The Kansas City Chiefs were the last team to lose in the 2017 season, although it didn’t lead to any playoff success. Could they be the last to be beaten again in 2018? The Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams enter Week 5 as the only two clubs with a zero in the loss column.
Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
Kansas City appears to have a much tougher task on Sunday as the Chiefs put the NFL‘s top offense against the league’s No. 1 defense in the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars – who already own an impressive win over the New England Patriots. The Chiefs are 3-point favorites and have covered three of the past four against Jacksonville.
The Rams are in Seattle, which normally would be a huge challenge, but these Seahawks are trending downward. They also lost Pro Bowl safety Earl Thomas to a season-ending broken leg last week. Seattle is getting 7.5 points, which is incredibly rare in the Pete Carroll era. The Rams have covered three of their past 11 in the Pacific Northwest.
Then there are the Arizona Cardinals, who are the NFL’s only winless team and also its lowest-scoring at 9.3 points per game. The Cardinals are 4.5-point underdogs at the San Francisco 49ers in perhaps the least appealing quarterback matchup of the week. It’s Cards rookie Josh Rosen and 49ers backup C.J. Beathard. Arizona is on a six-game winning streak in this series by an average of more than 12 points.
Perhaps the unluckiest team of the early season is the Cleveland Browns, who are essentially just three plays from being 4-0 instead of 1-2-1. They were essentially robbed a win last week in Oakland due to a few questionable calls by referees. Cleveland is a 3-point home underdog this Sunday to the Baltimore Ravens, who have covered the past five in the series.
Don’t be surprised if the highest-scoring matchup of the week is the Atlanta Falcons at Pittsburgh Steelers, and it does have the biggest total at 57.5. Two very good quarterbacks in Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger and two very bad defenses. The Steelers are -3 but have failed to cover their previous six as home favorites.
The smallest spread is a pick’em as the Denver Broncos visit the New York Jets. Denver is just 1-10 both straight up and ATS in its past 11 on the road.
