Just before Thanksgiving, here's the Score Update...

Before a week of NFL games which, now, should not exist at all (and I'll get to that in an extensive article sometime Thursday), here's the score update as things presently stand.

• Week 11 average for the 14 games:  42.07 PPG  (Down about where last week's was.  Last year was 37.57)
• All teams have now played 10 games, so the season average for 160 games is 46.068 PPG.  (Last year:  45.888  Two years ago:  46.707)
• Still haven't checked on the disastrous Week 10 for home teams.  Week 11, the home team was 8-6, for 89-68 (.567) for the year.  (8-6 last year and 97-60-1 (.617) through the first eleven weeks of last year.)
• Over was 5-9 for the week, 76 overs and anywhere from 76 unders and 8 pushes to 81 unders and 3 pushes for the year.  One thing is for certain, betting the over is now only winning FOR Vegas.  (Last year:  4-10 for the week, 80-78-1 for the year, about the same.)
• Very interesting week for favorite-watching.  Three games ended up pushes basically up and down the line.  Baltimore was a 3 point favorite over St. Louis (16-13) Denver -2 with Chicago (17-15), and New England's ridiculous rigged Monday night referee fiasco, they were 7-point favorites.  (20-13)  But we also had one game that depended on where you got it and no favorite could be determined:  Green Bay-Minnesota was basically anywhere from Green Bay -1 to Minnesota -1, depending on where you looked.  So I'll call that a toss-out pick and favorites were 5-5-4 for the week, 63-83-14 for the year.
• Penalties basically even this week from last, 187 penalties this week in the 14 games.
• Three Cliffhangers this week (Arizona, Baltimore, and Indianapolis, the last creating a rather embarrassing Twitter for an Atlanta newspaper).
• Five more games decided within one score, two more within one score at some point in the fourth quarter, four non-competitive contests by the time 15 minutes remained.
• Cliffhangers for the season:  39/160 (24.375%)  (Last year:  17.39%, as no Cliffhangers occurred in Week 11 (or in Week 9) last year.)
• Games decided by eight points or less:  89/160 (55.625%)  (Last year:  40.37%)
• Games within or at eight point margins at some point in the fourth quarter:  111/160 (69.375%)  (Last year:  62.73%)
• Interesting footnote:  Chicago, this week, committed ZERO accepted penalties in their game.  They become the first team in almost two years to go an entire NFL game without an accepted penalty.