NFL Preseason Football Betting for August 18, 2016
Busy night in Preseason NFL betting action for Thursday with six games on the board:
NFL PRESEASON FOOTBALL BETTING FOR AUGUST 18, 2016:
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES AT PITTSBURGH STEELERS:
The preseason is an afterthought for the Pittsburgh Steelers these days. It wasn’t always that way, but it is now. The only thing newsworthy that the Steelers have done lately is send a very classy letter to the family of late Oakland Raiders’ quarterback Ken ‘The Snake’ Stabler’ on his induction to the Hall of Fame. Pittsburgh is coming off a 30-17 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 1 of preseason play. The Steelers sure don’t sound like they’re ‘circling’ this game for a big effort. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has already been ruled out for this game as well as Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown and DeAngelo Williams. In fact, Roethlisberger is essentially being rested for the entirety of training camp. He participated for three days and is apparently going to spend the rest of the camp riding around on some sort of motorized off road bicycle.
The Steelers were 10-6 last season and reached the playoffs only to lose to the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos 23-7 in the Divisional Round. Credit to the Steelers–for a few years the prevailing wisdom was that the ‘Steelers were getting old’ and thus slowing down and becoming less effective. You don’t hear that much anymore since Pittsburgh has done a nice job integrating youth into their once veteran laden roster and particularly on defense. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is as tough as they come and will play for as long as he can be effective. On the other hand, he is 34 years old and at some point the team will have to concern themselves with finding a capable successor For the time being, he’s going to fight on despite his unprecedented rash of injuries last season.
The Eagles looked like a team on the rise under former Oregon Ducks’ head coach Chip Kelly. That was until last season when the team slipped to 7-9 and the Eagles had seen enough. They ‘folded their hand’ on Kelly and his high octane offense and went ‘old school’ hiring former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson. He’s proving to be a tough, no nonsense head coach which has supporters and detractors among the Philadelphia sports cognoscenti. One thing that has drawn the ire of some is Pederson’s overworking Eagles’ starters during training camp. The argument for it–they’ll toughen up. The argument against it–they’ll get injured. The reality is that Pederson is still trying to forge not only an identity for himself as a coach but for the Eagles as a team. Unfortunately, he’s got to do it with the relentless Philadelphia media hounding him.
The Eagles opened the preseason with a 17-9 home win over Tampa Bay which gave Pederson a win in his first home game. Pederson says that the offensive starters might ‘play into the second quarter’ here. Hard to believe that he’d expose starting quarterback Sam Bradford to injury for that long. Assuming they don’t stink up the joint I’d expect Bradford to be on the sidelines before the end of the first quarter with the rest of the starters joining him not long after that.
Mike Tomlin was at one point one of the most profitable preseason coaches in the NFL. From the time he took over in Pittsburgh (2007) through 2012 he he went 19-6 straight up in preseason play. Since then, he’s 2-12 straight up in preseason action.
BET PHILADELPHIA EAGLES +3 OVER PITTSBURGH STEELERS
ATLANTA FALCONS AT CLEVELAND BROWNS:
The Atlanta Falcons went 8-8 in Dan Quinn’s first year as head coach and hopes are high that they’ll be back in the plus side of the ledger this season. Quinn and company got the preseason off to a winning start last week with a 23-17 victory against the Washington Redskins at home. Hard to argue with a win/cover in any circumstance but the Falcons showed that a recurring problem is still an issue–their ability to hold a lead in the second half. It was this tendency that likely cost former head coach Mike Smith his job. Obviously, that’s not going to be a big deal during preseason–unless you happen to be betting on the Falcons. Atlanta was up 13-3 over Washington at halftime only to be outscored 14-10 in the second half. That’s not a good sign for any NFL team but it’s one of those ‘tells’ that a favorite is not quite as good as the public thinks they are.
It’s easy to look at Atlanta in this spot since Cleveland was such a terrible team last year. The Browns went 3-13 last year and it was curtains for Mike Petine as head coach. Maybe expectations are low in Cleveland but it’s hard to believe that he made it through two seasons with a combined record of 10-22. It looks like the team has upgraded their coaching, hiring former Oakland Raiders’ head coach Hue Jackson. Jackson was fired as head coach after the 2011 season with the Raiders finishing 8-8. Many Raiders fans thought that it was a mistake. The problem was the shoddy way that Oakland ended the season–Oakland started the season 7-4 and were in a great position to make the playoffs. Instead, Oakland went 1-4 down the stretch. The Raiders immediately slipped to 4-12 in the following season which might be some form of ‘revenge’ for Jackson. He spent the next few years in Cincinnati in a variety of roles including offensive coordinator. He’s a very underrated head coach and generally an excellent hire for the Browns. Assuming the Browns just aren’t ‘jinxed’ there’s a good chance that Jackson can get the team headed in the right direction.
Jackson was pleased with the effort in a competitive loss at Green Bay last week and there’s reason for optimism as the team returns home. This is one of the enduring angles in preseason football–a new head coach in his first home game. We’ll take Cleveland.
BET CLEVELAND BROWNS -2′ OVER ATLANTA FALCONS