to reporters in Phoenix the issues he’s seeing:

Defensively, we gotta be better. We have to come with a defensive mindset, with physicality. We gotta pay attention to the gameplan.

Although Jordan stated, “We gotta pay attention to the gameplan,” fairly casually, this comment is a bit alarming. If the Nets aren’t listening to Kenny Atkinson before the opening tip, Brooklyn has another problem on its hands.

Jordan also added:

Teams are gonna come and jump on you early. That’s just the way the league goes at times. You can play great defense and teams are still gonna hit tough shots. Your defense may break down at the end, but we gotta be able to sustain that for 24 seconds, and then get a rebound at the end. We did it in spurts, but the great teams do it throughout.

Brian Flores’ work is Dolphins’ most exciting development

The Miami Dolphins are showing signs of live under head coach Brian Flores, with a lot of young players showing impressive growth.

What a weird season, when there’s pessimism after two consecutive wins for a team whose roster is as thin and talent deficient as a what we see this year in Miami. Dolphins fans everywhere should be thrilled with the work of Brian Flores and his coaching staff — given the way they’ve seen players buy into their process and approach. The Dolphins came into the year with over 60% of their roster brand new in 2019, but many of them coming as former busts or as undrafted free agents.

That gave the general public the perception that the Dolphins are something of an “island of misfit toys.” There were jokes that the Dolphins would lose to XFL teams and college teams. The morning shows bemoaned the Dolphins for putting players on the field and risking their health because they’re not good enough to be on the field.

Suddenly, this same group of players (sans CB Xavien Howard, S Reshad Jones, C Daniel Kilgore, RB Mark Walton and others) is good enough to win two consecutive football games in the NFL?

Maybe the Dolphins just took a lot of low-risk, high-reward investments instead? And Miami certainly hasn’t hit on all of them — QB Josh Rosen and DL Robert Nkemdiche are the two notable swings and misses. But what about LB Vince Biegel? What about OL Evan Boehm? Moving Bobby McCain to safety? DE Taco Charlton? The Dolphins are seeing several of their young investments really flip the switch and become constant plus contributors, which is an indication that Miami’s coaches are connecting with their players.

These are all players who can be contributors for Miami in 2019, 2020 and beyond — which is a root approach to this season for the Dolphins. Find who you can build around, who is a complementary player, and develop them. Polish them and get them comfortable with the Dolphins’ playbook and their role.

Seeing that come to life? That’s exciting, because it means Miami’s vision for what this team could and should look like two years from now is rooted in reality and not a pipe dream. And that deserves to be celebrated.

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