2013 Super Bowl Betting Futures
NFL teams that fancy themselves as contenders in what for 14 weeks looked like a wide-open Super Bowl race are like Transylvanian villagers today, seeing a light on again in Dracula’s castle after New England’s staggering 42-14 smackdown of the Houston Texans on Monday night.
The Patriots’ take-no-prisoners victory has scrambled the futures odds as well. At William Hill New England has moved from 9/2 to win it all into a 3-1 favorite to be the last team standing in early February.
So thorough was New England’s prime-time victory that the 49ers, who on Monday morning were 4/1 favorites, slipped to 6/1 by the time the dust had settled on NE’s win.
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It appears that the 49ers, who are in Foxboro on Sunday night, are catching the Patriots at just the wrong time. San Francisco is transitioning to new QB Colin Kaepernick, and New England coach Bill Belichick wouldn’t take his foot off the accelerator even if he was hit with a subpoena.
As a national team, the Patriots will still draw money. But at 3/1 there’s not much meat left on the bone, so we’ll have to look elsewhere for money-making opportunities.
Here are a few possibilities:
BRONCOS (7/1) – Denver sits at 10-3, and if the Colts can get past Baltimore this week it has a weak landing (Cleveland, KC) in weeks 16 and 17. At 13-3 they might get a playoff bye. With Peyton Manning playing at a high level, all things are possible – including a four-game playoff run.
GIANTS (14/1) – How about back-to-back Patriots-Giants Super Bowls? It’s not good for Tom Coughlin’s stomach, but he gets them to play through regular-season problems and has them primed for the playoffs.[soliloquy id=”82219″]
The next two weeks (at Atlanta, at Baltimore) will force the Giants to march through thick brush, but it’s not hard to envision NY taking advantage of late-season turmoil in the NFC and at least getting to the conference championship.
PACKERS (7/1) – Would it surprise you to learn that the Packers have just the 17th-best offense in the league? And that the only thing keeping them in the Super Bowl discussion is that the defense is improved (also 17th) from last season? Yet GB (8-5) has a chance to put away the division this Sunday at Chicago, then might get a first-round bye with wins over the Titans and Viklings.
With that momentum and home playoff game(s) at Lambeau, who knows?
OVERVALUED:
TEXANS (6/1) – The Patriots e-mailed the blueprint for beating Houston to every team last Monday night: Bottle up Foster as best you can and put your best DB on Johnson. Force Schaub to go short. Still could make a run, but at only 6/1 it’s not worth finding out.
FALCONS (9/1) – Ok, so they can win at home in the regular season. As Shania Twain says, “That don’t impress me much.” The Falcons haven’t had an impressive wins since … come to think of it, they don’t have any eye-openers this year. They might get some action this coming week if things go well at home against the Giants.
