NFL Betting Begins This Week
The wait is over for fans of NFL betting this week as the league launches its 2012 campaign on Wednesday at the home of the defending Super Bowl champions. That sets up a full slate of NFL contests for Sunday, while college football offers up its top matchups on Saturday. Elsewhere, it's September action on the diamond, along with tennis' U.S. Open, golf's FedExCup playoffs, and NASCAR's final regular-season race.
The New York Giants are listed as 4-point home favorites for Wednesday (with an OVER/UNDER of 46 points at the sportsbooks) for their season-opening home game against the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants are 7-3 both straight up and against the spread over their past 10 games against the Cowboys, including 2-0 both SU and ATS against them last season. Kickoff for that game is set for 8:30pm ET on Wednesday.
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The bulk of the week's NFL schedule is then on Sunday, with New England (-7) at Tennessee, Miami at Houston (-12), Buffalo at the Jets (-2.5), Atlanta (-1) at Kansas City, Jacksonville at Minnesota (-4.5), Philadelphia (-9) at Cleveland, Indianapolis at Chicago (-11), Washington at New Orleans (-10), St. Louis at Detroit (-9), Seattle (-1.5) at Arizona, Carolina (-1) at Tampa Bay, San Francisco at Green Bay (-5), and then Pittsburgh at Denver (pick'em) in the primetime contest for Sunday night (8:20pm ET).
The Steelers are just 3-7 straight up and 4-6 against the spread over their past 10 games against the Broncos, including their 29-23 loss in Denver as a 7.5-point favorite in last year's playoffs. Ben Roethlisberger returns as Pittsburgh's QB for this season, while Tim Tebow has been replaced by Peyton Manning as Denver's starter for 2012.
Monday night then has a doubleheader for NFL bettors, with Cincinnati at Baltimore (-6) and San Diego at Oakland (pick'em) to wrap up the first week of the 2012 season.
The top teams in college football are back in action on Saturday after cruising to easy victories in their Week 1 contests. No. 1 USC is at Syracuse after they pounded Hawaii 49-10, while No. 2 Alabama hosts Western Kentucky coming off a 41-14 dismantling of Michigan, and No. 3 LSU gets a visit from Washington after beating North Texas by that same 41-14 score over the weekend. As well, Notre Dame hosts Purdue on Saturday afternoon after they topped Navy 50-10 in Dublin, Ireland in their first game.
On the diamond, the top series with playoff-race implications early this week include the Yankees at Tampa Bay and the Angels at Oakland, while San Francisco hosts Arizona, and the Dodgers get a visit from San Diego. Later in the week the rival Giants and Dodgers will open a series in San Francisco, while the Tigers are in Los Angeles to take on the Angels, the Yankees are at Baltimore, and the Rays play host to Texas.
Finally, the men's and women's draws of the U.S. Open continue this week in Flushing Meadows, New York, while the FedExCup playoffs continue on the PGA Tour with the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick GC in Carmel, Indiana. Saturday's Sprint Cup Series event is then the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, with the Chase for the Championship getting underway next weekend at Chicagoland.