NFL Week 14 Preview: The latest offers from BetMGM ahead of crucial final month

Just four regular season weeks remain in the NFL and, currently, the playoff picture has a very unfamiliar look to it with several emerging teams staying the course into December.

No one would’ve predicted the New England Patriots and Chicago Bears being the two conference leaders heading into the final month. Nor would anyone have expected the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions to be requiring snookers just to earn a wildcard spot. The Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens are also far from certain to be involved come January.

In what could be a defining week, BetMGM are throwing new players a great offer to add even more excitement to a busy slate of games. Those who are new to the sportsbook can sign up today, place a qualifying bet of £10, and unlock £40 in free bets. The package includes single bets and bet builders, all of which can be used on the NFL.

NFL Week 14 quick tips

• Back the Cincinnati Bengals to keep it within 5.5 points, or win, at the Buffalo Bills – 10/11 with BetMGM
• Take the Washington Commanders on the moneyline to beat the Minnesota Vikings – Evens with BetMGM
• Tip the Chicago Bears to cover the 6.5-point spread as an underdog at the Green Bay Packers – 10/11 with BetMGM

NFL Week 14 schedule:

Friday

• Detroit Lions v Dallas Cowboys (1:15am)

Sunday – early window (all 6:00pm)

• Atlanta Falcons v Seattle Seahawks
• Baltimore Ravens v Pittsburgh Steelers
• Buffalo Bills v Cincinnati Bengals
• Cleveland Browns v Tennessee Titans
• Jacksonville Jaguars v Indianapolis Colts
• Minnesota Vikings v Washington Commanders
• New York Jets v Miami Dolphins
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers v New Orleans Saints

Sunday – late window

• Las Vegas Raiders v Denver Broncos (9:05pm)
• Arizona Cardinals v Los Angeles Rams (9:25pm)
• Green Bay Packers v Chicago Bears (9:25pm)

Monday

• Kansas City Chiefs v Houston Texans (1:20am)

Tuesday

• Los Angeles Chargers v Philadelphia Eagles (1:15am)

The biggest test of all for the Bears

The Thanksgiving and Black Friday games featured the three main runners in the NFC North race. The Green Bay Packers went into Detroit and earned a vital win, as they did on Turkey Day in 2023, with Jordan Love in sparkling form – throwing four touchdown passes.

The Chicago Bears shut down the Philadelphia Eagles offence in their own building and climbed to the top of the whole conference, with the Los Angeles Rams going on to lose their Sunday matchup in Charlotte.

Now, the Packers and Bears will meet for the first of two massive rivalry games before Christmas at Lambeau Field, where the Pack have been hit and miss. Prior to a comfortable 23-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings two weeks ago, they had been beaten on home turf in two low-scoring games by the Carolina Panthers and the Eagles.

Chicago are flying and have won their last five – the longest active streak in the NFC. The most recent two of these have helped silence a lot of doubters, as they were against two fellow play-off chasers – the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Eagles. Prior to that, all of the wins Ben Johnson’s team had earned had come against teams below .500 – and they’d required one or two late comebacks and miraculous plays during that run.

The Packers seem to have overcome their brief wobble at the right time and have now won three on the bounce themselves. Despite being without a couple of wide receivers and starting tight end Tucker Kraft, Jordan Love was back to his efficient and accurate best against the Lions, while star defensive player Micah Parsons helped himself to 2.5 sacks.

The Packers have dominated this rivalry in recent years – the Bears have only beaten them five times since 2010. That may be one of the reasons why they’ve been made 6.5-point favourites with BetMGM, but the Bears should not be written off. I can see a Packers win, but the Bears to cover.

Eagles suddenly wobbling on their perch?

In losing to the Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles fell to back-to-back defeats for the second time this season. The defending Super Bowl champions have had a strange season – they’ve had the firmest grip of any leading team on their division throughout, yet tensions are threatening to boil over in the City of Brotherly Love.

Receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith have been vocal in their dissatisfaction with their roles – with the former advising fantasy owners to bench him – and the fans have begun to turn on the offensive playcallers too after several conservative decisions against the Bears. Saquon Barkley hasn’t replicated even a fraction of what he achieved last season either. 

A trip all the way over to Los Angeles on a Monday night probably isn’t what the doctor ordered. The Chargers hold an identical record to the birds – 8-4 – and will be sure to test a defence which hasn’t filled opponents with dread quite like they have in recent years.

Another defeat, coupled with another Dallas Cowboys win, would raise alarm bells in Philly, with parallels starting to be drawn with the 2023 season – when a 10-1 Eagles team collapsed in December, finished 11-6 and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

The Chargers have been more consistent, winning four of their last five and scoring at least 24 points in all bar one of their last seven. Running back Kimani Vidal has ‘broken out’ in recent weeks, earning heavy workloads in recent wins against the Las Vegas Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers (25 carries in each), and the Minnesota Vikings (23). He converted these into 126, 95 and 117 yards respectively with a touchdown in each game.

Jim Harbaugh’s team are, at times, susceptible to having an off day – such as two weeks ago when they failed to score a touchdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars and were thrashed 35-6. That may be one of the reasons why the bookies still feel more comfortable backing the Eagles here – BetMGM have them as 3-point favourites to shake off their current malaise and re-enter the conversation for the number 1 seed in the NFC.

The AFC North hits reset

No one has seized control of an attritional AFC North and, with five weeks of fixtures left, it is now one of the most difficult divisions to call. With Baltimore and Cincinnati’s star quarterbacks both missing large chunks of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers had the chance to run away with it.

After a 4-1 start, however, Mike Tomlin’s team have only been able to add two more wins and are currently 6-6 – Tomlin, famously, has never had a losing season but that impressive record is once again under threat this year.

After winning four-in-a-row up until Thanksgiving, the returning Lamar Jackson has revived the Ravens’ season. They’re also at 6-6 ahead of a defining period in which these two will face each other twice in their respective five remaining games.

While Jackson has missed almost half of the games against the Steelers since being drafted in 2018, Tomlin has often had the answers for him and his unique rushing ability – defeating him in five of the eight times he’s had to plot against him.

The Ravens offence also comes into this one off the back of a sloppy five-turnover outing against the Bengals. Cincy will be watching this one with interest having breathed new life into their season with that win.

Joe Burrow was immediately back to somewhere close to his best, but his presence also seemed to galvanise a defence which has been among the league’s poorest. Having given up more points than any other team, they allowed just 14 here.

Burrow returned from a lengthy injury at a similar point last season and helped his team end the season on a five-game winning streak. A 9-8 record wasn’t quite enough to sneak in as a wildcard, however. It would require a faultless six-game stretch this time around, but 9-8 is still doable. They’re in Buffalo this week in one of the more eye-catching 6pm games on Sunday.

BetMGM believes the Steelers’ season will continue to spiral – making the Ravens a six-point favourite to move a full game ahead of them at 7-6. The Bengals, meanwhile, are not expected to repeat their heroics against Josh Allen and the Bills – they’re 5.5-point underdogs.

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Elsewhere in week 14 of the NFL

It’s a huge week in the AFC South too. After back-to-back defeats for the Indianapolis Colts, and three straight wins for the Jaguars, it is now the Florida franchise who hold a slight advantage before the two teams meet at EverBank Stadium for the first of two pivotal clashes in the remaining weeks of the season. 

As with the AFC North and NFC North, there is a third team lurking in the rear-view mirror. The Houston Texans have won four-in-a-row, including vital victories over both the Jaguars and Colts. That run has been made all the more impressive given that backup quarterback Davis Mills guided them to the first three. 

They, with C.J. Stroud back in the lineup, will be in Arrowhead for Sunday Night Football, against a Kansas City Chiefs team whose season is on life support at 6-6. A trip to Missouri still represents one of the toughest challenges in the NFL, however. The Chiefs have only lost once there this season, and that was back in week 2 – they’ve won five straight on home turf since.

There’s also an interesting queue developing for the wildcard spots – Detroit and Dallas are two teams entering the week on the outside looking in. They’ll meet on Thursday night in what promises to be an explosive exhibition of offence. The Lions know that one of the Bears or Packers will lose this weekend, but also can ill afford to fall further behind the winner of that Lambeau showdown. 

The Cowboys are simply hoping to keep the Eagles under pressure in the NFC East, as their 6-5-1 record is some way behind the 9-4 of the San Francisco 49ers who currently occupy the 7th seed. A win in Motor City, combined with a Bears win in Wisconsin, however, would move them to within one game of the Packers.

Finally, it may not have anything riding on it but rookie quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward look set to battle against one another in Cleveland. The Browns and the Tennessee Titans are once again in the reckoning for the first overall pick having won just four games between them this season. 

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