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Horse Racing NFL Week 3 Parlay Picks: Game Lines Parlay at 38.09 Odds
The NFL regular season is starting to take shape as we head into Week 3, which gets underway with the New York Giants heading to ‘the bay’ to take on the San Francsisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Thursday Night Football.
We turn our attention to Sunday’s slate where the nine games in the 6pm slate are headlined by the match-up between two 0-2 sides, with the Los Angeles Chargers heading north to take on the Minnesota Vikings, before the reigning Super Bowl Champions Kansas City Chiefs are almost two touchdown favourites over the Chicago Bears at 9:25pm.
Sunday Night Football sees an attritional matchup as the Pittsburgh Steelers head to Las Vegas to face the Raiders on a short week, having dispatched divisional rival Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football.
Our NFL expert Joshua Jones has a 38.09 parlay for Week 3 of football action, so if you want more from him, visit our Expert Insights section.
- Green Bay Packers v New Orleans Saints: New Orleans Saints Moneyline
- Minnesota Vikings v Los Angeles Chargers: Both Teams To Score 25+ Points
- Cleveland Browns v Tennessee Titans: Cleveland Browns/Under 39.5 Points
- Arizona Cardinals v Dallas Cowboys: Dallas Cowboys/Under 43.5 Points
NFL Week 3 Parlay odds: 38.09
Odds via bet365 as at 17:00, 21st September 2023. Odds may now differ.
Green Bay Packers vs New Orleans Saints: NOLA A Lively Dog At Lambeau
United States, NFL, Sunday, September 24, 18:00 (UK)
The New Orleans Saints (2-0) head to Wisconsin on a short week to take on the Green Bay Packers (1-1) in one of Sunday’s early slate games, looking to add insult to injury for Matt LaFleur’s side. The Green and Gold basically handed the game away in Atlanta last week, crumbling from a 24-12 lead heading into the fourth quarter to succumb to a 25-24 defeat at the hands of Desmond Ridder’s Falcons.
Jordan Love just couldn’t get anything going on offense to see out the game, going three-and-out twice before throwing four consecutive incompletions inside the two-minute warning while the Falcons scored on three consecutive drives with Younghoe Koo sealing the victory from 25 yards.
Elsewhere the Saints took care of business in the division on Monday Night Football, dispatching the Carolina Panthers and rookie QB Bryce Young 20-17 off the back of Tony Jones Jr’s two-score game. It was the 12th consecutive game that New Orleans has held their opponents to 20 points or fewer, and their fifth win in their last six.
Derek Carr is still settling in to his new surroundings in Louisiana, but he has been serviceable under centre and his receivers are doing a solid job of getting open. The former Raider has 533 yards (8th-most) through the air so far this year, and should only get better with more time in Pete Carmicheal’s offense.
The Saints are slight dogs on the road here against Green Bay, though I’m not sure they should be against a Packers side that has had a pretty favourable schedule and can’t possibly continue to operate as efficiently as they have been – especially against a defense that’s as nasty as New Orleans.
They have three picks, seven sacks, and a forced fumble already and have been elite at getting off the field both on third-down and in the redzone. Opponents are converting on just 23% of the third-down attempts, and are even worse in the redzone – going one-for-six on touchdown conversions.
The Packers are suffering with injuries on offense – with offensive linemen David Bakhtiari and Elgton Jenkins likely to be out – and RB Aaron Jones missing Wednesday’s practice. There was good news with Christian Watson finally practicing having not featured yet this season, though a match-up with Marshon Lattimore is not the comeback game anyone wants.
Minnesota Vikings vs Los Angeles Chargers: All Gas No Brakes Under The Dome
United States, NFL, Sunday, September 24, 18:00 (UK)
The Minnesota Vikings (0-2) host the Los Angeles Chargers (0-2) under the dome in Minneapolis and there’s only one question on everyone’s lips… How the hell are both of these sides 0-2!? Each of these sides boasts one of the league’s most potent offenses – racking up yards and points for fun, with more weapons than is ever necessary.
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has amassed the second most yards among all QBs through two weeks, while WR1 Justin Jefferson (309 yards) leads all wide receivers in receiving yards having already amassed 43 yards more than the next best player.
Jefferson is supported by rookie Jordan Addison (133 yards, 2 touchdowns) and tight-end TJ Hockenson (101 yds, 2 TDs) to give Minnesota the 2nd-ranked passing offense, per DVOA.
The issue for the Vikings is that their defense is… not great. They allowed Baker Mayfield’s Buccaneers to come into their house in Week 1 and steal away a victory before getting absolutely manhandled by the Philadelphia Eagles, allowing over 259 rushing yards as D’Andre Swift had a career game on Thursday Night Football, which unsurprisingly sees them ranked 32nd against the run.
The Chargers rank fourth for total offensive yards and total offensive DVOA, excelling both through the air (11th) and on the ground (5th), though Austin Ekeler didn’t practice Wednesday after missing last Sunday’s loss to the Titans.
QB Justin Herbert ranks 7th for passing yards through two games, whilst Keenan Allen (172 yds, 2 TDs) and Mike Williams (128 yds) rank 7th and 25th among wideouts for receiving yards.
Only five sides have scored more than the Chargers 58 points after two games and four of them are 2-0, so what’s the Chargers’ issue? Defense.
Only two sides have conceded more points than LA and their secondary is blowing coverage assignments at an alarming rate. They were cooked in man coverage by Tyreek Hill in Week 1 before Treylon Burks was able to get consistently open last week.
Long story short, the Vikings are very good in the passing game and the Chargers cannot stop opponents through the air. The Chargers are strong on the ground, and the Vikings cannot stop the run.
Expect points, not punts…
Cleveland Browns vs Tennessee Titans: Ground And Grind At The Dawg Pound
United States, NFL, Sunday, September 24, 18:00 (UK)
The Cleveland Browns (1-1) trudged through their divisional matchup on Monday Night Football with a desperate loss to bitter rivals Pittsburgh, and now head back to Ohio to host the Tennessee Titans (1-1) on a short week, looking to make home advantage count like they did in Week 1 against the Bengals.
One thing was abundantly clear during Cleveland’s AFC North clash on MNF, Deshaun Watson is no longer an elite quarterback. He threw a pick-six in his first dropback of the game and then his fourth-quarter fumble was returned for a touchdown to see the Browns downed 26-22 by a very poor Steelers side. Watson’s numerous mistakes in this game were clear difference makers and undid all the hard work that Cleveland’s defensive front had done to nullify every aspect of Pittsburgh’s offense.
The good news is that Watson just has to be serviceable to help his side past the Titans, who escaped with an OT win against Los Angeles Chargers last week to move to 1-1 on the season. The Bolts had to settle for field goals on three of their five redzone opportunities, with Tennessee operating a bend-don’t-break style offense that has kept their opponents out of the endzone on 67% of opportunities. This means sides are settling for field goals, which should contribute to a low scoring game.
The same is (somewhat) true for Cleveland’s defense, though it isn’t clear how good their redzone coverage is because they haven’t allowed a single side to take a snap from inside their 20-yard line. On 29 drives so far this season, the Browns have kept their opponents between the sticks and forced long field goal attempts – with three of the four attempted against them coming from further than 50 yards.
Of course, the Titans have their own secret weapon in Derrick Henry. The absolute behemoth back is a gamewrecker all on his own, but Cleveland has the top-ranked defense per DVOA and have only allowed 130 rushing yards across each of their games.
Cleveland should be able to escape this one by the skin of their teeth in a low-scorer. Expect field goals and turnovers from both sides as this one stays below 40.
- Selection: Cleveland Browns to win and Under 39.5 Points
- Best Odds: 3.00
- Bookmaker: bet365
- Stake: 5/10
Arizona Cardinals vs Dallas Cowboys: Parsons Has Dibs On Dobbs
United States, NFL, Sunday, September 24, 21:25 (UK)
The Dallas Cowboys (2-0) are enjoying a dominant start to their season, which has set them in and amongst some of the greatest defensive units of all-time through two weeks. They’re headed to Phoenix this week to take on the Arizona Cardinals (0-2) who capitulated in the second half of last week’s game with the New York Giants, surrendering a 20-0 half-time lead and a 28-14 4th quarter lead to succumb to a 31-28 defeat.
The Cardinals had shown really positive signs in the first half, shutting out a lacklustre Giants offense by forcing three punts and picking off Daniel Jones. They then allowed a monumental comeback making it the second consecutive week that Arizona has surrendered a fourth quarter lead, though they’re unlikely to make that three in a row against this lights-out Dallas Cowboys defense.
‘America’s team’ leads the league in total points scored (70) but hasn’t had a game go past 40 points yet, having dispatched both New York teams with relative ease. They bagel’d the Giants side – that dropped 30 on Arizona – in week one and then tortured Zach Wilson and the New York Jets offense for four quarters; registering three sacks, three interceptions, 3 pass break-ups and a forced fumble.
While they’ve been dominant on one side of the ball, they’ve actually been somewhat conservative on the other side of it in settling for field goals on 4th down. They kicked five last week against the Jets – with four coming from inside the 35 – and nailed two against the Giants from similar distance. The big positive for them is that they don’t really have to take risks, and shouldn’t here either, with Mike McCarthy recognising that and playing accordingly.
A lot of people are waiting for this Dallas unit to regress towards the mean, and that may come, but the Cardinals are not the side to cause that. Bank on the Cowboys juggernaut to keep pushing forward, and don’t expect Arizona to reach double figures.
- Selection: Dallas Cowboys to win and Under 43.5 Points
- Best Odds: 2.05
- Bookmaker: bet365
- Stake: 5/10
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