NFL Preseason Week 1 Recap

Week 1 of the NFL Preseason proved that backing the favorites pays off.

As Huey Lewis sang; “It’s Hip to Be a Square” and we salute those of you who took the work out of it and bet the favorites across the board. If you’re one of those aforementioned players you’ve got a real financial leg up on the 2011-12 NFL season. Don’t let your friends give you a hard time either about taking the easy money. Regular or preseason the money all spends the same.

Forget systems or scraping data or burning brain cells trying to decide whether or not to buy off three in the preseason. You didn’t need any of that this weekend. If you had simply bet the home team on Saturday night you would have been 5-0.

The closest thing to an upset came in Chicago where the Bears, favored by -2.5 held off the Bills 10-3. Otherwise there was one cover of +6.5, two of +7.5 and one of 8. Overall the favorites have cashed at a whopping 10-5 heading into the Jets and Texans game on Monday night.

The rout is on

The highest scoring game of the week came on Thursday night as the favored Patriots routed the Jaguars 47-12 as backup quarterbacks Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallet combined for 335 yards and two touchdowns. New England also rushed for 141 yards finishing with 476 yards. Even though it was just an exhibition game, my hunch is that it’s a harbinger of things to come for both teams. NE easily covered as a -3 point favorite while the total of 32 seems laughable now.

Big D, Little D

The Cowboys and Broncos played in the second highest scoring game of the week with Dallas winning 24-23. Both of Denver’s backup quarterback’s acquitted themselves well with Brady Quinn throwing for 121 yards and a score while Tim Tebow went 6 for 7 for 91 yards. Tebow also had two carries for a total of 15 yards.

Tony Romo played briefly for the Cowboys going 3 of 5 for 35 yards. It was his first appearance since suffering a season ending should injury last season. The most impressive performance of the night came from Dallas backup QB Stephen McGee who passed for 208 yards and three touchdowns. McGee was almost singlehandedly responsible for the ‘over’.

Underwhelming

There were a few games on the board that screamed ‘under’ and they didn’t disappoint. Like the Bears and Bills contest that produced 13 points as Chicago prevailed 10-3.

With most of their dream teamers on the bench, the Vick-less Eagles bested the Ravens 13-6 for the second lowest scoring game of the week.

In a game that left me longing for Brett Favre, the Vikings and Titans combined for 17 with Tennessee notching a 14-3 victory falling 16 points shy of the closing line of 33.

Finally there were two other games which fell short of reaching the 30-point mark as the Bucs blanked the Chiefs 25-0 while the Saints spoiled Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers’s coaching debut with a 24-3 victory. San Francisco may have lost the game but may have found a QB in Colin Kaepernick.

Overdrive

Over the years it’s been more difficult for me to handicap the ‘over’ in NFL preseason games and in hindsight not making a NFL pick for the Patriots/Jags to go ‘over’ was a mistake. Bill Belichick has never met a butt kicking he didn’t like and he laid one on Jacksonville.

NFL Handicappers should note that of the 15 games that have been played so far, the totals are almost evenly split with the ‘over’ going 8-7. The Texans are favored by -2.5 points with the total at 34.5 for Monday night’s game against the Jets.

www.sbrforum.com  |  Bob Harvey  | 8/14/2011