The Gold Sheet

Today’s Free Picks

The PLAY: New York Giants +3.5 (-102)

Dallas has won each of the last nine meetings, but the Giants took the Cowboys to overtime in their Week 2 contest. The Giants broke their nine-game losing streak with a convincing 34-10 road win in Las Vegas. New York put any talk about tanking for the No. 1 overall pick to bed pretty quickly. As a collective unit, Big Blue doesn't have much to play for but plenty of individuals do. Interim head coach Mike Kafka is looking to end his run on a positive note as he looks for a new job. Quarterback Jaxson Dart has already told the Giants' front office to stop sniffing around for a QB in the draft because he wants the gig. Edge rusher Abdul Carter has found some late-season success and he is pushing for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. No one wants to lose nine-straight games, but the Giants were competitive in most of those contests: One-point loss at Denver, four-point loss at Chicago, etc.. As an underdog of four points or greater, the Giants went 7-4 against the spread this season. We should see a good effort out of Big Blue in this one. Seven of Dallas' last eight games have been played indoors, with last week's game in Washington as the lone exception. How excited will the Cowboys be to play an outdoor road game in January? Dak Prescott hit Kavontae Turpin for an 86-yard touchdown pass last week, but if you take that home run away, the rest of the Cowboys' offense had a pedestrian afternoon against the Commanders. Prescott is going to start this game, but it doesn't sound like he's going to be playing into the second half. Dallas released Trevon Diggs on Monday, which is certainly a curious decision heading into the last week of the season. We wouldn't be shocked at all if New York pulled the mild upset in this one. Play NY

The PLAY: Carolina Panthers +3.0 (-120)

Atlanta's upset win over the Rams on Monday night threw a massive curveball into this Saturday evening showdown. If Carolina wins, the Panthers claim the NFC South and will be the No. 4 seed in the playoffs. That part is cut-and-dry. If Tampa Bay wins, the Bucs can't celebrate because they still need to wait for the result of Sunday's Falcons-Saints game. A Falcons win would create a three-way tie at the top of the division, and Carolina would hold the three-way tiebreaker. So if the Bucs handle business on Saturday, they need New Orleans to beat Atlanta on Sunday.

Carolina's 23–20 home win over the Bucs on December 21 broke a string of five straight wins by Tampa Bay in this NFC South matchup. Ryan Fitzgerald kicked the game-winning field goal with under three minutes remaining as the Panthers' defense held Baker Mayfield to one of his worst games of the season. Carolina had a chance to wrap things up last week, but the Panthers fell short against the Seahawks.

Tampa Bay is 1–7 straight-up and 0–8 against the spread over the last eight games. The Bucs' only two wins since mid-October have come against the 6–10 Saints and 3–13 Cardinals. If Tampa Bay wins this game, it guarantees that the NFC South champion will finish with a sub-.500 record for the third time since 2014.