Previewing NFLs first-ever Black Friday game plus Thanksgiving grades and Commanders fire their DC
Welcome to the Black Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!I hope you didn't fill up on football yesterday, because there is more football coming your way today. For the first time in history, the league will be holding a Black Friday game. Normally on Black Friday, I buy 75 things that I don't actually need, but since I'll be watching the game for three hours, I'm thinking that will cut down on the amount of things I buy.Of course, since the game is on Amazon, I might Ed Davis Jersey end buying twice as many things as usual. I'll be honest, guys, I have no idea how this is going to play out. Anyway, let's hope today's game is more exciting than what we got yesterday, because for Thanksgiving, we got three blowouts.The got beat so bad that they fired their defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio. It's kind of crazy that Del Rio just lost his job when you consider that the Commanders traded away TWO of his best pa s rushers ( and ) last month. That being said, nothing Washington does makes sense, so if you think of it in those terms, then this move makes sense.Alright, we've got a lot of ground to cover today, so let's get to the rundown. As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is.If you're a regular listener of the "Pick Six NFL" podcast or a regular reader of this newsletter, then you know what we do on Fridays: We make picks. And then just when you think we're done making picks, we make more picks.For today's show, host Will Brinson was joined by R.J. White and Alex "PropStarz" Selelnick -- two of our gambling gurus -- and the three of them offered some of their best bets for Week 12. The crew spent an entire hour handing out picks, and we're going to go over a few of their best bets here:Will Brinson(0-3 in picks we shared here last week, 15-17-1 on the season) money line (+105) to beat money line (-120) to beat at UNDER 37 total pointsR.J. White (3-0 in picks we shared here last week, 16-17 on the season) (+3.5) to cover against (-3) to cover against (-3.5) to cover against Katie Mox(2-1 in picks we shared here last week, 14-16 on the season) (+1.5) to cover against at UNDER 34.5 total pointsJaguars at Texans OVER 47.5 pointsAs for PropStarz, he usually hands out props, but there wasn't a full prop slate available when this show was recorded on Wednesday, so we're prople s for today, which is unfortunate, because PropStarz went 3-0 last week (He's now 18-15 on the season).To hear what the rest of the best bets are for Week 12 -- and there are quite a few -- be . You . It's not often you see every Thanksgiving game turn into a blowout, but that's exactly what happened yesterday. There was only one game that was even close on the scoreboard (Packers-Lions), but that game wasn't even that close. The Lions scored a garbage-time touchdown to make it look like there was some drama at the end, but trust me, there wasn't.In Dallas, the Commanders got beat so bad the they fired their defensive coordinator (Jack Del Rio), which we'll touch on at the bottom of the newsletter.Anyway, here are the grades we handed out for two of the three games that were played on Thanksgiving: Packers 29-22 over Lions ()Packers takeaway:It seems that something has finally clicked with , because he suddenly looks like one of the best quarterbacks in football. After dicing up the Chargers in Week 11, Love followed that up with an even more impre sive performance against the Lions. Love opened the game with a 53-yard pa s to on the first play from scrimmage and he only got better from there on a day where he threw for 268 yards and three touchdowns. The Packers had seven different receivers catch at least one pa s, including Watson, who finished with five catches for 94 yards and a TD. As good as the offense was, the defense was even better. had a breakout game: Not only did he lead the team in Udoka Azubuike Jersey tackles, but he also returned a fumble for a TD in the first quarter that allowed Green Bay to jump out to a 20-6 lead. The Lions couldn't figure out how to slow down , who sacked three times. This was a wildly impre sive performance for a Packers team that is suddenly very much alive in the NFC playoff race.Grade: A+Lions takeaways:After looking nearly invincible through the first 11 weeks of the season, the Lions suddenly look like a very beatable team and a lot of that has to do with the play of Jared Goff. The Lions QB lost three fumbles, including one that was returned for a Packers TD in the first quarter. Goff now has six turnovers over his past two games, which is almost impo sible to believe when you consider that he only turned the ball over five times in Detroit's first nine games. Goff didn't get any help from an offensive line that struggled against the Packers pa s rush. The Lions also went 0-for-4 on fourth down. The most questionable fourth-down call came on a fourth-and-3 in the third quarter when Dan Campbell called for a fake punt from his own 23-yard line with the Lions only trailing 23-14 (The Packers would score a TD three plays later that effectively iced the game). Defensively, the Lions looked confused by almost everything the Packers did. It's po sible they underestimated Jordan Love, but whatever the reason was, they got diced up for 268 yards and three touchdowns by the Packers QB.Grade: D- 45-10 over Commanders ()Commanders takeaways:If Ron Rivera wasn't on the hot seat before this week, he almost certainly is now after watching his team get blown out in Dallas. Riverboat Ron wasn't wearing his riverboat hat in the first half. During the first quarter, the Commanders had a chance to take charge of the game, but they ended up punting twice from inside of Cowboys territory. In the second half, the Commanders went for it three times on fourth down, but they were already down double-digits by that point. The Commanders simply got outcoached, but it also didn't help that their defense got torched by . Offensively, the Commanders had SEVEN drives that reached Cowboys territory, but they only came away with 10 points. With five lo ses in their past six games, it feels like the Commanders' season is over.Grade: FCowboys takeaways:The Cowboys probably didn't eat Thanksgiving dinner this year and that's because they feasted on the Commanders. The star of the show was Dak Prescott, who shredded Washington's defense for 331 yards and four touchdowns. The Cowboys QB, who didn't get sacked, had a lot of time to throw and he utilized that by hitting TEN different receivers with eight of those guys finishing with at least 20 yards. Defensively, the Cowboys didn't fully shut down the Commanders, but they stopped Washington on nearly every big play, including holding the Commanders to an 0-for-3 showing on fourth down. (2 sacks) and (1.5 sacks) led a pa s rush that gave fits. also iced the win when he came up with his NFL-record-setting fifth pick-six of the season in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys are looking more and more like a legit contender every week, and if they keep playing like this, this might be the season where they end their 28-year big game drought.Grade: AIf you want to check out my Donovan Mitchell Jersey grades for Seahawks-49ers, .For the first time ever, the NFL will be holding a Black Friday game and that will be going down at 3 p.m. ET today. The Dolphins (7-3) are a huge favorite, but they've struggled on the road this year, going 2-3. As for the Jets (4-6), their season isn't nece sarily on the line in this game, but it kind of feels that way.This game will be streaming on Amazon and ANYONE can watch. For every other Amazon game this season, you had to have a Prime subscription, but this game .My good buddy Cody Benjamin put together our deep-dive preview for this game here at CBSSports.com, and here's how he sees the game playing out: Why the Dolphins can win:When you think of Miami's offense, you usually think of , and the pa sing attack, but the Dolphins also have one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL and if they're smart, they'll be using it a lot against the Jets. The Jets defense is surrendering 137.6 yards per game on the ground, which ranks 30th in the NFL. On the other hand, the Dolphins have the second-best rushing attack in the league with an average of 143 yards per game. If the Dolphin get things going on the ground, it's hard to see the Jets winning. Also, if the Dolphins can score just three touchdowns, that should be enough to beat a Jets team that is very bad at scoring points.Why the Jets can win:Like almost every Jets game this season, New York is going to need a huge game from its defense if it wants to win. The Jets are 3-0 this year when they force three or more turnovers, so if the opportunistic defense can force Tua Tagovailoa into making a few mistakes, that could open the door for New York to pull off the upset. If the Jets can get their ground game going, that would also be helpful. For one, that would allow the Jets to control the flow of the game while keeping Miami's offense off the field. Also, with starting at QB, it's hard to imagine the Jets putting up big pa sing numbers, which is why the ground game will be so important.You can get .If you're thinking about betting on the game, here's one prop I like:ONE PROP I LIKE: OVER 62.5 rushing yards (-140).Mostert has gone over this number in two straight games, and it feels like he should be able to do it again while going up against a Jets defense that has had some serious trouble stopping the run. Also, isn't expected to play for the Dolphins, which means Mostert should be getting the brunt of the work on the ground for Miami today.My prime-time prop record is 16-9 this year.Finally, if you're wondering who we're picking, here's who we have tonight:Cody's pick:Dolphins 26-16 over JetsMy pick:Dolphins 24-13 over JetsOver, all eight of our experts are taking the Dolphins to win, but only five of us think the Dolphins will cover as a 10-point favorite.I hope you're not tired of reading our picks yet, because we have even more of them coming at you right now. This batch will be coming from NFL senior writer Pete Prisco along with Jordan Dajani, Tyler Sullivan and myself. After a rough past during the middle of the season, have now put together a winning record in three straight weeks.We went 3-2 against the spread last week (5-0 straight up), which means that heading into Week 12, we now have a 29-24-2 Andrei Kirilenko Jersey record against the spread with our picks that have been featured in the newsletter. Here's how things are going to work: I'm going to give you one pick from each guy and then direct you to the rest of their picks. That way, if you like their pick, you'll be able to read the rest of them, but if they pick against your favorite team, you can ignore the rest of their picks and move on.Pete Prisco: Saints (Pick'em) 24-20 over Falcons.From Prisco:For the rest of Prisco's Week 12 picks, .Tyler Sullivan: Eagles (-3.5) 27-23 over Bills.From Sullivan:For the rest of Sullivan's Week 12 picks, .Jordan Dajani: Steelers (-1) 20-17 over Bengals.From Dajani:For the rest of Dajani's Week 12 best bets, .John Breech: Browns (+1.5) 20-16 over Broncos.From me: For the rest of my Week 12 picks, .For more Week 12 , you can .Since you're probably tired of picks at this point, we're going to spice things up by giving out some bold predictions, which are like picks, except spicier. Garrett Podell has five bold predictions for Week 12, and we're going to share three of them below. Last week, Garrett boldly predicted that the Browns would beat the Steelers without and that's exactly what happened. Let's see what Garrett has in store for us this week.Bold predictions for Week 12: 1. Bengals start Jake Browning and still beat the Steelers.2. . hits the 100-yard mark in consecutive games for the first time since 2018.3. end 12-game losing streak in NFC North against . Garrett has five bold predictions for Week 12, and .It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impo sible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.Jack Del Rio fired.Ron Rivera didn't get fired after the Commanders blowout lo s on Thursday, but Del Rio did. The defensive coordinator, who had been with the team since 2020, was give up 38 points to the Cowboys (Dallas had a pick-six to get to 45 points in the game). Defensive backs coach Brent Vieselmeyer was also let go. According , Rivera will "presumably" take over defensive play-calling duties, but that's not set in stone yet. Rivera is squarely on the hot seat right now and it won't be surprising if he's also gone by mid-January. expected to play Sunday. The Saints QB suffered a concu sion in Week 10, but after getting a bye to heal in Week 11, it appears that he's good to go for Sunday's game against the Falcons. Carr has been fully cleared to play, which means he should be the starter this week unle s Dennis Allen shocks everyone by going with . might be starting, but he's not sure. Bill Belichick has been extremely secretive about who his starting QB will be on Sunday, but as it turns out, it looks like he's going to be sticking with Mac Jones. During an interview this week, Jones when asked if he would be the starter. "That's the plan, I think." So there you have it, Jones thinks he'll be the starter, but he doesn't sound 100% sure.Two-time Super Bowl winner dies at age 56.Former Broncos defensive lineman Harald Ha selbach after battling cancer for more than six months. Ha selbach spent Jeff Green Jersey his entire seven-year career (1994-2000) with the Broncos during a span that saw him win two Super Bowls with the team. Ha selbach also won a Grey Cup while playing in the CFL with Calgary in 1992, which of players who have won both a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl.