At 34-14-1, there is no better team in the National Football League playing its home opener than the Dallas Cowboys. And win or lose, no home opener will be more memorable than Sunday’s night’s cage match against the New York Giants in the new 100,000-seat Cowboys Stadium.
The Dallas Cowboys will unveil their new billion dollar stadium on Sunday Night Football this week as the New York Giants come to visit. It’s an early statement game in the NFC East as both teams are considered contenders and maybe even more so now that the Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback Donovan McNabb has a rib injury.
The Seattle Seahawks have been the team to beat in the NFC West throughout this decade and after an injury-ravaged season, they are ready to take their crown back.
The Arizona Cardinals may not wear the crown for very long, especially not if they continue to play like they did in Week 1. The San Francisco 49ers went into the University of Phoenix Stadium and upended the NFC Champs.
In New England, no one really knows what to make of Rex Ryan.
Since Vince Lombardi was carving up the league in the 1960s, the No. 1 rule was to never say anything that could give an opponent even an extra ounce of motivation on game day.
Ryan has basically blown up that business model, at least when it comes to the New England Patriots. The new Jets coach says he refuses to pay homage to Pats coach Bill Belichick, and furthermore he says he has a decent team in East Rutherford and plans to give NE a run for its money in the AFC East.
There aren’t many reasons not to lay the nine points with the San Diego Chargers in the back end of the Monday Night doubleheader.
The Buffalo Bills are giving the Oakland Raiders a run for being the team in most disarray as the regular season kicks off. The Bills fired their offensive coordinator, Turk Schonert, just 10 days before the start of the season and there has been some internal squabbling as to whether that has been the right decision.
The first edition of Sunday night football will pit a couple of NFC North neighbors in what is a more important contest than most people want to admit.
For the Green Bay Packers, they’ve played third fiddle to the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears this offseason as both of those teams have made headlines with their quarterback acquisitions. The Packers, though, didn’t need to make wholesale changes, they just needed to do some growing.
Stability in the NFL usually trumps change, but this game will give that theory a good test. The Carolina Panthers return basically the same team which stunk out the stadium in a bizarre playoff loss to the Cardinals last January, while the Philadelphia Eagles come in after jettisoning their best back-7 defender (safety Brian Dawkins) and in the process of figuring out what to do with Michael Vick when the former dog torturer joins the team for active duty in Week 3.
Each football season a group of mysterious gentleman leap into the sports spotlight with steam and other nonsense. The speculating public, which is essentially composed of followers, clings to every word they speak, complying and following their every lead. You know the fellows. They are referred to with reverential phrases as: “Who are THEY taking?” or “Who do THEY like?”
Line Movement
The first lines for Week 1 of the NFL regular season were posted way back in April at some sportsbooks with Pittsburgh initially installed as a 5-point favorite in this game. The line dropped to -4 ½ during the summer, but came back up to -5 during the preseason. This week the money has been coming in on Pittsburgh as the line now stands at -6.
Time: 8:35 ET
Venue: Heinz Field
Titans vs. Steelers Odds
MoneyLine: Titans +240 / Steelers -180
Spread: Steelers -6
Over/Under: 35
The Elite Eight teams will battle it out Saturday and Sunday for a trip to the Final Four in Detroit and we have the historical betting trends to help you out.
Click here for the latest Elite Eight odds and make sure to get your bets in early at Sportsbook.com.
The second round of the NCAA Tournament provides many money-making opportunities and we highlight some of the big ones.
Visit Sportsbook.com’s Live Odds Page for all the latest information on the Saturday and Sunday NCAA games.
1) Lower seeds are 93-81 ATS in the second round (53%).
“Selection Sunday” (March 15) will be only five weeks away with the completion of this weekend’s play in college hoops. Bracket Buster Saturday is next weekend and the first of what will be 30 conference tournaments begin on March 3, when the Big South, Horizon League and the Ohio Valley Conference tip off their postseason events.
There is no offseason for sharp handicappers.
It’s no secret that a ton of casual bettors close up shop after the Super Bowl. And in doing so, they rob themselves of an opportunity to cash in against softer betting lines than anything you’ll find in the NFL. What for? If you know the mechanics of the pointspread in football, you’ve already got the raw material to start betting on basketball.
THURSDAY JANUARY 8, 2009 – Gambling Trends
Gambling trends factor into a ton of different areas when looking at where to place your money on a sports betting event. Want to know where the $$$$ is being spent on this years 2009 National Championship Game between the Florida Gators and the OU Sooners? Oddsmakers move a line in part because of one-sided public betting action on a side or total. They also move the line in reaction to wise guys selections.
