NFL Predictions Week 10: Last-Minute Picks and Advice for Sunday's Schedule

It's an odd time for, well, NFL odds as the schedule transitions to Week 10.

How odd? The AFC South might send a team with a losing record to the postseason, the Oakland Raiders are .500 and in the playoff hunt and the Minnesota Vikings are 6-2 atop the NFC North with the Green Bay Packers. 

Taking all of the above into account, it'd be understandable if NFL bettors wanted to take a week off. It's an inadvisable thought, though, especially now that the lines have had a week to marinate.

Before kickoff, here's a look at the full slate and how bettors should play each set of odds now that they are at their most ripe.

NFL Week 10 Odds

Game	Spread	O/U	Predicted Winner
Jacksonville at Baltimore	BAL -6.5	50	JAC 21-20
Detroit at Green Bay	GB -11	48	GB 30-17
Miami at Philadelphia	PHI -5.5	47	PHI 28-25
Cleveland at Pittsburgh	PIT -4.5	41	PIT 14-13
Chicago at St. Louis	STL -9	42.5	STL 20-16
Dallas at Tampa Bay	DAL -1	43.5	DAL 23-20
Carolina at Tennessee	CAR -6	42.5	CAR 27-20
New Orleans at Washington	EVEN	50	NO 20-17
Minnesota at Oakland	OAK -2.5	44	OAK 23-20
Kansas City at Denver	DEN -6.5	42.5	DEN 23-14
New England at New York Giants	NE -7	54	NE 33-20
Arizona at Seattle	SEA -2.5	45	ARI 17-10
Houston at Cincinnati	CIN -13	48	CIN 27-20

Odds courtesy of Odds Shark.    

Last-Minute Advice for Sunday Slate

Cleveland at Pittsburgh (-4.5)

The Cleveland Browns haven't won in Pittsburgh since 2003 and are losers in 36 of their last 42 in the city. 

Convinced?

In all seriousness, this is an AFC North duel where things aren't normal. Last year, Cleveland went to Pittsburgh and lost by just three points before stunning the Steelers in Cleveland, 31-10.

A blanket acceptance of the Steelers blowing away the Browns doesn't make sense. At its best, the Cleveland offense is unpredictable under the direction of Johnny Manziel, and it already posted 33 points in taking down one divisional rival (Baltimore).

The Steelers will also be without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the encounter, per Britt McHenry of ESPN, meaning Landry Jones will suit up. But there's good news: Jones helped take down the Arizona Cardinals in a start earlier this season while the defense forced two interceptions.

At home, the Pittsburgh defense will force the Browns into mistakes while Jones manages the game. DeAngelo Williams, who rushed for 170 yards and two touchdowns last week, will have his way with a unit surrendering a league-high 147.6 yards per game on the ground.

Just don't expect a run-first battle of the backups to be a blowout.

Prediction: Steelers 14, Browns 13

Detroit at Green Bay (-11)

The Packers are angry, which should be enough to convince bettors to take the over when the team suits up this weekend against the Detroit Lions.

No? How about another staggering divisional home-away stat, courtesy of NFL Network's Gil Brandt:

There it is. Look, Detroit's sitting on a 1-7 record, with the only win an overtime affair against the 3-5 Chicago Bears. Just last week, Matthew Stafford and Co. took on a Kansas City Chiefs team also sitting at 3-5 and took a 45-10 loss.

The Lions just don't have the juice to hang with the Packers at home. Aaron Rodgers and the team have dropped two consecutive road games to contenders (Denver and Carolina) and need to put some distance between themselves and the aforementioned Vikings.

While his defense might struggle, Rodgers—who has completed 64.7 percent of his passes with 19 touchdowns to three interceptions—won't have any problems picking apart a defense allowing a league-high 30.6 points per game, the only team sitting over the 30-point mark.

Some divisional games wind up close regardless of record and players. Some don't. 

Prediction: Packers 30, Lions 17

New England (-7) at New York Giants

There was a time, as most certainly know, when the New York Giants used to have the New England Patriots' number. 

Not anymore. The Giants aren't terrible this year per se, but Eli Manning cannot do it all on his own. He's completed 65.9 percent of his passes with 19 scores to six picks, but the team has lost nearly every single game against potential contenders (Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Orleans) to sit at 5-4, and even he isn't buying the talk about recent history against New England.

"I think it's different teams from those games and over the past eight years, we've played them four times, a lot of new faces on their team and our team," Manning said, according to ESPN.

These Patriots are 8-0 and have scored at least 27 points in every game this year. Tom Brady laughs in the face of strong and weak defenses with his 22-2 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio and will surely get a hearty chuckle against a Giants defense that lets up 307.8 passing yards per game, one of two teams to allow more than 300 on average.

It doesn't matter that New England's defense has struggled at times this year. New York goes from scoring 30 points one week to seven the next. A one-dimensional attack in which Manning attempts to keep pace with Brady doesn't bode well given the talent of both teams, regardless of what recent history has to say on the subject.

Prediction: Patriots 33, Giants 20

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and accurate as of Nov. 15. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.