I've often believed that the Las Vegas oddsmakers are prone to making incomprehensible errors in judgment and common sense. Never was that more evident than yesterday.
Consider first the game between Houston & Oakland. The Texans had lost 7 in a row, and were getting head coach Gary Kubiak back after a week off due to a "warning stroke" he suffered in Indianapolis two weeks ago. So why in the blue hizell were they made a 7 point favorite over an improved Raiders team that would be starting undrafted rookie QB Matt McGloin (Penn State) with Terrelle Pryor out with an injury? If you can tell me, then we'll both know!
Anyway, the Texans' losing string reached 8, as Oakland won, 27-23. Anyone that bet Oakland cleaned up, I'm sure. The sudden fall of Houston after reaching the postseason the last two years has been sudden and surprising, and that's still a mystery.
Meanwhile, the NBC game of the week pitted the top two teams in the AFC West, Kansas City & Denver, against each other. With the game at Denver, and the Broncos a game out of first place at kickoff, the oddsmakers installed Denver as a 7 point favorite over KC, figuring that the rematch two weeks hence would be in the opposite direction. Luckily for these knuckleheaded nabobs, pizza baron-in-training Peyton Manning and the Broncos won, 27-17.
Rightfully, in each case, the spread should have been no lower than 3 points, the minimum in most cases for a home favorite. In each case, the home team giving more than 3 points was asking for trouble. At the end of the night, the bookies can say they broke even on those two games. I'd say they were lucky they still had their shirts. We'll see what the morning line'll be in 2 weeks, when the scene shifts to Kansas City, with the Chiefs, the last undefeated team to fall in the NFL, out for revenge.
OTB's publicity machine had it right years ago when they created the tag line, "Bet with your head. Not over it."
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