By Paul Schmidt
The first five weeks of the NFL season…I won’t say they have been a gambler’s paradise, but I will say that Vegas has been taking a bath. The biggest reason is how bad some of these NFL teams are.
To wit: Jacksonville is one of the worst teams in the NFL this season. Last week, they got blown out on the road, 44-0. This week, they come home, and they are favored by 9.5 points at home against the Rams.
This is a Jaguars team that might win only 5 games this year, and they could be picking around 8th, 9th or 10th. That many teams are worse than them, and might win less than 5 games.
That’s just the kind of season it is in the NFL this season: Just a ton of terrible, terrible teams means that there will be a ton of teams winning a lot of games. Sort of a haves-and-have-nots situation.
That’s led to a situation where the Vegas just can’t make the lines high enough to keep people from betting on the favorites. That’s how you have a situation where awful Jacksonville is laying 9.5 points at home against the putrid Rams…
My point? Let’s be careful out there this week.
St. Louis (+9.5) at Jacksonville
And yes, given all of that…the Rams still are really, really bad. Really bad. Pick: Jacksonville -9.5
Baltimore (+3) at Minnesota
Thoroughly enjoying the Brett Favre experience (vomit). Being able to gamble on him and win is great (gag). I can’t wait to do it again this week (barf). I hope Ray Lewis hits him so hard his legs fall off and he can’t play football again. Pick: Minnesota -3
Philadelphia (-14.5) at Oakland
One of these times these big underdogs is gonna finally get enough points that they can cover…I just don’t think it’s Oakland this week. Pick: Philadelphia -14.5
Buffalo (+9.5) at New York Jets
Buffalo is just as bad…except no one seems to know. I’m not sure why no one knows this, but they don’t. Trent Edwards is horrible, T. O. doesn’t give a crap (BEARS, PLEASE DON’T TRADE FOR HIM) and the offensive line isn’t very good, so they can’t open up holes for two pretty talented running backs.
The Jets, meanwhile, are pretty good. Not convinced about Sanchez’s diety yet, but I really do like their defense. They’re going to make it too hard for the Bills to score any points and keep this one close. Pick New York Jets -9.5
Last week: 2-2
Season Record: 13-7
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