Okay, once more into the breach to cap the 2018 NFL season in betting! Since the present is over for 20 NFL teams (and heads are already rolling, much to the delight of minimum eight fan bases) NFLbets is, as Belichick might say, onto 2019 – or the playoffs. Let’s put on bow on the ’18 versions of these 20.
Below runs a complete list of results for week 17 in NFLbets’ standard format, i.e. adjusted for the point spread; all results listed in boldface indicate games in which the SU winner did not cover the spread. Comments, questionable humor and the occasional salient point courtesy NFLbets writer/editor Os Davis.
NFLbets also urges you to check out this page for the final ATS results for all NFL teams in 2018, featuring the historically great Chicago Bears. In the imaginary 2018 ATS playoffs are the eliminated Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington.
• New York Giants 35, Dallas Cowboys 28
• Arizona Cardinals 24 at Seattle Seahawks 13. Here’s a sneak preview of NFLbets’ upcoming column on the wild-card game between these two teams: The Seahawks are just better in most areas than a Cowboys team that has somehow forgotten that Amari Cooper’s still on the roster. The line on the game has gone from Seahawks +2½ to Seahawks +1 to Seahawks +2 since Sunday night. We say take the Seahawks ML at +110 at Dallas before it drops to even odds or lower.
• New England Patriots 24½, New York Jets 3
• Houston Texans 16, Jacksonville Jaguars 3
• Indianapolis Colts 28½ at Tennessee Titans 17
• Cleveland Browns 24 at Baltimore Ravens 19. Why are so many assuming a Patriots win against either the Texans, Ravens or Chargers in the semi-final round? Yes, Tom Brady-led New England teams are 7-0 SU (6-1 ATS) against Philip Rivers’s Chargers, 8-3 SU (6-4-1 ATS) against Baltimore since 2001, and 10-1 SU (7-4 ATS) against Houston all-time, but by definition anything which ends must end at some discernible point, right? Why not against one of these upstarts now?
• Chicago Bears 24 at Minnesota Vikings 4
• Cincinnati Bengals 13 at Pittsburgh Steelers 2
• Detroit Lions 38½ at Green Bay Packers 0. Theory: Any game which ends with the home team scoring an even number in single digits was one which has bookmakers asking “What we were thinking?” on Monday. Seriously, who was betting on the Steelers or Vikings minus the points last weekend?
• Buffalo Bills 38½, Miami Dolphins 17. ’Member when the Dolphins were 3-0 and taken seriously…?
• Los Angeles Chargers 16 at Denver Broncos 9
• Kansas City Chiefs 20½, (((((Las Vegas))))) London Raiders 3
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32, Atlanta Falcons 31. If you see little more than doom and gloom when considering the medium-term futures of the Broncos, Raiders, Buccaneers and/or Falcons, you’re certainly not alone. These four have pretty much all made a hash of five years’ worth of drafts and the best of the lot boast a question mark at quarterback. Well, at least the AFC West and NFC South’ll be easy to bet on for a while…
• Carolina Panthers 33 at New Orleans Saints 6
• Los Angeles Rams 37½, San Francisco 49ers 32. Many are expecting a Saints-Rams NFC Championship Game, but NFLbets is warning y’all again: Do not sleep on the Bears and Seahawks.
• Philadelphia Eagles 18 at Washington 0. Perhaps NFLbets’ favorite outcome of week 17 for two reasons. Firstly, in a time of ever-increasing wakedness, one can’t imagine a team with as vile a name as Washington’s to enjoy any success on the field. Secondly, wow, is NFLbets (and probably the bookmakers) gonna cash in on that brilliant Bears D making Nick Foles’s life miserable…
For the final 2018 NFL regular-season standings by ATS record, click here.
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