Faith is a valuable commodity in sports betting, especially for NFL bettors who are looking for late wins to salvage their early losses. Two late afternoon games that saw the Broncos cover the -8 spread against the Arizona Cardinals, 41-20, and the Chargers easily covering its own spread after shutting out the New York Jets, 31-0.
Those two results were two of the most heavily bet-on games in Week 5 of the NFL and both went the public’s way, saving them from another disastrous losing week in the NFL.
Sportsbooks made out big in the early afternoon games, especially with the New Orleans Saints (-10.5) and the Dallas Cowboys (-4) both winning their games but failing to cover their respective spreads. With the public squarely on the Saints and Cowboys, those two decisions immediately put books on course for another winning weekend.
Denver and San Diego rewarded the faith the betting public put on them, resulting in a dramatic swing that wiped out all momentum the books had from the early games. Even the Kansas City Chiefs gave the public some relief after barely covering the +6 spread against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Chargers are fast becoming the most reliable public team in the league. Its 4-1 straight up record isn’t even as impressive as its 5-0 ATS record. Expect sportsbooks to pay closer attention to San Diego’s games moving forward because the public’s going to ride Philip Rivers and company until they fail to cover the spread.
In the end, the three late afternoon games proved to be the books’ undoing and it wasn’t even aided by the New England Patriots’ blowout of the previously-undefeated Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football. The Pats are typically one of the biggest public teams but their embarrassing loss at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs a week ago cause a lot of the betting support for the team. As a result, the SNF saw bets on both sides, leaving books with little margin of victory on both ends.
