NFL Preseason Football Betting: Green Bay Packers at Indianapolis Colts
The pro football season is upon us. Well, to be more accurate the pro football *preseason* is upon us which means that in just over a month the NFL regular season will begin. The traditional start to the pro football calendar and the NFL preseason is the Hall of Fame Game at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio. The game is played in conjunction with the induction ceremonies for the annual inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. An impressive group was enshrined this year led by former Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Brett Favre. The other honorees were Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, Kevin Greene, Orlando Pace, Ken Stabler, Dick Stanfel, and Ed DeBartolo Jr.
The ceremonies were held on Saturday and the football game between the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts will be played on Sunday:
NFL PRESEASON FOOTBALL BETTING: GREEN BAY PACKERS AT INDIANAPOLIS COLTS:
This game is in many ways the toughest of the season to handicap. In fact, it’s impossible to handicap which means we have to approach it in a different way. The reason that it’s impossible to handicap is that we know nothing about these teams–even by preseason standards. Even in Week 1 of the NFL Preseason–that would be next week’s games when every team in the league is in action–there’s a lot more information coming out of training camps for the NFL betting enthusiast to work with.
We know two things about both the Packers and Colts. We know that their starting quarterback position is set with the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers and the Colts’ Andrew Luck. We also know that neither quarterback will see significant playing time in Sunday’s game–assuming they play at all. Luck missed 9 games last year due to injury and Indianapolis head coach Chuck Pagano says he’s a ‘game time decision’. Pagano was vague about his specific plans, indicating that he’ll ‘wake up on Sunday’ and make that decision. It’s highly doubtful that the decision hasn’t already been made.
For the Packers, not only is starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers ‘doubtful’ but so is backup quarterback Brett Hundley. Both men sat out Thursday’s practice (the final practice of the week) and there’s no good reason that either need to play here. That means that Green Bay will play most of the game with two undrafted free agent rookies at quarterback, Joe Callahan and Marquise Williams. Right now Callahan has the ‘inside track’ on the #3 job but it’s not a ‘lock’ by any means.
Indianapolis has already ruled out their prized rookie center Ryan Kelly and the fact that they’re ‘sitting’ members of the offensive line strongly suggests that they won’t expose Luck to danger either. Right tackle Joe Reitz will also miss the game due to injury. If Luck doesn’t play–and if he does he won’t play much–that means it’ll be Stephen Morris and Scott Tolzien at quarterback.
In a game where both teams are playing backups and in some cases third and fourth stringers the pointspread is of little relevance. For that reason, we’ll take the Packers +3 and the OV 34. The betting marketplace (over)reacted to the announcement that Packers’ backup Brett Hundley was out. Once we get down to the #3 and #4 QBs on the depth chart you can forget about measuring qualitative advantage. Callahan and Williams have an actual competition for the job going on. Three points is huge in any NFL game and particularly this one. We’ll bet the ‘Over’ just to be contrarian–the kneejerk reaction is to go ‘Under’ in this game.
BET GREEN BAY PACKERS +3 OVER INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
BET GREEN BAY/INDIANAPOLIS OVER 34