In the NFL the saying is beware of the team coming off a bye week, and the Arizona Cardinals proved that adage true yet again. The Kansas City Chiefs won, but got only their second defeat against the spread this season, falling to 8-2 when they couldn’t cover 16.5 points against the lowly Cardinals.
Kansas City didn’t come close to reaching the point spread, which opened at 18 points. It was head scratching for a couple of reasons, but the signs of an ATS loss were there. The first was the game was at Arrowhead Stadium, but the team’s lone defeat ATS up to that point was two weeks ago when they couldn’t cover as nine-point picks against Denver, winning 30-23.
The second was this is the first game this season where the Chiefs failed to score 30 or more points. They had an average of 36.7 points a game, but fell way below that.
Maybe the offensive production of Kansas City is hitting a rut, but oddsmakers aren’t convinced of a slump. They face the LA Rams on the road on Sunday and are 2.5-point favorites. The over/under is set at 63.5, the highest of any game this season.
Gamblers Alert: Avoid Oakland
Consider this a friendly Public Service Announcement. Not only are the Oakland Raiders the worst team in the NFL, they are also the poorest against the spread. The future Las Vegas team is 2-8 ATS, and are on a dubious streak.
They have lost five straight, both against teams and ATS, and they are not even coming close to covering in those games.
The first three of the five they were favored and lost outright. The last two games there were underdogs, and came up woefully short. They were getting 1.5 points against San Francisco and lost, 34-3. Last Sunday the Chargers were laying 10 points and won easily, 20-6.
It certainly looks like the Raiders have folded up the tents on this circus of a season. They have already purged themselves of three proven veterans, and look like they are playing out the string. There have been rumors that coach Jon Gruden has lost the locker room. He is trying to put a positive spin on being 1-8 but the words seem shallow.
“This will be a year that a lot of us never forget, and it’s really hard, and it’s painful,” Gruden said. “It’s going to be hard to sleep again, hard to get up in the morning, but we’re going to keep working hard, and this will be the foundation this program is leaned on. Mental toughness. Physical toughness. Doing everything you can in the eye of adversity. I know it sounds corny to some people, but that’s the grit and toughness this organization was built on.”
Showing Patriots How it’s Done
Not only did the Tennessee Titans wallop the New England Patriots, 34-10, they also beat them in the trick play department. It was eerily similar to the Super Bowl, where New England tried a pass to QB Tom Brady, but it went off his fingertips. Philadelphia ran their own version of the play and QB Nick Foles caught it for a touchdown.
On Sunday, the Patriots were down 27-10 midway through the fourth quarter and tried a trick play in a pass to Brady. He caught this one but it only went for six yards, a yard short of a first down.
Tennessee then decided to show up New England. On the next possession, they ran a similar play with receiver Darious Jennings throwing a strike to QB Marcus Mariota. Theirs went for 21 yards.
When asked about the play, Titans coach Mike Vrabel smirked.
“I wanted to see if ours looked better than theirs,” Vrabel said.