The 2020 regular season kicked off last Thursday and the opening week played out without incident. No positive COVID-19 tests were reported and for the most part what we saw on the field resembled the brand of football we’ve yearned for since Kansas City’s Super Bowl win last February.
From a betting perspective it looked as though the points would not matter in any of the 16 games. That was true through the first 15 games, leaving only the Monday night finale between Tennessee and Denver to complete a week in which if you picked the straight up winner of the game you also cashed your pointspread ticket.
After missing three field goals and an extra point earlier in the game, current Denver and former Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski nailed a short 25- yard field goal to give the Titans a 16-14 come-from-behind win. However Tennessee was favored by 2.5 or 3 points for most of the past week, making Broncos backers winners at the betting windows.
Overall, six underdogs won outright including three getting more than five points. Washington and Jacksonville pulled home upsets over Philadelphia and Indianapolis respectively while Arizona won on the road over last season’s Super Bowl loser, San Francisco.
Totals results were fairly balanced with nine games going Over and seven staying Under with an average of 47.4 total points scored per game. The average margin of victory was 9.1 points per game with six games decided by four points or less.
As we approach Week 2 it is important to not overreact to what we saw in Week 1. At the same time, we don’t want to fail to react. Each result means something although we don’t know what quite yet.