Week 3 Rewind
By Josh Jacobs
It was a wild week in the NFL and if gamblers played their cards right then three live underdogs could have netted some big bucks. Overall, 'dogs were stomped out in Week 3 with a 3-12 straight up and 6-9 ATS record, bringing the last two weeks to a combined 6-24 SU and 11-17-2 ATS slide (minus Week 3’s Monday Night contest – stay tuned for that result to be factored in).
Headlining the big Sunday was a 38-13 blowout in New England. It was during the week that Miami’s boisterous linebacker, Joey Porter was quotes as saying beating the Patriots without Tom Brady, “shouldn’t be that hard.”
Cashing in as a heavy 12½-point visiting ‘dog, the Dolphins ended up forcing New England’s QB Matt Cassel to go 19-for-31 with only 131 yards produced, including one interception and a sole TD. But more important in preserving the big win was Miami’s effort to hold the Patriots’ stable of running backs to just 79 yards.
If you were one of those bettors that took the Dolphins to win straight out, a hefty return of +550 (wager $100 to win $550) greeted you at the window. The ‘over’, which closed at 37 points at most books, was also a winner, improving Miami’s ‘over/under’ record to 2-1 this season and 11-8 in the last 19.
Tampa Bay was the second ‘dog that didn’t need the spread to pull out a tight straight up win. Waltzing into Chicago in what many thought would be a spunky home town football club feeding off the crowd instead witnessed Buccaneers' kicker Matt Bryant drilling a 21-yard chip shot in overtime to take the 27-24 road win.
And while Tampa signal caller, Bryan Griese managed to throw three interceptions, 407 passing yards and two scores through the air helped dictate the end result. Running was sure not the key to a Bucs win as Warrick Dunn ran five times for 31 yards, while Earnest Graham averaged just 1.3 yards per carry on 12 handoffs.
Even with Griese giving up three picks, Tampa Bay’s front offensive line was able to keep out a fired up Chicago defense with no sacks recorded. The other side of the ball game gave backers a false sense of hope before kickoff. We’re talking about a Buccaneer’s defense that surrendered just 234 total yards in a 24-9 pouncing over Atlanta only to fall victim against Chicago, which racked up a big day of 405 total yards. This now pushes Tampa to the bottom of the league list by giving up 359 YPG (121.3 YPG on the ground).
While the ‘D’ might not be shining like such a bright star, backers were still happy with the financial return. And if you took the Bucs to win straight out then a return of anywhere from +150 to +160 (bet $100 to get back $150 or $160) added some height to that stack of cash.
The third and final upset of the day involved Jacksonville battering Indianapolis’ field general, Peyton Manning into submission. Manning, who by all accounts looked uncomfortable in the pocket, threw 15-of-29 for 216 yards with one pass into the end zone. However, those half-hearted stats were nulified by two picks passes tossed.
What really put the cherry on top was a combined 236 rushing yards against an Indy squad preying for support from the front seven. This was a Jaguars team who unleashed the likes of RBs Fred Taylor and Maurice-Jones Drew (5.6 average yards per carry in 19 attempts from the line of scrimmage).
Indy may be holding opponents to throwing a low 141 YPG, but giving up an astronomical 199.3 YPG on the ground is a good reason for notching its second loss of the season. This contest came down to Jacksonville’s kicker Josh Scobee nailing a long 51 yard field goal with four seconds remaining on the clock.
While the kick put the first win on the board for the Jaguars this season, a 1-2 SU record applied to the Colts is an unsettling feeling for the club.
The Jags cashed tickets as a +4½-point underdog, with the SU win netting as much as a +190 return.
Some teams that went on to win, increasing their record to a perfect 3-0, included the New York Giants (26-23 win over Cincinnati), Dallas (27-16 win over Green Bay), Buffalo (24-23 comeback rally against the struggling Raiders), Tennessee (31-12 spanking of Houston) and Denver (another close 34-32 win over New Orleans).
Both the Bills and Broncos were two team that stayed home during last season’s playoff run.
Two contest which had books tagging double-digit figures to them included clashes between the Giants-Bengals and Oakland-Buffalo.
New York might have started the game off slowly, even going as far to give Cincinnati the opportunity to grab the ‘W’ with only a handful of seconds left, but in the end recorded a 26-23 overtime victory.
Six sacks on Bengals QB Carson Palmer surely factored into the Giants’ game plan of keeping the ball out of WRs Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s hands but that didn’t stop the door from being left open towards the end of the contest.
It can be argued that Cinci closed the window for a win on themselves when Palmer decided to waste a total of 23 seconds on third and one in the final moments of the fourth quarter. The Bengals decided to head into overtime with a point tying field goal, but were later caught with their pants down after a huge 31-yard Eli Manning pass to fellow New York WR Amani Toomer placed them at Cinci’s seven yard-line. Big Blue kicker John Carney easily hit the 22-yarder for the game winner.
The 13-point spread proved to be far from the predicted developments of the day, while the ‘over’ became a cash cow at the installed 42 point total.
vegasinsider.com.