After two crushing defeats in the first two weeks of the NFL season, bettors finally came out on the winning side in Week 3 of the NFL season. Most of the early games went to the side of the public, highlighted by come-from-behind covers by the Dallas Cowboys over the St. Louis Rams, 34-31; the New Orleans Saints scoring a late touchdown to win, 20-9; and the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals wiping out the Jacksonville Jaguars, 44-17 and 33-7, respectively.
That Colts-Jaguars game, in particular, ended up being one of the worst games for books this year with 82 percent of the action squarely on Luck and Indy’s side.
The week would’ve been an unmitigated disaster for sportsbooks had it not been for the Oakland Raiders and the Arizona Cardinals covering their own games. The Raiders were 14-point underdogs by the time they played the New England Patriots but managed to keep it within striking distance, ultimately losing by just seven points, 16-9. But it was actually the Arizona Cardinals that ended up sparing the books from crying themselves to sleep with an impressive 23-14 victory over the heavily backed San Francisco 49ers. Watch out for David Carr and Drew Stanton MVP odds, fellas!
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 37-19 win over the Carolina Panthers also gave the books a nice win, although some sites took more on the Panthers than they paid to bets on the Steelers.
Ultimately, it was still a positive day for the betting public. Even the Seattle Seahawks ended up costing books a chunk of change with the improbable Marshawn Lynch TD run in overtime to propel the Hawks to a six-point win over the Denver Broncos and clear the 5.5.-point spread.
Heading into the Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Jets, books are rooting for Da Bears to cover after early public money has come pouring in on the J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS! It’s going to be a tough game for a Bears team dealing with a rash of injuries in key positions but that won’t stop books from rooting for Jay Cutler and Matt Forte to beat Geno Smith and the New York Jets at Met Life Stadium.
Overall, the losing week wasn’t bad enough to wipe out all the momentum from their massive Week 1 and Week 2 victories, but it should give the public renewed vigor knowing that the tried and tested any-given-Sunday mantra doesn’t just apply to the NFL. It also applies to betting on the NFL.
