Staff picks for Thursday's NFL games

Packers (11) over LIONS

 

Ed Barkowitz: Packers

Les Bowen: Lions

Bill Conlin: Packers

Paul Domowitch: Packers

Marcus Hayes: Lions

Mike Kern: Lions

Vegas Vic: Lions

Consensus: Lions

COWBOYS (14) over Raiders

 

Ed Barkowitz: Cowboys

Les Bowen: Cowboys

Bill Conlin: Raiders

Paul Domowitch: Cowboys

Marcus Hayes: Cowboys

Mike Kern: Cowboys

Vegas Vic: Raiders

Consensus: Cowboys

Giants (6) over BRONCOS

 

Ed Barkowitz: Broncos

Les Bowen: Giants

Bill Conlin: Giants

Paul Domowitch: Broncos

Marcus Hayes: Giants

Mike Kern: Broncos

Vegas Vic: Giants

Consensus: Giants

Vegas Vic's details

 

THE PRO FOOTBALL PICK

In the spirit of the holiday, Double V is thanksfully giving you three winners - the Lions plus 11 points over the Packers, the Raiders plus 14 points against the Cowboys and Giants minus 6 points over the Broncos.

We would really like to see Matthew Stafford slinging the pigksin, but at this point, he looks doubtful. Still, we're gonna show a little love to Detroit plus the double-digit bundle. We like the fact the Lions have covered eight of the last 12 against Green Bay in Motown and that the Pack has covered only two of the last nine on the road. And if you like high scoring, the total in this matchup is on a 4-1 run to the over in Detroit.

I just do not like what's going on in Dallas the last few weeks. The Cowboys have scored a grand total of 14 points the last two times out, and then just squeezed past the Eagles by four. While Oakland isn't the team you wanna back too often, the Raiders have covered three of the last five, and seem to have an little extra boost with Bruce Gradkowski at QB, who passed for two TDs and 183 yards against the Bengals last week.

We're not sure where the 6-0 Denver team went during the bye week, maybe Cabo and caught some kind of ugly flu. After the bye, the Broncos lost to Baltimore (30-7), Pittsburgh (28-10), Washington (27-17) and San Diego (32-3). Throw in the New Yorkers' fabulous road record the last couple of years (covering 17 of the last 21) and finish it off with Denver's 3-9-1 spread mark in its last 13 at home.