Las Vegas Money Moves
By Micah Roberts
In the NFL, the Monday night game that saw the New York Giants dismantle the Redskins had a rippling effect on the adjusted line. Before that outcome, the early Week 16 line open for limited wagering Monday had the Giants as 5 1/2-point favorites over Carolina and the Cowboys four-point road favorites at Washington. Following Monday’s game, the Giants are now seven and the Cowboys six.
Sportsbooks opened Friday night’s game with San Diego traveling to Tennessee with the Titans being a three-point favorite, despite Las Vegas Sports Consultants sending out a recommendation of the Chargers being short one-point favorites.
LVSC’s Senior Oddsmaker Mike Seba explains their thought process on the send out as the Chargers just being on another level than Tennessee right now.
“San Diego still has to win to secure the No. 2 AFC seed. This is a team that has won nine straight and it’s hard to believe they would drop off any this week. Tennessee needs the game just to stay alive, but they’ll be at a disadvantage after losing two of their starting linebackers including the heart of the defense in Keith Bullock.”
San Diego could lose this week and still get the No. 2 seed next week with a win over Washington, but Phillip Rivers 17-0 December record as a starter for the Chargers is pretty impressive and you have to believe he and his team like to swagger with the fact that not many are hotter than them going into the playoffs.
“Once you lose and take off a week, it really is hard to get that momentum back again, and I don‘t believe the Chargers will take this game lightly,” Seba explained as another reason they rated the Chargers higher for this game.
The team that no one knows what is going to happen regarding rest is the undefeated Colts. Last week it was thought that they may rest some players at Jacksonville, but once the game got a nice flow of intensity going all the starters remained in the game. The only resting that occurred was on defense that saw a few of their key players only come in only on third downs, or passing situations.
The Colts don’t appear to care too much about going undefeated, but in the back of first year head coach Jim Caldwell’s mind he’s got to be thinking about momentum with hopes of not derailing it like Tony Dungy had done in the past by resting the offense too early prior to the playoffs, then suffering for it in the playoffs.
Caldwell already knows his offense will already have momentum stopped with the bye week when Wild Card weekend is going on, so he may be reluctant to be too quick with the hook if things are going Indy’s way and they have a chance to win in the next two weeks.
The opening line had the Colts as seven-point favorites as they welcome the Jets, but it has dropped to five with the thought process being that the Jets have the No. 1 defense, their physical, they need to win to stay alive, and Caldwell won’t want to see any of his stars get abused in a game they technically don’t need.
It’ll be interesting to see how that game unfolds, but so far, the money is on the Jets.
Hope everyone has a great Christmas and may all your bets be merry this week!