When you’re a week removed from getting absolutely crushed by the betting public, even a “decent day” makes for an ideal tonic. That was the takeaway from a lot of sportsbooks in Week 12 of the NFL. There were some hits and there were seem misses. But overall, the books ended up on the positive side of the ledger.
Helping their cause were two unexpected losses coming from the Denver Broncos and the New Orleans Saints. The former saw heavy action on the road favorites before sharp money pushed the spread down from -10 to -8.5. A lot of teasers and parlays were also tied into Denver, making it one of the riskiest games of the week for the books. Well, they might as well send Tre Mason, Shaun Hill, and the Rams defense a lot of thank you cards because the Rams played a spirited game to completely throttle Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.
Not only did St. Louis easily cover the spread, they also held the Broncos to their lowest point-total in the Peyton Manning era.
Speaking of getting throttled, the New Orleans Saints suffered their second home loss in a row at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals. Just like Denver, the public was heavy on New Orleans, believing that there was no way the Saints could lose two games in a row at home. The opening spread of -6.5 was even bet up to -8.5 because there were so many siding with the Saints to win and cover the spread. The game ended up being a romp like most people predicted, but it was the Saints who where on the receiving end of a beatdown at the hands of the Bengals.
These two results proved to be the biggest of the day for the books and helped offset the pummeling they received at the hands of the Green Bay Packers.
Yep. The Packers. The Green Bay – Philly game had a similar betting track as the New Orleans – Cincinnati game. Everybody and their grand mothers were on the side of the Packers, Unfortunately for the books, Mark Sanchez couldn’t do what Andy Dalton did and Aaron Rodgers, well, he was just absolutely incredible, leading Green Bay to another romp on their way to scoring 53 points against the helpless Eagles.
It would’ve been a far different story had the Broncos and the Saints played up to their abilities. Had both won and covered the spread, combined with the Packers winning handily, sportsbooks would have been licking their wounds for the second consecutive week.
Who knew that Shaun Hill and Andy Dalton would swoop in and save their day?
