NFL Handicapping Articles

NFL Betting Odds: Week 4 Line Movements & Last-Minute News
by Alan Matthews - 9/29/2017

I really, really didn't want to get involved in this whole NFL National Anthem protest thing. I wouldn't do it and don't really like it, but this is America so you can protest however you want as long as it's peaceful. I thought some of President Trump's comments last weekend were a bit unpresidential, and that clearly spurred players/teams into action.

Basic Strategy Teasers: Best Week 4 NFL Betting Options
by Chris Vasile - 9/29/2017

Every single week in the NFL there are one or two games that bettors circle and claim to be a "trap game". For those who don't know what a "trap game" is, let me explain. A "trap game" is a game in which the "better team"plays a tough game one week, faces a bad opponent the next week and then takes on a good opponent the following week.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos
by Alan Matthews - 9/27/2017

If you don't think that flying across country (west to east not so much the other way around) following a big win doesn't sometimes lead to a major letdown game, then I give the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos as proof that it can as both suffered their first loss of the season last Sunday in that scenario.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers
by Alan Matthews - 9/26/2017

Most Chicago Bears fans I know don't want their team to win many games this season. Better to get another very high draft pick and select a receiver or defensive difference-maker in the 2018 NFL Draft. That said, pretty much all Bears fans want them to win twice a year: the Green Bay games. The NFL's oldest rivalry is renewed in the Thursday night game this week and, rather incredibly, each side has a record of 94-94-6 (including playoffs). A couple of times, the Bears led the series by 24 games, but Brett Favre and then Aaron Rodgers have helped Green Bay dominate for most of the past two decades.

NFL Betting Predictions: Week 4 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 9/25/2017

Wow, was Week 3 interesting around the NFL or what (I'm not getting into all this National Anthem nonsense)? The first two weeks left much to be desired with some ugly football - I think the lack of practices in the offseason makes the first two weeks or so glorified exhibition games - but Week 3 was chock full of interesting results with many underdogs winning outright. You knew we were in for some weekend fun last Thursday when the Rams and 49ers, two teams it was painful offensively to watch at times in 2016, had one of the most entertaining Thursday night shootouts in recent history. The Rams and 49ers!?!

NFL Betting Odds: Week 3 Line Movements & Last-Minute News
by Alan Matthews - 9/22/2017

Most weeks in this space, I will address some Bovada weekly NFL specials as that site tends to have the most unique ones (caveat: I used to help create some). I'm not going to go into the statistics of how often 2-0 teams make the playoffs on average and how many 0-2 teams don't. That's been repeated often -- it's obviously more often than not and rare, respectively.

Basic Strategy Teasers: Best Week 3 NFL Betting Options
by Chris Vasile - 9/22/2017

Before I write 1,000 words explaining who I like and why I like them this week, let me take a moment to thank the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers for saving the NFL season and giving us something to be excited about heading into Week 3. Everywhere I turned and every expert who wrote or spoke words about this game expected it to be a sloppy, low-scoring, typical Thursday night football game like we've grown accustom to. Instead, the consensus pick of "under" 39 was basically toast at half time and that missed extra-point from Robbie Gould early in the fourth quarter came back to bite the Niners in the butt. It was also a fantasy owners dream, with Todd Gurley, Carlos Hyde, and Sammy Watkins all breaking 20 points. But that's a story for another day.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles
by Alan Matthews - 9/19/2017

I originally planned to look at Seattle-Tennessee as my Sunday intriguing matchup in Week 3 as that could be a potential Super Bowl preview (not saying it's going to happen, but it could). Plus, those clubs are a lot alike. However, after watching the New York Football Giants on Monday night and their inept offense against the Detroit Lions, I felt compelled to switch up to Giants-Eagles in Philadelphia's home opener.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Los Angeles Rams at San Francisco 49ers
by Alan Matthews - 9/19/2017

I'm not going to lie to you: This week's Rams-49ers matchup looks like the worst Thursday night game of the 2017 season. Perhaps the only one in the competition would be Bills at Jets on Nov. 2. But, you can bet on Rams-Niners, so here we are.

NFL Betting Predictions: Week 3 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 9/18/2017

I'm sure most of you sprint to your computers every Monday mid-afternoon during football season to check out my NFL Weekly Opening Line Report. Unfortunately, last week wasn't an option thanks to Hurricane Irma. If Hurricane Maria also hits my area, I'm definitely moving. But that's a story for another day.

Basic Strategy Teasers: Best Week 2 NFL Betting Options
by Chris Vasile - 9/15/2017

Week 2 of the National Football League got underway last night and proved to bettors that sometimes overreacting to a team's Week 1 performance is a good thing. Take last night's game for example; both Houston and Cincinnati were putrid offensively. As a bettor, we should have seen it coming though.

NFL Betting Odds: Week 1 Line Movements & Last-Minute News
by Alan Matthews - 9/8/2017

It was an absolute no-brainer for the NFL to postpone Sunday's Buccaneers at Dolphins game because it looks like Miami is going to get pummeled by incredibly dangerous Hurricane Irma. There's going to be major damage in South Florida - perhaps even to the Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium, although when that was recently renovated it was strengthened against potential hurricanes.

Expert NFL Picks Against the Spread: Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans
by Alan Matthews - 9/6/2017

Sometimes the marquee matchups aren't always the most interesting ones each week in the NFL. Sure, I could have previewed, say, Seahawks-Packers or Giants-Cowboys among Week 1 Sunday games as all four of those clubs made the playoffs last year and easily could again (I expect Seattle, Green Bay and Dallas to do so; maybe New York).

Basic Strategy Teasers: Best Week 1 NFL Betting Options
by Chris Vasile - 9/6/2017

With the NFL set to return tomorrow, bettors will be able to place their wagers on a plethora of betting options. Seasoned bettors tend to stick to sides and totals, while newbies or "square" bettors tend to play more parlays, props and teasers, all of which are options that play right into the house's advantage.

NFL Expert Picks Against the Spread: Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots
by Alan Matthews - 9/5/2017

Welcome to my first game prediction of the new season. I'll be here to look at every Thursday night game each week along with a marquee Sunday matchup and the Monday nighter (picking one of the two in Week 1). It should be quite an atmosphere at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro this Thursday as the Patriots unveil their fifth Super Bowl banner - certainly the most unlikely one in terms of how badly they were getting stomped in the big game before staging that epic comeback.

Expert NFL Handicapping: Five Reasons to Fade the Oakland Raiders in 2017
by Robert Ferringo - 9/5/2017

The NFL has always been a little more exciting when the Raiders have been prominently involved. Every good story needs a proper villain. And the Oakland Raiders have been professional football's reprobates through most of their existence. Yet during a prolonged period of pathetic football - they went 56-136 over a 12-year period from 2003-2014 - the Raiders had become a joke, an afterthought, and a relic of a bygone era.

NFL Key Betting Numbers: Business as Usual for Bookies after NFL Extra Point Rule Changes
by Jeremy Martin - 9/5/2017

When NFL owners approved the Competition Committee's proposal to move extra point attempts from the two-yard line back to the 15-yard line before the 2015 pro football season, suddenly traditional key betting numbers were in jeopardy. The long-established main key numbers of three and seven in NFL betting have long been the standard for bookies when setting and moving NFL lines. These key numbers are so important because they are the most common margins of victory in NFL games, with approximately 16 percent of pro football games landing on three for the past 20+ years and close to eight percent landing on seven.

NFL Betting Predictions: Week 1 Opening Line Report and Picks
by Alan Matthews - 9/4/2017

Just over seven months since the New England Patriots staged the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history - probably the greatest single-game comeback in sports history considering the stage - the NFL is finally back. As am I every Monday with an NFL opening line report. If you follow these stories, you know the drill: I'll touch on any major news or injuries from the previous week and how they might affect the coming week's lines - or a team's futures odds.

2017 Arizona Cardinals Home Schedule Odds with Expert Picks and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 8/31/2017

There's simply no player quite like Cardinals running back David Johnson - not even Le'Veon Bell. I'm sure Johnson is going No.1 in all your fantasy leagues, and he expects to join the 1,000/1,000 club this season as in rushing and receiving yards. The only guys to do that in a single season are Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk (1,381 rushing and 1,048 receiving) in 1999 and Roger Craig (1,050 rushing and 1,016 receiving) in 1985.

Expert NFL Betting Advice: Best and Worst Week 1 Lines
by Trevor Whenham - 8/31/2017

As I write this, every team except Houston and Dallas, who have had their final preseason game cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey, still has one preseason game left. The last game of the preseason is so mind-numbingly pointless, though, that it only makes sense to look ahead to the first week of action. The public hasn't yet turned their full attention to the lines for the first week of games, so the numbers will move, significantly in some cases, between now and kickoff.