An 83 percent success rate would make any sports bettor raise their eyebrows to the ceiling.
I know, I know. Trends don’t pay the rent – until they do. The Los Angeles Chargers, Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers are a combined 15-and-3 against the spread this NFL season. Pittsburgh is covering by an average of 6.7 points, Green Bay by 4.2 and Los Angeles by the slimmest of margins at 0.2 points per game.
“I’m not surprised with the Packers and Steelers,” one Vegas bookmaker told NBC Sports. “People love to bet on Aaron Rodgers and they’ve kicked our ass this year. Pittsburgh has done us in too. The Chargers are interesting. I wouldn’t have guessed they were [5-and-1 ATS], but here we are. We did lose on them yesterday, but nobody bets Jacksonville."[[ad:athena]]
Justin Herbert and Co. have really squeaked by in three of their five covers. The Bolts beat Cincinnati by 3 as a 2.5-point favorite, lost to Tampa Bay by 7 as 7.5-point dog and covered -8 yesterday with a 10-point win over Jacksonville. Their only non-cover was an outright loss to Carolina as 6-point chalk.
The Cardinals, Bengals and Chiefs have been very good for your wallet too. Those three squads are 5-and-2 ATS as they’ve all played an extra game. The Bears (4-and-2 ATS) would join the club with a cover on Monday night against the Rams.
On the flip side, the Jets and Texans have burned bettors’ paper all year long. Both teams are 1-and-6 ATS and somehow Adam Gase still has a job in New York. Houston finally moved on from Bill O’Brien after the front office could no longer tolerate his incompetence.
And the worst cover team in the league is the Dallas Cowboys at 0-and-7. I would argue that’s the most impressive ATS stat because it’s extremely difficult to underachieve against your market expectations every single week. Nick Saban’s 2006 Miami Dolphins were the last team to start 0-7 ATS.
