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Would you believe that aside from the New York Jets vs. Miami Dolphins that the Detroit Lions vs. Atlanta Falcons was getting the most betting action of any Sunday NFL game early on? Believe it!
One of the reasons why this game is so heavily bet on could have something to do with the enticing line.
And the Detroit Lions have gotten nearly every penny of action, prompting odds makers to push this line up from Detroit -1 (where it opened at a handful of books) to -3. Still, even at -3, the Lions are getting a whopping 95 percent or more of the action. And fact be known, most sports books (including Vegas) opened this game at Detroit -3 with not a single line move.
Obviously, the bookmakers need an Atlanta Falcons win here.
At press time 100 percent of online bookmakers including our friends at Sports Interaction had the line at Detroit -3 for the road favorite. This is a strong suggestion to those of us at Gambling911.com that the odds makers truly believe Atlanta could pull this one off, otherwise we would at least be seeing -3 ½ and more action coming in on the Falcons, and it wouldn't be as if we'd see the flood gates open for Atlanta. In fact, the line could probably be set at Detroit -7 and there still might be 75 percent of action going the Lions way.
Matt Ryan threw for 4,507 yards and 31 touchdowns last year and was named the ACC's player of the year. He was the first quarterback selected in this year's draft, and went on to beat out Chris Redman for the Falcons' starting job.
``There's no hesitancy at all,'' new defensive coordinator for the Falcons, Mike Smith said. ``We told the players from day one that it was an open competition for every position on the field. Matt won the job. It would be an injustice not to play the best players and give our team the best opportunity to win.''
Ryan will have a strong backfield to support him.
``He's going to have his growing pains just like anybody,'' center Todd McClure said of Ryan. ``You look at Peyton Manning in his first year. He struggled. I just hope the fans and the media give this guy a chance. He's not going to go out there and be a Hall of Famer every game this year. He's going to have some mistakes, and we're going to help him out as much as possible.''
Detroit is 1-7 against the spread in their last 8 games overall.
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Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com
