NFL Week 1- Top Three ‘Point Spread’ Plays
The 2011 NFL regular season gets underway this Thursday night and Week 1 presents a golden opportunity to capitalize on a couple of bad lines out there, as the odds makers are still trying to figure things out like the rest of us.
SportsBook Lists has taken the time to scour through each game to come up with the top three picks on this week’s schedule.
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Cincinnati at Cleveland (-6.5)
Cincinnati comes into this season with a trio of new faces in the passing game after the loss of quarterback Carson Palmer and wide receivers Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens for a variety of reasons. It will be up to rookie QB Andy Dalton, rookie WR A.J. Green, and second-year WR Jordan Shipley to fill the void.
Cleveland also boasts some youth at quarterback with Colt McCoy entering his second year in the league. McCoy looked sharp in the preseason, completing 61 percent of his passes for 320 yards and four touchdowns and appears ready to go for the home opener.
The recent trends in this series favor the underdog with a 7-1 record against the spread in the last eight meetings, but stick will the Browns to roll at home this time around.
The Pick: Cleveland 20 Cincinnati 6
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Minnesota at San Diego (-9)
The new-look Vikings enter the 2011 season with Donovan McNabb as their starting quarterback and wide receiver Bernard Berrian as one of his go-to guys with the loss of Sidney Rice. The one constant is a running game led by Adrian Peterson.
San Diego is notorious for slow starts after losing its opener in two of the last three seasons as a favorite. Last season the Chargers lost to Kansas City 21-14 as a four-point road favorite and in 2008 they lost to Carolina 26-24 as a 9.5-point home favorite. They managed to beat Oakland 24-20 in the 2009 opener, but failed to cover as 10-point road favorite.
It is doubtful that the Vikings will be able to win this game outright, but with McNabb at the helm, it should be able to keep things close enough to cover the nine-point spread.
The Pick: San Diego 23 Minnesota 17
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New England (-7) at Miami
The Patriots will be looking to erase the memory of how last season ended with a 28-21 loss as a 9.5-point home favorite to their bitter rival the Jets in the Divisional playoffs. This loss basically wasted a NFL-best 14-2 effort in the regular season.
Miami is coming off of back-to-back 7-9 seasons after winning the AFC East in 2008 with a record of 11-5. Starting quarterback Chad Henne has been under constant fire from both the fans and the media this preseason and could find his signals drowned out by a chorus of boo’s if he gets off to a slow start in this game.
New England is 4-1 ATS in its last five games against the AFC East and the road team is 6-2 ATS in the last eight games of this series. Tom Brady lights things up on Monday night at the Dolphins expense.
The Pick: New England 35 Miami 20
Need more help making your picks winners? Check out our top handicappers.
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