Is the Bears offense suddenly feisty? Sure, the Broncos and Commanders have two of the worst defenses in the NFL (outside of Chicago), but all of a sudden the Bears looked professional. If you had them in your NFL Week 5 pick’em pools, you’re comfortably up one.
We weren’t so comfortable with the game, but more on that later.
If you haven’t made your selections for the week, let’s break out the Pick’em Edge Tool.
Pick’em Pools
At RunYourPool, the Fins are currently the most-picked team at 81.3 percent, and if you’re getting them at -10.5 you’re well ahead of the Unabated Line at -12.
But they’re not even close to the best edge on the board. That honor goes to Minnesota +5.5. The Unabated Line is down to +3.5 here, and only 32.2 percent of players across all of RunYourPool are taking the points against Kansas City.
It’s a good spot to be contrarian, and to lock up a solid edge.
At DraftKings, the Bengals are only laying 2.5 to Arizona. The consensus line has them -3. The fact that a team expected to be a major contender is only laying a field goal to a team expected to be driving the tank is a testament to how the start of the season has gone for Cincinnati with Joe Burrow seeming to be playing hurt.
The Titans are the darling of the SuperContest at Superbook. Tennessee is a 1-point favorite in the contest, but -2.5 on the consensus line. Miami clocks in as the No. 2 choice against a Giants team missing three members of its offensive line. Yes, what they started the season with was their good O-line.
The Titans strike again at Circa, but you have to lay a point and a half in the Millions. The Raiders have flipped around from being a 1-point road ‘dog to a 1-point favorite as the second choice, with Baltimore -4 a solid third.
CFB Pools
Liberty gave us a huge edge but it wasn’t to be. Sam Houston State covered easily. Still, there are big edges still to be had if you’re in any college football pools with UCF and Boston College all delivering double-digit numbers.
If you’re wondering if Central Florida’s John Rhys Plumlee Will be back for that game, make sure you’re plugged into Unabated College Football for all the news.
Survivor Pools
Miami is at home and New York is both bad and banged up. It makes the Dolphins a solid – and likely popular – survivor choice
If you want something a little more contrarian, the Survivor Optimizer can do that. It will let you choose whether to play contrarian or chalk before you ship in your picks.
Detroit figures to be another leading choice as a -475 moneyline favorite at Circa. Baltimore could be a sneaky-good, lightly picked play if you have the Ravens available.
Unabated Entries
After an ugly 1-4 week in the Circa Millions, the Unabated crew wanted to bounce back in Week 5, looking for an unconventional pick in Circa Survivor on Thursday night to kick things off.
The Optimizer liked the Commanders and the usual Thursday caveats didn’t seem to apply to this game.
The team voted to take a shot. And then disaster struck.
Bad enough Dick Butkus died shortly before kickoff, but LeBron had to go and blab about how much he liked Washington.
40-20 Bears, RIP our entry.
If you want to talk to some folks actually still alive in their survivor pools, or want some help with your weekly pick’em entries, come mix it up on the Discord.
