Seahawks help books cash
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
Over the last decade we’ve seen losses pile up with teams the week after they play the Pittsburgh Steelers, with the theory that opposing teams -- whether winning or losing -- are mentally and physically exhausted. Three weeks ago, the Steelers beat the Patriots. The Patriots then went into a rare area of the Belichick-Brady Era by losing their second game in a row the following week against the Giants.
There is no better example of the Steelers hangover than what we’ve seen out of the Ravens this season. For the second time, the Ravens got beat as road favorites the week after playing the Steelers.
The first time was after a 35-7 Week 1 blowout win over Pittsburgh and losing 26-13 to the Titans the following week. Two weeks ago, the Ravens completed the season sweep by beating Pittsburgh 23-20 on the road. Like clockwork, much to the chagrin of just about every parlay in the state, the Ravens lost as seven-point favorites at Seattle.
The Seattle win was the best decision of the day for just about every sports book in the state and helped them to another winning week. Coming into the week, expectations should have been high for the books considering 11 of the games were spreads of 3½ points or lower making the decision process tougher for the public and it turned out exactly that way.
The favorites went 7-8 against the spread on the week (including Thursday’s Raiders win over the Chargers) with all eight underdogs winning outright. The biggest upset of the day was the Cardinals winning at Philadelphia as 13½-point underdogs. Unfortunately for most books across the state, they missed much of the Philly action because the game was off the board so long due to the status of starting quarterback Kevin Kolb.
With the Cardinals winning two in a row now behind backup QB John Skelton, who has looked much more efficient than Kolb has while healthy, it appears coach Ken Whisenhunt has a major dilemma on his hands. Skelton is now 4-2 as the starter for the Cardinals, including two big wins over the Broncos and Cowboys last season. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Whisenhunt make Kolb take some more time to heal his turf toe and let Skelton start this week at San Francisco.
Other games the sports books fared well with last week were the Rams winning at Cleveland, and Denver beating Kansas City at Arrowhead.
Tim Tebow still throws the ball ugly, but is now 3-1 as the starting QB. Denver, knowing it won’t win many games with his arm, finally went with his strength and ran the ball down Kansas City’s throat for 244 rushing yards. Tebow didn’t complete a pass in the first half and had only two completions for the game, but one was a perfect 56-yard touchdown.
The bettors fared well on a few games, but not collectively and weren’t able to gain any momentum with multi-legged parlays. The Steelers beating Cincinnati was the biggest public game of the day that got there. They also did well with the Texans and Bears winning.
The late game had the equal action on the Patriots and Jets, but it was the OVER that made this a loser for the sports books and gave back a little of the money won from the early games. For the most part, any isolated game that goes OVER will usually be a losing decision for the books.
We got a bye from the byes last week, but this week four teams have the week off. Seven of the games this week have pronounced favorites which will make it easier for the public to side with. Should five of those seven games that are six-point favorites or higher cover, it will be a rough Sunday for the books.
The Monday night game at New England this week figures to be one of those "Pile on Games" by the public, but the question is when the books will put the game up. Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback Matt Cassell isn’t likely to play making Tyler Palko the likely starter. The Patriots were looking to be about a 13½-point favorite with Cassell in the lineup, but based on the way the Chiefs have played the last two weeks and giving a new QB his first start on the road, we could be looking at a 15-point spread. Since the sports books can already anticipate the public laying the big favorite on Monday night, the line might even start higher to offset liability and welcome Chiefs money.