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Sports Interaction betting analyst Frank Doyle takes a look at the Hall of Fame game at Canton this weekend, the traditional curtain raiser to a new NFL season.
Preseason games aren't easy to bet on. In the regular season, everybody has the same objective, which is to win. In preseason, there are other objectives, like looking at fringe players and not getting your franchise players hurt, that make the result incidental. A little research can deliver insight in preseason matchups and present a worthwhile bet for those willing to do their homework.
The Hall of Fame game between Buffalo and Tennessee this weekend is one such instance. Sports Interaction has set the line as Tennessee -3 and getting the Bills with three points seems to good too resist for me.
It's all to do with motivation. Tennessee went 13-3 last year and because the NFL is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, the Titans have to do as well again this year. They have to do as well again this year without Albert Haynesworth, with Kerry Collins one year older and with question marks remaining over Collins' understudy, former No 1 pick Vince Young. You think Jeff Fisher is stressing what happens this weekend? Jeff Fisher couldn't give a fiddle-dee-dee about this weekend.
Jeff Fisher is worried about going to Pittsburgh in five weeks' time with a big hole in his defensive line where Big Albert used to be. And then he's going to worry about up and coming Houston coming to Nashville, and then trips to the Jets and Jags, and then scheming for Peyton Manning and the Colts in Week 5. Canton on Sunday is way down on Fisher's list of priorities.
But Canton on Sunday may be much higher on Dick Jauron's list of priorities, and the reason why is the only reason anybody's interested in the Bills this year. Terrell Owens is the biggest Buffalo Bills signing since Jim Kelly over twenty years ago in terms of hype and expectation. Terrell Owens is a high maintenance kind of guy and the Bills have to try to keep him sweet for as long as they can. What better way than to throw TO a few passes in the Hall of Fame game? Whatever other faults Owens might have, he is just the guy to tuck the ball away and head for the end zone once he's got it.
This is only speculation about what the Bills might do but it does seem a reasonable hypothesis, and something like that can make a difference in a pre-season game. It's not something to bet the house on, but for anyone wanting to dip a toe in the water before September, Buffalo +3 with Sports Interaction against Tennessee in the Hall of Fame game looks a pretty good bet to me.
Frank Doyle, Gambling911.com
