Tag: against the spread

Vikings open up as 7.5-point underdogs in Week 10 vs. Bills

The Vikings will be an underdog for the second time this season

The Minnesota Vikings open up as a 7.5-point underdog when they travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills per Tipico Sportsbook.

Heading into week 10, the Vikings have the second-best record at 7-1 and the Bills have the third at 6-2. The Bills lost to division rival New York Jets 20-17 at Met Life Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

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On the season, the Vikings currently sit at 3-5 against the spread and this is only the second time that they have been an underdog. The only other game they were an underdog was in week two against the Philadelphia Eagles who they lost to 24-7.

The Bills are now 4-3-1 against the spread failing to cover against the Packers by just 0.5 points and lost to the Jets, where they were also 10.5 point favorites.

Despite the large spread, it should be a very competitive game in Buffalo.

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Kirk Cousins is astoundingly bad ATS on Monday Night Football

The Vikings starting quarterback has been bad on Monday nights for both fans and bettors

The Minnesota Vikings fell to the Philadelphia Eagles 24-7 on Monday in a game that never felt close.

One of the main reasons that it never felt like it was a close game was due to the offense. They struggled to move the ball down the field with any form of consistency and once they got to the red zone, they turned it over with three interceptions from starting quarterback Kirk Cousins.

A lot has been made of Cousins’ record on Monday Night Football but his record against the spread is the same at 2-10.

Being 2-10 against the spread, a bet that is meant to even the playing field for bettors to draw action on both sides is a really bad look for Cousins. His only two wins came against the Chicago Bears and those came after nine-consecutive losses to start his career.

ATS picks for every Big Ten Week 2 contest

ATS picks for every Big Ten Week 2 contest

It’s Week 2 of the 2021 Big Ten football season, and the BadgersWire staff is back with picks for every game on the slate.

Unlike last week, Saturday’s schedule includes numerous out-of-conference contests with massive spreads. Aside from Iowa vs. Iowa State and Ohio State vs. Oregon, it’s honestly an uneventful week around the conference.

Nevertheless, we’re still here to pick every game the conference plays this season.

Both Asher and Ben came away with winning records during Week 0/1, somewhat surprisingly, though it unfortunately included picking Penn State to cover +4.5 against Wisconsin.

Last week’s record:

Ben: 6-3

Asher: 6-3

Record to date:

Ben: 6-4 (60%)

Asher: 7-3 (70%)

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Here are our Week 2 picks:

Against The Spread: Cowboys-Eagles Week 16 tilt comes down to backup drives

The pick against the spread for Week 16’s matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.

It is Week 16 and somehow the five-win Dallas Cowboys are not yet eliminated from the playoffs. That’s a reflection of the division in which they play as well as the strange lady the NFL often is, a statement that has never been truer than it has been in 2020. The Cowboys do not hold the keys to the playoffs, but for them to earn an unlikely berth, they will need to win their final two games.

First up is Sunday’s’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles, a team with odds twice as high to make the playoffs according to Football Outsiders. They head to Dallas as three-point favorites according to BETMGM. Both teams have been atrocious against the spread, covering a combined nine games on the year.

The Eagles have turned to Jalen Hurts, the second-round pick out of Oklahoma, for the past two and a half weeks. While his passing numbers have left something to be desired, there’s no doubt he has provided a spark to a team that sorely needed it. What he lacks there he’s able to make up for in the run game where he’s racked up 169 yards in his two starts.

The Cowboys defense has had its share of issues against mobile quarterbacks, specifically Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson, and while Hurts doesn’t have the same kind of top end speed, that could loom large on a Sunday afternoon when Andy Dalton continues to steer the Cowboys ship.

The bottom line is this: both of these teams are not good. Why the line has settled at three points for the visiting Eagles is anybody’s guess, but there’s not that much separating these two teams.

The Verdict: The Cowboys cover the three points and the under (49.5) comes through.

On the year: 5-8 against the spread, 9-4 over/under

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Against The Spread: Cowboys 3-point home dogs to 49ers

For NFL fans of a certain age group, a game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers is as good as it gets. Two teams with pasts so intertwined with one another it’s impossible to separate. It’s this line of thought that had Roger Goodell …

For NFL fans of a certain age group, a game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers is as good as it gets. Two teams with pasts so intertwined with one another it’s impossible to separate. It’s this line of thought that had Roger Goodell and the league salivating over a Week 15 Sunday Night battle between two teams on the precipice of big things in 2020.

Whoops. Like all things in this cursed year, it was derailed. Both teams have suffered too many injuries to list here without eating up a month’s worth of bandwidth. Still, the show must go on, though this time at an earlier and less relevant time slot. The Cowboys will play host to their longtime rivals and will be 3-point underdogs according to BETMGM.

Neither of these two have been good against the spread this year. Dallas remains the worst in the league while the 49ers have covered just five times. The problem for the home team here lies in the scheme. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan has a way of making linebackers look silly by combining a playaction passing game with a diverse running game and despite the injuries on the defensive side of the ball they still rank No. 10 by DVOA.

The Verdict: The Cowboys fail to cover again but the over (44.5) comes through. 

On the year: 5-7 against the spread, 8-4 over/under

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Against the spread: Picking Cowboys vs Ravens

The pick against the spread between the Dallas Cowboys and the Baltimore Ravens.

It’s been 84 years since the Dallas Cowboys last took the field on Thanksgiving day. Perhaps it’s not been quite that long, but after nearly a week’s delay due to Covid-19 ravaging the Baltimore Ravens locker room, the once anticipated matchup is ready to happen.

To say it has lost some luster is an understatement. Quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Ravens have failed to rekindle the same magic they had last year and the Cowboys are a shell of themselves, the husk getting emptier in recent days. Still, Dallas enter the game as just 7.5 point underdogs to the team that’s lost it’s last three contests.

It’s hard to imagine how the Cowboys manage to hang around in this game. The strength of Baltimore lies in their run game. The most glaring weakness for the Dallas defense in a sea of them is stopping the run. Bob Sturm covered this topic here, but this will likely be a frustrating game full of five yard or worse runs.

Meanwhile, the offensive line is like a supermarket in a zombie movie, picked clean, with just Connor Williams remaining. The move to put Zack Martin on injured reserve is the proverbial white flag on the season. Good luck to quarterback Andy Dalton, who’ll have an inexperienced and makeshift offensive line trying to slow down Wink Martindale’s blitz happy defense.

The Verdict: The Cowboys lose badly, failing to cover the -7.5 point spread but the over (44.5) comes through.

On the year: 4-7 against the spread, 7-4 over/under…

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Hail Mary! and 2-point conversion creates all-time bad beat for Seattle supporters

The Philadelphia Eagles scored on a Hail Mary! and 2-point conversion that ruined a win if you bet the Seahawks and gave 6 points

What started as a prayer ended with a crushing defeat for anyone who had the Seattle Seahawks in a wager against the spread in their game with the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.

Jason Myers kicked a field goal with 1:13 left in the game to give Seattle a 23-9 lead. A comfortable spot for those who had decided to play the road team and lay the 6.5 points against an Eagles team that has struggled in 2020 and whose offensive showed little life at the Linc.

And…then…it happened.

Carson Wentz drove the Eagles downfield. The drive went like this:

  • (1:13 – 4th) J.Myers kicks 63 yards from SEA 35 to PHI 2. B.Scott pushed ob at PHI 42 for 40 yards (U.Amadi; D.Randall).

  • 1st & 10 at PHI 42

    (1:05 – 4th) (Shotgun) C.Wentz pass short right to B.Scott to 50 for 8 yards (K.Wright).

  • 2nd & 2 at 50

    (0:41 – 4th) (No Huddle, Shotgun) C.Wentz pass short right to B.Scott to SEA 33 for 17 yards (B.Wagner).

  • 1st & 10 at SEA 33

    (0:21 – 4th) (No Huddle) C.Wentz spiked the ball to stop the clock.

    Still, plenty of breathing room and no reason to sweat, right?

On the next play, this happens:

2nd & 10 at SEA 33

(0:12 – 4th) Richard Rodgers Pass From Carson Wentz for 33 Yrd

Still, it is 23-15 and with the PAT, it becomes 23-16, a seven-point victory.

One problem. Eagles coach Doug Pederson loves the 2-point conversion, attempting them double-digit times. So, of course, Pederson keeps the offense on the field and …

Miles Sanders runs it up the gut and into the end zone for the two points that leave anyone who had Seattle and gave 6.5 points with a bad case of indigestion.

Final score: Seattle 23, Philadelphia 17. Any way you slice that, it is a six-point margin.

Ugh.

Against the Spread: Cowboys continue downward trend

The pick against the spread between the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings.

The Dallas Cowboys must be getting used to the role of underdog by now. Not since 2015 have they been on the wrong side of the betting line so many times. Still, it hadn’t helped this team against the spread until last week, where the line was so high that even they couldn’t help but cover.

In news that surprises absolutely no one, the Cowboys enter the Sunday afternoon game against the Minnesota Vikings, a team coming into its own and riding a three game win streak, as 7.5-point underdogs at BETMGM. If this game was to be decided by who needs it more, then it would be no question who would emerge victorious.

Dallas will be trotting out yet another offensive line combination, a weekly tradition that’s like no other, in front of the returning Andy Dalton whose life has hit a bit of a rough patch including a concussion the last time he stepped on the field as well as contracting Covid-19. What he’s up against this week is nothing out of the ordinary: a formidable Minnesota defense whose best work has come during their three-game win streak.

Still, the issue for the Cowboys, as it has been all year, will be defensively. Despite coming off perhaps their best performance of the season before the bye week, their rush defense has been offensive in every sense of the word. To say that this week will test their mettle is an understatement, as the Vikings and Dalvin Cook boast the No. 3 ranked ground game by Football Outsiders.

The Verdict: The undermanned Cowboys fail to cover the 7.5 point spread but the over (49.5) comes through for the first time in five games.

Against the Spread: Can Cowboys toe the line vs Steelers?

The pick against the spread between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers

The Dallas Cowboys are not a good football team. In fact, Mike McCarthy’s bunch are the only team to fail to cover a spread this year. Earlier in the campaign, that was easier to forgive as they were continually given the benefit of the doubt despite despite their record. They are no longer getting that.

The Cowboys enter today’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers as 14.5-point underdogs at BETMGM. This is just the third time this century that the oddsmakers have Dallas giving up this many points. Those contests came in 2000 and 2001 with Anthony Wright at quarterback. This current iteration of Cowboys has something very much in common with those teams: no quarterback.

Today Garrett Gilbert becomes the fourth quarterback to start a game for the Cowboys, the surest sign that the season has gone sideways. They are playing an undefeated team who is coming off the biggest win of their season. There is no reason Dallas should be in this game. Except…

The Steelers with Ben Roethlisberger have covered just two such games in his career. There is an annual tradition of Mike Tomlin’s bunch mailing in a game they have no business keeping close, let alone losing. So with that in mind.

The Verdict: Just kidding, the Cowboys take the beating of a lifetime, failing to cover (+14.5) and the under (43.5) hits.

On the year: 4-4 against the spread, 4-4 over/under