NFL Week 2 Betting: Best Bets vs. The Spread
Hi! Do you enjoy football? How about winning money? If you answered yes to either or both of those questions, the following is in your wheelhouse. Here are the Smarter picks for Week 2 of the NFL season. These are against the spread, and the spreads and percentages are courtesy of Pregame.com.
You can't verify this, but last week i was 2-1 against the spread. From this point on, you can track me and keep me honest.
Season Record: 2-1
CLEVELAND BROWNS (+6.5) over Baltimore Ravens
Ahhh….the Browns. How could anyone be confident in them after getting worked in Week 1 by the Eagles (ewwww) and losing their starting QB Robert Griffin III to the IR? Well, for starters, I’m not convinced Josh McCown is a downgrade. Griffin only completed 46.5 percent of his passes in Week 1 and didn’t run a whole lot. Even worse, he completely failed to utilize tight end Gary Barnidge, who took a blowtorch to his owners’ chances of winning by posting a fat-ass zero.
McCown doesn’t have any of RGIII’s upside or mobility, but he’s bee competent more recently than Griffin has, and he can do more than bomb it deep. McCown will be smarter with the ball, he will not risk his life on each play, and he’ll throw it to Barnidge.
Then there’s the non-field reasons. The betting public is bound to be a little high after Baltimore’s D shut down the Bills, but they’re on the road here. A road favorite in an AFC North game is always risky, especially a Ravens team most expected to be a third-place team.
San Francisco 49ers (+13.5) over CAROLINA PANTHERS
In Chip Kelly I trust. No, this is not an overreaction to them opening up a can on the L.A. Rams. The 49ers won’t look that good again all season, but they will be far more competent with Kelly, an actual coach, running the show. Don’t forget that Kelly was five games above .500 as coach of the Eagles before he was canned, and that he has Carlos Hyde to be a sledgehammer for his run-heavy attack. If Colin Kaepernick didn’t get his powers stolen by football Monstars this team would have a chance to actually be good.
Winning NFL games by two touchdowns is hard, and very few teams are so good that you can reliably bank on them to win by that kind of margin. Carolina is good, but they’re not THAT good. If San Francisco can control Jonathan Stewart, and force Carolina to throw more than they run, they should definitely be able to lose by 13 points or less.
NEW YORK GIANTS (-4.5) over New Orleans Saints
This play is based partially on what the eye test told me in Week 1, and partially on the betting public. The football stuff is simple; the Saints got lit up last week on defense, like they always do. Their defense is horrific, and the Giants could well have one of the top offenses in the league this year. There’s absolutely no combination of Saints players that can even contain Odell Beckham, and the Giants have Sterlins Shepard and Victor Cruz at their disposal too. If this is a shootout, the Giants will win it, especially since they’re home.
Confirming my pick is the silly betting public, 65 percent of whom are placing their faith in the Saints on the road. They are not realizing that the Giants are not the same pushovers they were last year. The front seven is beefed up, they have two above average cornerbacks, and they’ll get pressure in 2016.