NFC Betting Tidbits

NFC Betting Tidbits
By Ted Sevransky

Teddy spends every Sunday typing furiously at his laptop as he watches the games, giving you the key info that the box scores and game recaps simply don’t have. This week he passes along his observations on a few NFC teams.

San Francisco Bay Blues

Dre Bly is penciled in as the starting cornerback opposite Nate Clements, with Walt Harris out for the season. Don’t forget Bly was a big part of the Broncos late season collapse last December; a weak link in the secondary.

Barry Sims is now the projected starting right tackle, another area of weakness. This offense isn't very sexy - a dink and dunk short passing game with mediocre receivers and one of the weaker starting quarterbacks in the league will do that.

Bucs man sinking ship

It’s hard to be impressed with Byron Leftwich. He's holding the ball way too long, the cause of his problems throughout his career, and he's throwing the ball too high and hard. He missed open receivers, while delivering almost as many crisp throws that were right on the money. That’s too inconsistent for my betting blood.

Watch for early season special teams miscues - based on this performance, new head coach Raheem Morris hasn't put a ton of emphasis on special teams just yet.

Born to run

The Arizona defense was tremendous, picking up right where it left off in the playoffs thanks to a fierce pass rush. We definitely saw more of a push up front from the running game here. Tim Hightower was far more productive than he was at any point last year and Beanie Wells looks like another true running back stud. Expect this offense to be far more two dimensional in ’09.

Falcons to soar over total lines this season

Atlanta has a very young secondary and it showed. On one drive, the Falcons allowed four separate third down conversions of a dozen yards or longer, including a touchdown pass on third and 24.

The secondary got torched repeatedly, despite being in excellent down-and-distance situations.

Atlanta has all the makings of a real over bet team this year. The club owes a potent offense and a suspect defense. Very impressed with the skill position talent here - they are loaded with playmakers. We're not going to see a sophomore slump from Matt Ryan.

Giant void in New York

The red zone offense has been a problem throughout the preseason, just as it was a problem down the stretch for the G-Men last year. Will these young receivers step up? As a group, they did fine catching little slants, but Steve Smith dropped a potential 90 yard touchdown catch on the Giants first shot downfield. Manning's interception came on a perfectly thrown ball that Domenick Hixon couldn't reel in. The departed WR duo of Burress and Toomer had 263 career starts. Entering ’09, the Giants have 19 career starts returning from the entire receiving corps.

Toothless Lions

This defense looks awful, particularly against the pass. Just like last week (and last year), there are wide open receivers downfield on nearly every passing play. And, just like last year, Detroit was down by a couple of touchdowns by the end of the first quarter.

Matthew Stafford threw a pick on his first pass attempt against a first-string defense and almost threw another pick on his second pass attempt. RB Kevin Smith was hit repeatedly in the backfield and was unable to find room to run. Don’t be fooled by any preseason final scores – with the starters on the field, the Lions looked like the worst team in the league.

Same old Saints

The No. 1 ranked offense last year scored three touchdowns on three drives with the starters on the field. But the starting defense looks much like last year's - soft, with lots of missed tackles. They were particularly vulnerable stopping the run right up the gut, between the tackles. The cornerbacks looked a bit better, with a healthy Tracy Porter back in the lineup and Darren Sharper can still defend the pass as well as most safeties in the league.

Drowning birds

The Seahawks offensive line isn't opening up any holes for the running game at all, bad news for new coordinator Greg Knapp's ball control offense. They miss O-linemen Walter Jones and Chris Spencer. Mike Wahle retired before training camp, meaning that we’re looking at three new OL starters to open the season.

I'm not impressed with the defensive line either. The unit allowed chunks of yardage on the ground against a team with a limited downfield passing game.

Will kicking be a problem here? Three FG attempts missed between Olindo Mare and Brandon Coutu.