College Football National Championship Odds
October 27, 2021
Boxing Odds – Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant
October 27, 2021
As we approach the midway point of the 2021 NFL season a clearer picture emerges. As expected the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one of the best teams in the league, but they aren’t THE best. That distinction belongs to the Arizona Cardinals, the league’s only undefeated team. And the Cards open the Week 8 betting slate with a huge matchup against the 6-1 Green Bay Packers on Thursday night. There have been some good Thursday night games this season, but rarely do we have the chance for a great game to start the week.
Week 8 Biggest Line Moves
Cincinnati Bengals at New York Jets
The teams are heading in opposite directions and the line has spiked with the Bengals one of the feel-good stories this season. We all squirmed when Joe Burrow sustained a horrific knee injury last season and many wondered if he’d even be the same when he returned. Well, it’s safe to say Burrow has eclipsed all expectations just like his team.
Cincy was a 3.5-point road favorite on the look-ahead line mainly because the Jets have been bad for a few seasons and new coach Robert Saleh isn’t going to change the vibe overnight. By the looks of things it’s going to take many nights. The Jets were hammered 54-13 by the Patriots last week dropping them to 1-5 SU and ATS and they lost Zach Wilson for a few weeks to injury.
The AFC North was being mentioned as the toughest division in football prior to the start of the season. And that talk excluded the Bengals. But after seven weeks Cincy sits atop the division with a 5-2 ledger after an impressive road win in Baltimore. This was a test for the Bengals and they passed with flying colors. Can they sustain the momentum built up over the first seven games? We’ll see how they respond on Sunday with a matchup against the Jets.
Following the Week 7 results we saw the line up at Cincy -10, one of three games to hit the board Sunday with a double-digit spread. The Bengals’ two losses were by a field goal each with one in overtime to the 6-1 Green Bay Packers. They knocked off division rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore by a combined score of 65-27.
New York Giants at Kansas City Chiefs
The issues with the two-time defending AFC champions run deeper than most think. The Chiefs haven’t been the same since getting routed by Tampa Bay in last season’s Super Bowl and they are a sub-.500 team at 3-4 through seven weeks.
As a result we saw the line move in favor of the New York Giants for the Week 8 Monday night game. Oddsmakers still believe the Chiefs are the favorite, just not as big of a favorite as the look-ahead line suggested. When the lines first surfaced the Chiefs were pegged as a 13-point favorite. Not surprising considering what the teams accomplished over the past few years. KC reached the last two Super Bowl games winning one while the Giants floundered in mediocrity.
The Giants are still a mediocre group but unlike the Chiefs they enter this contest after a win. And the G-men saw a field goal get whacked off the betting line. The public still likes KC but the Chiefs are floundering after getting steamrolled by Tennessee. And the line could drop even more depending on the health of Patrick Mahomes. He exited Sunday’s game after taking a knee to the helmet and cleared concussion protocol. Instead of risking further injury and since the game was a blowout at that point, Mahomes was held out. According to Andy Reid, Mahomes will play on Monday night.
Tennessee Titans at Indianapolis Colts
Is there a hotter team in the NFL than the Titans? After consecutive wins over last season’s AFC championship game participants, the Titans have to be considered among the top teams in the conference. And we’ve some weird stuff on the line for the AFC South showdown with the Indianapolis Colts.
Indy was laying 2.5-points on the look-ahead line but that changed after the weekend results. Tennessee got plenty of support after crushing the Chiefs 27-3 with the weekend line pegging the Titans as a 1.5-point favorite. But wait, things changed again. All of a sudden the Colts look like a contender with their 30-18 win over San Francisco on Sunday night, their second straight and third in four games. The line jumped the fence once again with the Colts bet back to a 1-point favorite.
One of these teams is going to win the division and if the Colts want to be the one they have to win. They are two games back in the standings with an earlier loss to the Titans from Week 3. I expect we’ll see plenty of movement on the line for this game ahead of Sunday’s kickoff.
