There has been some notable and drastic line moves late Saturday night and early Sunday as today’s 14-game card is getting closer to kickoff.
The first game on the rotation today, however, is not one of those games inside of two hours to kick. Carolina opened as a field goal favorite or so against Detroit and have been holding in the 2-to-2-and-a-half range for a good part of the week.
Miami and Buffalo meet in a big early clash between 1-0 AFC East teams. The Bills were a PICK at open and are either the same or +1 at most places, with the Fins getting about 65 percent of most public bets at Bet33.com.
Washington opened minus-6 against Jacksonville, and in the most split game (almost 50 percent on both sides in point spread bets) of the day, the Skins are holding tight at minus-5 or 5.5.
Tennessee opened as a 3-point favorite, minus a little juice, and have held close to that all week. There has been more public bets on Dallas, but the majority of the money is on the host Titans.
Arizona opened as a PICK at the New York Giants in a matchup of teams who played on Monday night. The Cardinals rallied to beat San Diego at home, while the Giants were humbled in Detroit. There was plenty of early support for the Cardinals, who were once minus-3 earlier this week. But the Giants have gotten a lot of money in the last 16 hours, and the game is now back to PICK at many places. A late update: Arizona QB Carson Palmer is not playing, and once this information hit the market, the Giants were driven to 2-point or so favorite.
New England opened as a 3-point favorite at Minnesota in the first game that the Vikings will play at the college team’s (University of Minnesota) stadium for the next two years while they replace the Metrodome with their new stadium. The game held steady most of the week until the news broke on Friday that running back Adrian Peterson would miss today’s game because he was indicted for charges of child abuse in Texas. This game shot all the way to the Patriots minus-6 at most places but the sharp money has been on the Vikings all of Sunday morning and the line has come all the way back to the minus-4 range or less. This will be an interesting matchup because of how good the Vikings looked last week and how shaky the Pats looked in Miami. That said, New England is still drawing a vast majority of all the action.
There was a decent move on Cleveland offshore at about 11 a.m. EDT on Sunday morning, as all of the New Orleans minus-6 was taken out by a syndicate group of sharp bettors. New Orleans was laying minus 4-and-a-half after that. This should be an interesting game, as neither squad wants to drop to 0-2.
Cincinnati opened minus-5 at home against Atlanta, and the line has held steady all week. Surprisingly enough, there has been a bit more public support for the Falcons here.
St. Louis has a difficult situation at quarterback, as neither Shaun Hill or Austin Davis are desired long-term solutions since Sam Bradford went down with a season-ending knee injury in preseason. Tampa Bay opened as a 4-point favorite and are now minus-6 at some places. This game has not gotten much attention from the public bettors; it has fewer bets than any other game judging from the two markets I’ve looked at Sunday morning.
Seattle opened up at minus-5 against San Diego and has been bet down by sharp money to minus-4 today. Seattle’s edge lies in the fact that they played 10 days ago, beating Green Bay in the Thursday night opener, while the Chargers are off a short week, losing in Arizona on Monday night. Still, the bet count ratio is roughly 5-to-1 in favor of the defending world champions.
Houston opened up minus-3 at Oakland, and the line is standing pat in a game that has had little interest from the betting public. The bet count is only higher than the Rams-Bucs in this one, and no other games.
Green Bay opened minus-8 at home against the Jets, and the line has been bet down a little bit, but the Packers are the most public side of the week in terms of bet-count, with about 85 percent of the play being on the host Packers. Interesting…
Denver opened as a 12-point favorite at home against Kansas City, and there was some sharp money on the Chiefs. Denver does have about 75 percent of the public support at the window, but the line is sitting a bit cheaper than it opened, much like the aforementioned Packer game.
San Francisco opened as a touchdown favorite over Chicago, and the line has held steady all week. The 49ers have gotten 75 percent of the bets, but the money is not lopsided at the three places I’ve consulted with, indicating some decent money on the Bears most likely.
Indianapolis opened as a field-goal favorite over Philadelphia, and the line has held fairly steady all week. The Colts have gotten about 62 percent of the bets and roughly two-thirds of the money wagered thus far, so it will be interesting to see what happens as we lead up to Monday night.
