Friday, October 3, 2014

NFL Week 5 Betting Trends

It's been a strange NFL season so far. There are only two undefeated teams through 4 weeks, the Cardinals and Bengals. The Patriots looks downright awful, the Cowboys look competent, the Packers went from looking terrible to looking pretty good in the matter of about a week, and the Saints are a huge question mark. All of this combines to make it rather difficult to have a great deal of confidence when it comes to putting money down on some games. But fear not, RJ Bell of Pregame.com has sent out his week 5 betting trends, and there are some good ones in there. 

  • Bengals: the away team has covered only 4 of last 22 Cincinnati games
  • Bills: the home team in Buffalo games 17-4 ATS
  • Broncos: Peyton Manning off a bye has won 8 straight ATS
  • Chiefs on road: lost only 1 of last 11 ATS
  • Cowboys off a win, then favored the next game: 2-13 ATS
  • Cowboys as home favorite: covered only 6 of last 25
  • Eagles at home: covered only 7 of last 30
  • Falcons off a loss by 6 or more points: 20-4 ATS
  • Lions off a win: covered the next game only 5 of 19
  • Patriots: home underdog for only second time since 2005
  • Patriots: off a loss as a favorite, then an underdog the next week: 17-2 ATS
  • Patriots: off a loss as a favorite, then playing a winning team the next week: 14-1 ATS
  • Saints (with Payton coaching): have not lost a game at home against the spread since the 2010 
  • season! (18-0-1 ATS)
  • Saints (with Payton coaching) when favored by more than a touchdown: 14-2 ATS
  • Saints off a road loss: 21-4 ATS the next game
  • Steelers as a road favorite of 6 or more points: lost 10 straight ATS
  • Titans have not covered a game at home in over one calendar year (0-7 ATS since 9/29/13)
There's a lot of good information in there, but some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt. The Patriots for example, would you put any money on them this week? Sure, teams bounce back after bad losses all the time. But those teams typically have an impressive offense who just ran into a better defense. Impressive is not a word you'll hear anyone use when describing the Pats offense. I do like the Saints this weekend. They're -10 at home against the Bucs and they need a big win after last week's dismantling in Dallas. I also really like the Steelers this weekend despite the trend. They're -6.5 on the road, but they're in Jacksonville. I'm fairly certain you could take the top 50 college players and they'd be able to give the Jaguars a decent game right now, the Jags are that bad. 

Once again, thanks to RJ Bell of Pregame.com for taking the time to put this information together. 

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