Bills at Colts: What Bettors Need to Know
By Covers.com
Buffalo Bills at Indianapolis Colts (-3.5, 36.5)
Bills head coach Doug Marrone announced that rookie quarterback EJ Manuel will indeed get the start in Sunday's preseaon opener. Jeff Tuel will also see a good chunk of action. Due to a death in the family and left knee injury, Kolb will be sidelined versus the Colts as he practiced once in the previous week. Manuel, the Bills first round pick in the 2013 draft (16th overall), threw for 3,392 yards, 23 TDs and 10 interceptions in his senior season at Florida State. Buffalo WR Stevie Johnson will not play Sunday due to a strained hamstring which means T.J. Graham and rookies Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin will get plenty of opportunities with the first team offense. Buffalo finished the 2012 preseason 0-4 SU, 1-3 ATS and 3-1 O/U.
It is expected that Colts starters will be limited to one series, possibly two, on Sunday. The focus for Indy, however, will be an overhauled defense. Defensive coordinator Greg Manusky will be watching closely as he looks to fill the void left by six defensive starters from 2012 that have moved to new teams. There is also a nice battle at running back going on in Colts camp. The No. 1 job belongs to Vick Ballard, but he's being pushed by Donald Brown and rookie Kerwynn Williams who has put in some time with the first team at camp. Ahmad Bradshaw is on the Colts' PUP list and will miss Sunday's game. Indy went 2-2 SU, 3-1 ATS and 3-1 O/U in the 2012 preseason.
The two teams played in Week 12 last season. The Colts prevailed 20-13 at home and covered as 2-point favorites.
Bills at Colts: Preview & Pick
Bovada.lv
The final football betting opportunity in this first week of the National Football League preseason comes this afternoon as the Indianapolis Colts host the Buffalo Bills in a battle between two AFC teams.
According to Bovada, the Colts are -4 home favorites with a total of 36.5. The pointspread matches the highest of the weekend, the other taking place in the Motor City in the Lions-Jets matchup.
Looking at past preseason history for Indianapolis wouldn’t necessarily provide any pertinent information for a sports handicapper, since the mindset of the different head coaches appears to be drastically different. For instance, these two teams last met during the month of August in 2008, when the Bills came to Indy and won 20-7.
Under Tony Dungy (and his successor Jim Caldwell), the Colts treated these warmup contests as a necessary evil, putting a minimum of effort into the games. That showed in the team’s ATS records: in Dungy’s final three seasons, the team was 3-9, while Caldwell went 4-8.
With new coach Chuck Pagano roaming the sidelines last August, Indianapolis was 3-1 ATS (2-2 SU), failing to cover only a Week 3 matchup in Washington. In the team’s opener, it blew out the St. Louis Rams by a 38-3 score.
Dating back to Caldwell’s final year in 2011, the Colts have won three of its last four preseason clashes at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Bills have a new look on the sidelines, with first round draftee E.J. Manuel at quarterback, and Doug Marrone as the team’s new head coach. Marrone arrives from Syracuse, where he was able to put up big offensive numbers in the Carrier Dome.
Unfortunately for Marrone, the Bills have been miserable as a football pick in the preseason, failing to cover in any of its last eight road contests. In addition, the team has just a 2-7 ATS in its last nine games overall.
Thus far this weekend, the fortunes of new NFL coaches have not been getting rave reviews from the sports handicapping community. In the other seven games in which a new mentor was coaching a team, that squad is just 2-5 ATS, the lone winner on the road coming with Arizona at Green Bay. Ironically, that Cardinal team is coached by Bruce Arians, Pagano’s former offensive coordinator.
The thought of taking one of the bigger favorites in a meaningless contest is a foreign concept to some in sports handicapping. However, in the previous three days, the two other home favorites of more than field goal, Cleveland and Detroit, both beat the betting line.
The standard football betting option for many is to simply take the underdog during the preseason, but this game doesn’t present much in favor of selecting the Bills. Therefore, our football pick for this game is
Play Indianapolis -4