Big Chalk Prices Facing Week 2 NFL Betting Enthusiasts

Added on Sep 13, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The NFL is a league that was built around an emphasis on parity. The adage ‘on any given Sunday’ has become part of the popular lexicon and sharp NFL handicappers–myself included–repeatedly emphasize the difficulty in achieving long term profits by laying big numbers with heavy favorites.

All of this notwithstanding, there are some big numbers facing NFL bettors in Week 2 of action. Is this an overreaction to Week 1 performances, a ‘trap’ for eager ‘public’ bettors or a legitimate reflection of a huge disparity between the top and bottom teams? Only time will tell. In any case, bettors have some significant decisions to make with only two of the fifteen games on the board priced at less than three points.

The biggest pointspread ‘mismatch’ of the week involves the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the lowly Seattle Seahawks. Pittsburgh is coming off an embarrassing opening game loss to Baltimore–a game in which they turned the ball over a staggering 7 times. In addition to an obvious qualitative difference between the teams, Seattle is a notoriously bad road team going 3-15 both SU and ATS since 2009. That record suggests that they not only don’t win on the road, but aren’t competitive on the road. A 16 point loss at San Francisco on opening day doesn’t bode well for the Seahawks as they travel cross country and step up in class.

The New York Jets failed to cover their opening game and needed some boneheaded play from Tony Romo to escape with the outright win over Dallas. Despite this, they’re priced as -10 point home favorites over a Jacksonville teams with quarterback issues. Jacksonville managed to win their Week 1 game but clearly the narrow victory over Tennessee didn’t instill linesmakers and bettors with much confidence.

A more intriguing game takes place in Charlotte, NC where Cam Newton will make his regular season home debut as the Carolina Panthers’ starting quarterback. Newton answered a lot of questions about his ability to play at this level with an amazing debut performance in a loss at Arizona throwing for 442 yards–the most in NFL history for a quarterback in his ‘maiden’ appearance. Carolina has a tough test this week, however, as they welcome the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers to the ‘Queen City’.

Check back later this week for NFL betting previews as we look for value in a betting board laden with high priced NFL favorites.