Tight ends are the play on 'MNF'

Week 14 in the NFL wraps up with the Patriots visiting the Cardinals, and fans of touchdown prop value may like what's in store on "Monday Night Football."

Take the tight ends to score touchdowns tonight

Hitting the field will be the two most generous defenses to tight end touchdowns. Arizona has allowed nine this year and New England is second in the NFL with eight touchdowns allowed to the TE position. These vulnerabilities popped up immediately, and we'd like to follow the soft spot of these defenses and look to the tight ends in the best position to find the end zone.

Zach Ertz recently revealed that he tore his ACL, marking the end of his 2022 campaign with the Cardinals. In his absence, it's been Trey McBride who has taken on the bulk of the work, playing over 76% of the offensive snaps over each of the last three weeks. He's seen eight targets over the last three games, and while it's not elite volume, he's the TE we like the most to score against this Patriots defense. You can grab a McBride touchdown at +800 on FanDuel.

While the Patriots have two touchdowns in Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry, usage stats suggest it's Henry who is the more reliable target tonight. He's playing far more snaps and has seen 10 targets over the past two weeks compared to Smith's two. He's also been far more involved in the red zone, seeing a target in back-to-back weeks near the goal line. Starting WR Jakobi Meyers is out tonight, the most heavily targeted player on this offense. That's a lot of targets up for grabs, and we like Henry to capitalize. Henry's touchdown odds are +340 on FD.

So, there's value in these two to score standalone, and if you wanted to parlay the two of them, the odds for that outcome come out to +3419. We may just have to put a cup of coffee down on that, for science of course. Enjoy the game!

In the news ...

World Cup semifinals set — And then there were four. We were treated to some terrific World Cup quarterfinal matches on Friday and Saturday, along with a pair of upset wins by Croatia and Morocco. The finals will be determined by Wednesday afternoon. Tomorrow will be Argentina vs. Croatia and Wednesday brings France vs. Morocco. The two favorites, as you might presume, are Argentina and France. Argentina is +150 to win the World Cup, while the defending champion French are the favorites at +110. Croatia comes in at +750 and Morocco at a distant +1000.

Eagles dominate, Cowboys just get by Texans — It was a busy day for the NFL's best division, the NFC East. Philadelphia continues to blow out teams, destroying the Giants 48-22, while the Cowboys eked out a last-second win over the lowly Texans 27-23. We're inching closer and closer to what is a massive game on Christmas Eve between these two teams. Philly is -650 to win the division and +160 to make the Super Bowl. The Cowboys are +450 to steal the NFC East and +350 to win the conference. 

Brock Purdy shines in 49ers debut, but Deebo Samuel leaves game with injury — It was a bittersweet day for the San Francisco 49ers. Early doubt on the effectiveness of new quarterback Brock Purdy were effectively put to bed with his dominant effort against the Buccaneers, as San Fran won 35-7. However, star Deebo Samuel left the game with what was later reported as a high-ankle sprain. The injury could cause Samuel to miss the rest of the regular season. With a Seahawks loss, the division is squarely in the Niners' control, but they'll need Samuel back to make a postseason run.

Today's Bark Bets is written by Griffin Carroll