This past Sunday sent the odds makers back to their smoke filled rooms as not one but six favorites went down against the spread. In fact, they lost out right! Surprise, surprise!
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were favored by a whopping 13.5 points over the Arizona Cardinals in a Sunday afternoon game played at Foxborough, Mass. At the end of the game Stephen Gostkowski lay face down on the field after missing a shot at a winning field goal. On the sideline, Kevin Kolb and the Arizona Cardinals celebrated their victory.
The most accurate kicker in New England Patriots history sent a 42-yard attempt wide to the left on the next to last play — after making three longer field goals — and the Cardinals held on for a 20-18 win on Sunday. “Nobody really gave us a chance,” said Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt, whose team was a two-touchdown underdog, “but our guys believed they could do it.
The Minnesota Vikings came into Indianapolis on Sunday just slightly favored by 1.5 points to beat the Colts and their new rookie quarter. However, Andrew Luck sure didn’t play like a rookie Sunday afternoon. He looked like a new, younger version of Peyton Manning. The Colts new quarterback threw two touchdown passes, took advantage of several key Minnesota penalties and marched Indianapolis 45 yards in 23 seconds to set up Adam Vinatieri for a 53-yard field goal with 8 seconds left, which gave Indianapolis a 23-20 victory over the Vikings in Luck’s home debut. It’s those late in the game drives for the come from behind victory that endears a team and its quarterback to the local fans and generates greater ticket sales. “It’s just amazing that the guy’s able to go out there and do the things he does as a rookie,” Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. “He certainly had to put the ball on them, and he did.”
The New Orleans Saints are still floundering around in the wake of the bounty gate scandal and trying to find some of the same team spirit that has made the Saints such a popular team in the past few years. Even so, they were favored by 2.5-3 points going into the game against the Carolina Panthers at Charlotte, North Carolina. However, it was not to be the Saints day after all. Cam Newton talked all week about how much better the Panthers were on offense then they showed in their season opener. He proved it on Sunday. The second-year quarterback threw for 253 yards and ran for a career-high 71 yards and led the Panthers to a 35-27 win over New Orleans and leaving the NFC South champion Saints 0-2 for the first time since 2007.
In other Sunday action, the Miami Dolphins manhandled the Oakland Raiders in Miami by a score of 35-13 even though the Raiders were favored by 2.5 points.
The Dallas Cowboys went up to Seattle as 3 point favorites to play the Seahawks but another rookie quarterback, this time Russel Wilson, had another plan. The Seattle Seahawks didn’t just beat the Cowboys on Sunday. They physically knocked them around. Marshawn Lynch ran for 122 yards and a 3-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, Seattle’s special teams came up with two huge first-quarter plays that led to 10 points, and the Seahawks beat the Cowboys 27-7 on Sunday.
Finally, Sam Bradford and the St. Louis Rams beat the odds once again and came out on top of the Washington Redskins, but just barely. The final score was Rams 31-‘Skins 28.
We are all looking forward to another exciting week of NFL football starting with Eli Manning and the New York Giants visiting the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte this coming Thursday evening.
