Betting On The 3 Thanksgiving Day NFL Games

• The Detroit Lions are +3.0 point underdogs to the Houston Texans.
• The Dallas Cowboys are -3.0 favorites over the Washington Football Team.
• The Pittsburgh Steelers are 8-2 against the spread this year.

LAS VEGAS - The Thanksgiving day games are a time of festivity, and for NFL gamblers, the best Thursday of the year.

This year, the three games taking place are the Houston Texans vs. the Detroit Lions, the Washington Football Team vs. the Dallas Cowboys, and the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Houston Texans vs. Detroit Lions

The kickoff game between Houston and Detroit starts at 12:30 p.m. ET, and will be a nice appetizer of a game before the main course later.

Houston and Detroit are going through dark times in their respective franchises. The Lions are 4-6, and coming off of a bad loss to the Carolina Panthers that saw them get shut out to the tune of 20-0.

The Panthers are not a good team, but clearly, neither are the Lions.

The Houston Texans are 3-7, which seems awful, but they’re 3-2 in their last five games after starting out 0-5 and firing head coach and GM Bill O’Brien.

The Texans are favored in this matchup, which definitely tracks with recent results - Houston is mildly resurgent, and the Lions are straight up bad.

Both teams have identical straight up and spread records - Houston is 3-7 ATS, and Detroit is 4-6 ATS.

That said, the Texans are 1-5-1 ATS on the road in their last seven road games, which is a rough sign. Then again, the Lions are 4-11 ATS as underdogs in their last 15 underdog games.

Basically, the trends for both teams are significantly negative, but someone has to win, and someone has to cover.

Washington Football Team vs. Dallas Cowboys

Ah yes, a normal year. The Washington Football Team facing off against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving in a game that has serious playoff implications.

This should be a viewer’s delight, right?

One problem.

The fact that this game has serious playoff implications is more of an indictment of the divisional system of playoffs than it is a reflection of the quality of the teams involved.

Both of these teams enter this game at 3-7, half a game behind the division leading Philadelphia Eagles, who sit at 3-6-1.

This game is at Dallas, and one might hazard a guess that the reason for the spread being in their favor, as it’s hard to differentiate between these teams.

Dallas welcomed Andy Dalton back to the team after he missed a couple weeks, and promptly defeated the Minnesota Vikings, who were favored by around a touchdown.

The Cowboys under Dalton showed serious signs of life, and one must not forget that they played the Steelers close a few weeks ago as well.

The Washington Football Team defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, although the victory was marred by an injury to Bengals QB Joe Burrow.

In their previous meeting this year, about a month ago, the Football Team demolished the Cowboys, 25-3.

Washington are not great ATS on the road, with a 1-4 ATS record as road underdogs in their last five.

Dallas are not great against the spread when they’re favored - they have an 0-5 record ATS in their last five games as such.

This game airs at 4:30 p.m. ET

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens

The best game of the day by far will be between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens.

The Ravens are looking like a big-time regression candidate, with Lamar Jackson playing significantly worse than last season.

The Steelers, meanwhile, are in the midst of their best season of all time, somehow. They’re still undefeated and widely expected to make it to at least the AFC Championship Game.

The Steelers are favored by 4.5 points, although the shading on that spread suggests it may be a bit too high.

The Ravens are not used to being underdogs, but they tend to perform when they are, with a 4-0 record against the spread as underdogs.

However, they’ve been on a bad streak against the spread recently, going 1-4 ATS in their last five games.

The Steelers, on the other hand, are crushing it - they’re 7-1 ATS in their last eight games, and 8-2 ATS on the season overall.

The question for the Steelers is when they will finally take a loss, and while the Ravens are not in top form, they might be the team to do it.

Happy Thanksgiving!