Panthers vs. Texans Same Game Parlay Picks for Thursday Night Football
With two weeks of NFL football in the rear-view mirror, it’s once again time for Thursday Night Football with the Panthers and Texans kicking off Week 3. Regardless of the state of the franchise of the Houston Texans, the show must go on, and an NFL game will be played. If you’d like to see my pick for this game, you can find it along with all my other early-week NFL Week picks. But if you’re a fan of “same game parlays” or “single game parlays,” you’ve come to the right place.
Lots of people will be smash-betting the Panthers in this one, as Carolina has started the season 2-0 with surprisingly good defense, unusually efficient quarterback play by Sam Darnold, and the kind of dominating dual-threat running back performances we have come to expect from All-Pro Christian McCaffrey. The white flags could be waved relatively early, as Houston counters with Davis Mills under center, after Tyrod Taylor suffered a hamstring injury last week. Mills joins an island of misfit offensive players, including Mark Ingram II, Phillip Lindsay, and David Johnson. The Texans will be overmatched at just about every level, thus the high spread and low over/under.
Needless to say, this game will probably prove a lot more fun for bettors who dive deeper beyond the spread, moneyline, or over/under. That’s where in-game parlays come in. Whatever you want to call them—same game parlays (a phrase trademarked by FanDuel Sportsbook), single-game, or one-game parlays—these are all just recently-invented terms for a parlay consisting of multiple correlated wagers from one specific game. And sometimes, a $1 lottery ticket of a same game parlay can yield major dividends.
In this column, we will be piecing together our top “same game parlay” picks on PointsBet for Panthers-Texans. And we’ll pick our favorite pre-constructed and self-constructed “one game parlay” options from BetMGM. Have fun, and enjoy Thursday Night Football!
Panthers vs. Texans Same Game Parlay at PointsBet
- Point Spread – Carolina Panthers -8 (-110)
- Houston Texans Total – Under 16.5 Points (-110)
- Margins 13.5 – Carolina Panthers 14+ Margin of Victory (+165)
- Half Time/Full Time – Carolina / Carolina (-170)
- Anytime Touchdown Scorer – D.J. Moore (+110
- To Score 2+ Touchdowns – Christian McCaffrey 2+ (+130)
- Running Back to Get – Christian McCaffrey to Get 100+ Rushing Yards (+130)
Total 7 Leg Same Game Parlay Odds: +3501
You may say I’m a dreamer, as John Lennon once sang, but this parlay has a big-time chance of hitting. With a seven-leg parlay, we have managed to give ourselves a legitimate shot at turning $20 into $720. And we’re going to have a Hell of a time checking things off our list and trying to get there, as opposed to boring spread bettors who may fall asleep because they won’t get any part of their bet result until the final whistle of the referees.
For my PointsBet parlay, I’m starting simply. Every big meal needs a simple no-brainer appetizer, like garlic bread before lasagna. My garlic bread today comes in the form of the game spread. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, I have Carolina winning this game handily and thus I pick the Panthers -8.
On to the second, third, and fourth legs of our parlay, which delve deeper into the scores. I have the Texans scoring under 16.5 points, as I have been very impressed with Carolina’s defense so far and Davis Mills looked rattled (even his coaches said so) against Cleveland last week. I think Mills is good for at least two turnovers, his o-line will be struggling, and the ineptitude of Houston’s running game will be apparent. For these reasons, I also have Carolina winning by 14-plus points, and leading at the half and end of regulation.
Again, none of these props are over-the-top or far-fetched. Carolina has a superior roster from top to bottom, and has played very efficiently on both sides of the ball. The Panthers should control the clock, and move very fluidly down the field with little resilience from the Texans. Honestly, if you wanted to play it a bit safer, you could play just these four legs at +292 and win close to $400 on a $100 bet. But I’m opting for the low-risk, high-reward play, going with a larger parlay so I can spend less but make more.
Here’s where the real fun begins, with player props. I’ve got D.J. Moore, one of my absolute locks to break out into stardom this season, catching a touchdown pass. Moore has 19 targets on the young season, and he’s brought in 14 of them including one for a score. That’s a 73.5 percent catch rate, and he’s averaging 79.5 yards per game (the exact same yardage per game he averaged in 2020). With Carolina’s implied total of 25 points—plus Moore’s 26 percent target share and 73.5 percent catch rate—I like his chances of hauling in a TD grab Thursday.
Now, on to the most exciting player in football. There’s a reason why Christian McCaffrey earns a higher salary than any other running back, and why he’s consistently selected first in fantasy drafts. He’s incredibly talented both as a pass-catcher and as a rusher, and he slithers through even the toughest defenses with effortless ease. He will shred the Texans in prime-time Thursday, making up for all the evening games he didn’t get to dominate while he was injured over the past two years. I think 100 yards rushing and two TDs is a cakewalk for the All-Pro in this one—he doesn’t have any competition for touches, and Carolina will dominate the time of possession. CMC logged two TDs in each of his three games in 2020, and he’s done it 14 different times across his 31 games since October 28, 2018. He’s due for his first multi-touchdown game of 2021, and for his first 100-yard rushing game since November 2019.
Like I said, you can skip the legs with longer odds if you want to play it more conservatively. In particular, the 100-yard rushing prop stands out as a crapshoot addition, given the runaway this game is expected to be. But to the victors go the spoils, and I’m all-in on the potential windfall this monster parlay offers us.
Thursday Night Football One Game Parlay at BetMGM (Preconstructed)*
- Team Points – Panthers Over 13.5 (1st half)
- Team Points – Panthers Over 27.5 (Game)
- Team Points – Panthers Over 6.5 (1st quarter)
Total One Game Parlay Odds: +280
For this one, I’ll play it safe with a preconstructed BetMGM parlay. Plain and simple, I like the Panthers in this one from start to finish. Sometimes weird things happen in prime-time games, but not with games that pit 2-0 teams against 22-year-old QBs with 44 percent completion rates. Davis Mills is going to get rocked, and the Panthers offense is going to blow through the Texans like Deshaun Watson blows through fake names when he’s booking spa days (too soon?).
This auto-generated parlay lets us capitalize on the one-sidedness of this contest, while still giving us a good return on investment. It’s a higher risk than your standard -8 spread bet—but it also pays out $380 if it hits, as opposed to $192 if the single spread bettor hits the -8 at -110.
Favorite BetMGM Self-Constructed One Game Parlay
- Spread – Panthers -8.5 (Game)
- Player stats – Davis Mills under 269.5 Passing yds (Game)
- Player TDs – Christian McCaffrey Score anytime (Game)
- Player stats – Christian McCaffrey over 69.5 Rushing yds (Game)
- Player stats – Mark Ingram II under 49.5 Rushing yds (Game)
- Player stats – Brandin Cooks 55+ Receiving yds (Game)
Total One Game Parlay Odds: +675
Hey, I was able to make my own One Game Parlay on MGM! And I like my parlay a lot. Of course, I like the Panthers to win, and Davis Mills to get rocked and socked. I also like CMC to score and reach 70 yards rushing, both of which seem like fish-in-a-barrel props.
But for this one, I also incorporated two Texans’ player props. Mark Ingram II has low-key been one of the most unsuccessful rushers in football this season—his yards per touch average ranks in the bottom five of the NFL. And Brandin Cooks remains one of the lone bright spots of this Houston offense—he has no volume concerns or target competition, and he reportedly already has a good rapport with Mills. So, give me the under on Ingram reaching 50 rushing yards, and the over on Cooks reaching 55 receiving yards. And if we hit on this six-legger, we are cashing out with $775. Talk about making a blowout game worth your while!
Image Credit: Imagn