Winning Picks and Top NFL Betting Odds for Week 11

You may not be aware of this, but there are already NFL odds out for every game of the 2016 NFL regular season other than Week 17 — the sportsbooks don’t put out Week 17 odds because there are too many potential intangibles that week. Here are two games I recommend for Week 11, which kicks off on Thursday, Nov. 17. Obviously these numbers are likely to change due to injuries, etc.

A In Depth Report at the Winning Picks and Top NFL Betting Odds for Week 11

Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns (+9.5)

When Ben Roethlisberger plays Cleveland, you take the Steelers. It’s as simple as that. Big Ben is an Ohio boy and grew up rooting for the Browns. He still harbors a grudge against the team for not drafting him in the first round of the 2004 draft. Cleveland could have but choose tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. out of the University of Miami. “When Cleveland passed on me, technically my hometown team, that was it. I couldn’t wait to have a team and play the Browns at some point,” Roethlisberger has said previously. He’s a whopping 20-2 in his career against the Browns. Winslow wasn’t exactly a bust. He finished his career with 469 catches and 5,236 yards in 10 seasons, including five injury-plagued years with Cleveland. The Steelers drafted Roethlisberger at No. 11 and are still reaping the benefits. Two Super Bowls later, Roethlisberger, 34, is widely considered a top-three-to-five quarterback in today’s NFL. Roethlisberger has 5,323 career passing yards against Cleveland. Of the Browns’ 20 quarterbacks since that draft, Derek Anderson is the only one to surpass that yardage total in a Browns jersey. The Steelers closed last season with a 28-12 win in Cleveland. Big Ben threw for 349 yards and three scores as Pittsburgh clinched a playoff spot. The Steelers sacked the Browns’ Austin Davis, starting in place of Johnny Manziel, seven times. The Browns fired both coach Mike Pettine and general manager Ray Farmer a few hours after the game. Manziel also is gone now.

Green Bay Packers at Washington Redskins (+4.5)

Another Sunday closer to #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/YJAmhlyzWc
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) May 29, 2016

This is the Sunday night game of Week 11 unless it’s flexed out. It’s also a rematch of last season’s wild-card game in Maryland. The Packers won that 35-18 and I fully expect them to win comfortably here too, covering the spread on betting lines. Aaron Rodgers threw for a pair of TDs while Eddie Lacy and James Starks each ran for a score in last season’s win. Green Bay was down 11-0 in the second quarter. “We got the tempo up, and they couldn’t keep up,” said Rodgers, who finished 21 for 36 for 210 yards and no turnovers. “We became a snowball, kind of going downhill, and it was tough for us to stop.” In the second half, the running game took over. After 17 yards at halftime, the Packers finished with 141 yards on 32 carries. Kirk Cousins made his first playoff start after a breakthrough season and was 29 for 46 for 329 yards. He threw for one touchdown, ran for another, lost one fumble and was sacked six times. The Redskins recorded one sack but applied little pressure on Rodgers. He completed 1-of-8 passes in the first quarter for 11 yards. In the final three, with little pass rush, he was 20-for-28 with 199 yards and two touchdowns. Washington won the NFC East title last year but didn’t beat a single team that finished with a winning record.