For the second time in less than a month, the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs will meet in an AFC West battle. 

The first meeting, in Week 10, represented a high-point of Patrick Mahomes’ season but also helped to extend a winning streak that is now five games, as Kansas City’s defense has hit its stride. On the other side, Las Vegas has continued to struggle since that loss, with just one win in its last five.

Here are our NFL picks and predictions for Raiders vs. Chiefs, with kickoff on December 12.

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Shopping for the best Week 8 odds is a lot like trick-or-treating. You want to hit the houses with the full-sized chocolate bars first, knowing they’ll run out of candy quickly. And then it also pays off to stay out a little later as folks are more apt to dump out whatever leftover treats they have in your bag.

We take the same approach with NFL spreads and totals, grabbing the good lines quickly and waiting for the value to show up later on. Here are my best lines to bet now and the ones you should bet later.

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I’m sure your Saturday “to-do list” features the usual tasks. Groceries. Laundry. Vacuuming.

I don’t think anyone’s list would have had “Bet on Nick Mullens vs. Jake Browning” before the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals lost their respective star quarterbacks.

But here we are.

The Bengals play host to the Vikings today in a matinee — the first of three games on the day — and bookies have installed Cincinnati as a short home favorite.

The crazy thing is, despite these teams being down to their backup QBs, both sides are still somehow in the postseason mix.

I dive into the NFL odds for this non-conference clash and give my best NFL picks and predictions for Vikings at Bengals on S…

The Houston Texans return home to face the New York Giants in a game they are slight favorites and in a game where we are expected to see both team’s starting quarterbacks. 

Given the emphasis on offense, my Giants vs Texans prediction sees plenty of early points. Get more details for today’s preseason action in my NFL picks below.

Giants vs Texans prediction

My best betFirst-quarter Over 7.5 (+120 at DraftKings)

My analysisThe New York Giants got some good news this week. Not only will starting quarterback Daniel Jones return to game action for the first time since tearing his ACL in November, but rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers could play as well after twisting his ankle in practice. 

The Giants haven’t …

The United States lost on penalties to Sweden in the quarter-finals of the Rio 2016 women s football tournament on Friday, while hosts Brazil dramatically booked their spot in the final four.

Defending champions USA lost out to Sweden 4-3 in a shoot-out, after the match had ended level at 1-1 following extra time, marking the first time since the women s game was added to the Olympic programme that they have failed to make the final.

Sweden took the lead in the 61st minute, when Stina Blackstenius beat USA defender Julie Johnson on the counter-attack and slid a shot past goalkeeper Hope Solo.

USA equalised 13 minutes from time, Alex Morgan taking advantage of a loose ball in Sweden s area that ricocheted off the face of defender Jessica Samuelsson to score …

The second day of the European Championships followed a very similar pattern to the first.

The joint hosts Austria, like Switzerland before them, put up a decent showing against one of the ‘outside bets’ for the tournament, Croatia, who like the Czech Republic before them, looked far from impressive. The hosts lost the game 1-0.

In the second game one of the favourites, Germany, like Portugal before them, played well and looked pretty impressive against one of the outsiders, Poland, who like Turkey before them, huffed and puffed and played well, but had no penetration. The favourites won the game 2-0.

On the positive side, and most of it has been very positive so far, all four games have contained some excellent football. On the n…

This season, there was a Manchester United with Paul and there was a Manchester United without Paul.

Jose Mourinho has made it clear how important Paul Pogba is to Manchester United and the France international is racking up the numbers to prove it.

Wearing the captain s armband, Pogba delivered a man-of-the-match performance as United beat Everton 2-0 on Monday Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard on the scoresheet.

Pogba s tricky footwork and pass helped set up Martial s opener and he released Lingard for the second, moving the Frenchman onto seven Premier League assists this season in just 12 appearances.

Added to his three goals, Pogba has already been involved in more goals this term than he was in 30 Premier League appearances in 2016-17 (five goa…

Spain coach Fernando Hierro believes his team are similar to the one that won the 2010 World Cup.

A 1-0 win over Iran saw Spain move top of Group B, putting them on track to reach the knockout stage.

The 2010 champions were considered among the hot favourites to win the tournament in Russia, although the sacking of coach Julen Lopetegui on the eve of the event led to some doubts over their chances.

Hierro, who took charge for the showpiece, said he could see similarities between his group and the successful 2010 team.

It s a similar group, know that you can t have clones unfortunately, he told Onda Cero.

But we have a backup group pushing for places every day. That is the only way to avoid relaxing, by having a group of team-mates that push you …

One of the best matchups in Week 15 of the NFL sees Aaron Rodgers and the NFC North-leading Packers visit Lamar Jackson and the AFC North-leading Baltimore Ravens.

But while both the Packers and Ravens are sitting atop their respective divisions, these teams don’t feel like they’re on the same level right now. And that’s probably why the Cheese Heads are favored by 5.5-points on the road for this matchup.

Do the Ravens have value as a home underdog? Find out in our free NFL betting picks and predictions for Packers vs. Ravens on Sunday, December 19.

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Germany will host its first-ever regular season NFL game on Sunday, as the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head to Munich for Week 10 action. Seattle comes to Allianz Arena riding high, sitting 6-3 atop the NFC West, while Tampa gave itself a lifeline a week ago with a Tom Brady game-winning drive. 

Between these two teams, Germany will see a strong cast of talented skill-position players. For our NFL player props, however, we’re going to shine a light on a pair of scrappy tight ends and a once-written-off passer. 

We’ll get into it all below with our Seattle vs. Tampa Bay NFL prop picks, and be sure to check out our Seahawks vs. Buccaneers picks and predictions for more. 

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