Sports betting

NFL Betting Tips—Week 2

by Chad Rogers | September 14 2009

Watching the action in Week 1 has given sports bettor a lot to go on when they start to do their sports handicapping for Week 2 games. We've circled a few games with good odds to track while planning your bets.

One full week of NFL football is in the books and people in the sports betting world seem to agree on one thing: 60 minutes of regular season football teaches you more about each team than 240 minutes of preseason ever could.

What did we learn from the first week of NFL betting that can be of use for picking winners in Week 2?

One thing we know about the Chicago Bears is that even with Jay Cutler at QB, defense is still king in the Windy City. Since Coach Lovie Smith took over in 2004 the Bears' defense has accounted for 21-percent of the team's scoring (compared to league average of nine-percent). When Danieal Manning forced a safety, sacking Aaron Rodgers in the end zone in the second quarter, it looked like that unit might take over the game.

Pittsburgh is in Chicago for the Bears home opener this week and so far bettors are leaning towards the "Under" 37.5 but online sportsbook SPORTSBETTING.COM is reporting some early money showing up on the home team Bears. Bettors appear willing to give Cutler another chance at showing what he can do, this time at home.

—Atlanta couldn't get the run game untracked vs. a stingy Dolphins D but HC Mike Smith is no fool. When Smith unleashed the passing game it was tough to defend and playing at home for the second straight week, Matt Ryan and the Falcons are now being asked to lay a TD vs. their divisional rivals, Carolina.

Things didn't go well for QBs in Carolina, with Donovan McNabb and Josh McCown getting hurt and Jake Delhomme just plain stinking. The Eagles have signed Jeff Garcia as insurance for their home opener this week against the high-flying New Orleans Saints and online sportsbooks have been reluctant to post lines due to the injury situation. It is expected that without McNabb in the line-up the Saints will be a small road favorite.

—At this time of year a lot of bettors are dusting off old play trackers and notebooks to see how teams performed in certain situations. One of the spots worth looking at is the early body-clock, where Pacific Standard Time teams play early in the east and another factor worth considering is the weather.

—Sounds strange for September but in this case it's not cold, wind and snow to be concerned with, more the humidity factor in cities like Jacksonville. The Jags were very good at home in September, going 16-5-1 ATS before 2007 but in the past two seasons they are 0-4 against the number. Jacksonville is a -3 point favorite at online Sportsbooks right now and with one loss already in the books we could see an extra effort out of the home side here against a visiting Cardinals team used to a much dryer climate in the desert.

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