This Week's Best Spot Bet Opportunities
By Ben Burns
Covers.com
Letdown spot
The New York Yankees are chasing down the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East, currently visiting the Rogers Centre for three games this week. New York took a loss in the first game of that series Monday and, heading into Tuesday, sits 3.5 games behind Toronto. Whether the Bronx Bombers can gain some ground on the Jays may not matter when it comes to this potential letdown spot.
Following Wednesday’s finale in Toronto, New York is back home hosting the Chicago White Sox Thursday night. The Yankees will be coming down from an intense Game 3 against the Blue Jays, facing a ChiSox team that has won three of its last four on the road, and will have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at Toronto.
Lookahead spot
We have a double lookahead spot this week with Alabama and Georgia on a collision course in the SEC next weekend. The Crimson Tide, who were knocked off by Ole Miss last Saturday, are monstrous 38-point favorites hosting UL Monroe. Nick Saban will be tightening the bolts on his program in preparation for UGA, which means trying some different things against the Warhawks which may keep Bama short of that big pile of chalk.
For the Bulldogs, they host FCS Southern Saturday and most books don’t have this “extra” on the board. Offshore spots braving the big spread have tagged Georgia as a huge 54-point favorite. The Dawgs smashed UL Monroe 51-14 as 35-point favorites in Week 1 but with Alabama up next, UGA will be trimming the starters’ minutes and holding back a good chunk of the playbook, not tipping their hand to Saban and the Tide.
Schedule spot
The Baltimore Ravens are in panic mode in Week 3 after losing their first two games of the NFL season. Baltimore, which opened with back-to-back road games at Denver and Oakland, comes home to face the rival Cincinnati Bengals as 3-point favorites in Week 3 for what will be one of only two games inside M&T Bank Stadium in the first month and a half of the schedule.
Following the game with Cincinnati, the Ravens play in Pittsburgh on Thursday night in Week 4, then head back home for a meeting with Cleveland the following week. After that, Baltimore has another tough schedule with games at San Francisco and Arizona in Weeks 6 and 7. The team was planning on staying out west again, but after last week’s fiasco in the Bay Area they’re rethinking the travel strategy. All that worry about upcoming trips puts an extra emphasis on winning at home this week.