Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Week 9 NFL odds

I sure get the impression that the wizards of odds work up their lines not one by one, but as one big group. This week, for example, is the week of home dogs. Earlier in the season, we had a week of tiny lines, of supposedly equal matchups. In this way, the games blend together. It's as the average fan I mean gambler is forced to regard the teams as belonging to just a small set of tiers. And we get hosed this way; a team can be favored at another team, it appears, because everyone is favored on the road this week. And the goal appears not to be a balance of money on either side, but the provoking of massive gambling. Every week I see lines that look like loss leaders.

To get to the point, the Steelers are favored by five or six this week at Lambeau, and I don't like it. This is not a loss leader but a line I think most people will take. I didn't like this game - a non-division road game at a sleeping dog in one of the great home fields - when I first saw it this summer. I like it even less now that the Steelers are presented with this number. I'm not saying I'll pick against them, I'm saying that circumstances look good for Green Bay. The trap is set. Can they catch the Steelers on an off day? For the sake of our won-loss record, I wish the Steelers were playing another division games at home ... and that's not (just) because the rest of the division is so weak right now. On the road as heavy favorites against Brett Favre in Lambeau in November? That's a tough challenge.

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