Where have we decided to place our NFL picks on this week's Thursday night matchup between the Panthers and Giants? Find out if the odds makers left any doors open for us in this showdown.
Both the Giants and the
Panthers won close games last week, and now they turn around and play one
another with only a few days to prepare. Will the Super Bowl champions continue
a successful drive toward a repeat and pad your bankroll in the process? Let's
see what the NFL odds makers are thinking.
The New York Giants are going
to travel to Charlotte to take on the Panthers this Thursday, and as a result NFL handicappers have an early taste of the weekend. This
is a game that features a couple of teams who are coming off good wins and a
lot of people will be focusing on the quarterbacks.
Manning Strong in Second
Half Against Bucs
Eli Manning threw three
interceptions in the first half of Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers and the Giants went into the locker room at halftime trailing 24-13
at home. The bookies had made them nine point favorites
while posting a total of 43.5.
At the halfway point people
holding a ticket on the over were in an ideal situation. They still had some
action but a win looked more or less inevitable. On the other hand, those who
were laying nine points on the defending Super Bowl champs were probably
tempted to tear up their tickets before the second-half kickoff.
Which reminds me of a time
when a fellow handicapper friend of mine did in fact tear up a ticket at
halftime of an NFL game while we were sitting at a Las Vegas bar watching it.
Incredibly, his team came back and the barmaid helped him piece the ticket back
together with tape. Then he had even more action wondering if the book would
honor this ticket.
He did get paid, but I
learned my lesson that day about tearing up tickets prematurely.
Anyway, in this case a ticket
on the Giants was in fact worthless even though they came back to win the
ballgame by a score of 41-34 to even their record at 1-1 straight up. However,
this performance coupled with their outright season opening loss to the Dallas
Cowboys as 3.5 point favorites leaves them with an 0-2 record ATS coming into
this game against the Carolina Panthers.
Newton's Theory of Gravity
Isaac Newton developed a
theory of gravity a long time ago, and it supposedly has something to do with
an apple hitting him upside the head. Cam Newton deals in a different type of
projectile. It's his job to make sure that the apple that he throws winds up in
the hands of his own players rather than the hands of his opponents.
In Game 1 Cam Newton had a
decent day through the air statistically but he threw two interceptions and his
team lost on the road to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16-10. In Week 2, he threw no
interceptions and augmented his throwing prowess with some nifty running to
register 71 rushing yards and a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints. (He
was however charged with a fumble.
The Panthers emerged
victorious by a score of 35-27, winning the game outright. The online
oddsmakers had installed the Saints as three point favorites so this was a
resounding win for anyone who was prescient enough enough to back the Panthers.
Thursday Free NFL Pick
It's still early in the week
and I'm going to closely watch the Week 3 NFL odds as Thursday draws nearer,
and I may revisit this game later on. Right now the sportsbooks have the Panthers as one point underdogs. I'm going go ahead and add the home
dog to my NFL picks on Thursday night, as I like Carolina Panthers getting a point
from the New York Giants.
Free NFL Pick: Panthers to cover
Be sure to check out my NFL pick for this game's total.