Sports betting

NFL betting: Monday Night Football

by SPORTSBETTING.COM staff | September 21 2009

The sports betting community across North America is fresh off a full scale NFL betting smorgasbord with all day NFL Sunday action and now they turn their attention to the Monday Night football matchup as the final game of Week 2.

Let's have a look at tonight's game, the NFL lines, NFL picks and NFL trends.

Colts and Dolphins—Monday Night Football Week 2 Preview

It was a little over two and-a-half years ago that Peyton Manning led his Colts to a Super Bowl victory in South Florida. Monday night Manning makes his return but the landscape around him has changed dramatically. Are the Colts still worthy of the road favorite tag that bettors have become so accustomed to over the years?

- Say what you want about the NFL's young tradition of kicking off the Monday Night Football season with two games instead of one. The nail-biting, down to the wire contests put on last week in the two games was, for sports bettors, a good reminder of why we play the game.

Conventional types are still happy about a return to football betting normalcy in the Week 2 Monday Night Football matchup, where the Indianapolis Colts travel to Miami to take on the Dolphins. SPORTSBETTING.COM currently has the Monday Night odds at -3 (-130) on the Colts.

Oddsmakers opened the betting with the Colts favored by a field goal and considering the betting trends we saw through the majority of Sunday's games it's surprising that the number hasn't increased. Favorites were taking the money in a little over half of the games on Sunday's card and in these stand-alone, marquee contests it is not uncommon to see the chalk team as the consensus pick.

The Dolphins are coming off a disappointing 19-7 loss in their season debut in Atlanta where it wasn't until the fourth quarter when the offense was finally able to locate the scoreboard against an average Falcons D. Miami's once vaunted attack was held to single digits just once in the 2008 season by the physical Baltimore Ravens super-D. In an effort to jumpstart the scoring there is speculation that we could see a return of the Wildcat formation that was the cornerstone of Tony Sparano's offense in 2008 and it has sparked a frenzy of wagering activity on the home underdog.

Indianapolis won its season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars 14-12 but as Arizona demonstrated in Week 2, beating the Jags this year is not worthy of breaking out the good scotch.

The Colts lost Tony Dungy to retirement earlier this year and it was much publicized but what received less attention was the shift in defensive coordinators. Veteran coordinator Larry Coyer took over the position after a brief stint as an assistant in Tampa. Coyer made his mark as a D-Co in Denver and while he is expected to improve the Colts throughout the season, if Miami brings out its guns and gadgets Monday night there are some concerns over Indy's ability to defend it.

Peyton Manning's offense is nowhere near the unit he led onto the field in Super Bowl XLI, Indy's last visit to Miami, and in another surprising line move the total on this game has been bet down from 44 to 42 at many online sport books.

Manning is one win away from breaking his tie with Johnny Unitas for the franchise record for all-time QB wins (118). Knowing Manning, though, it's the furthest thing from his mind. The Colts offense will be missing starting wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez, who will miss at least four weeks due to a sprained right knee suffered in the opener.

NFL Trends: The Dolphins are 0-3 straight-up in their home opener the past three years and adding the pointspread in the last two as a home dog didn't change things.

Bettors should note that since 1997, home teams that lost their opener by 10 points or more are just 15-27 ATS (36-percent) in their Week 2 matchup.

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