Key Injuries
Week 10 is in the books and it wasn’t a good week for quarterbacks. Michael Vick, Jay Cutler, Alex Smith and Ben Roethlisberger were all knocked out of their respective games with injuries.
Only Pittsburgh managed to get a win in those games and the first three QB’s listed were all out with concussions. Roethlisberger hurt his shoulder and has been diagnosed with the same shoulder injury that ended Brett Favre’s ironman streak so his status for this week is up in the air.
The lines for all four of these teams this week are currently off the board and will likely remain so until we find out more about potential starters.
Teams coming off the bye
We do have our second last wave of teams coming off their bye week though and three of the four are on the road. Green Bay (-3.5) is the only one of those road teams laying points as Arizona (+10) and Cleveland (+7.5) are big underdogs at Atlanta and Dallas respectively.
That Arizona-Atlanta game is especially intriguing as it will be interesting to see how the Falcons react to their first loss of the season. Generally, the rule is to fade teams after their first loss of the season in college or the pros if they were 6-0 SU or better. That makes the well-rested Cardinals getting double-digit points awfully attractive.
Washington is the only post-bye team at home this week and with Philly coming into town and the likelihood of Vick being out, you’ve got to like RGIII and company here too. But until the line comes out, there isn’t much capping you can really do at the moment.
Potential look-ahead spots
Last week I warned about potential look-ahead spots with Baltimore, Denver, San Diego and Pittsburgh. The latter of those two failed to bring home the cash for bettors, while Baltimore and Denver rolled. This week there aren’t that many potential look-ahead spots with Thanksgiving on deck, but one game did stand out.
In Week 12, San Francisco heads into New Orleans for a playoff rematch from last season’s epic 49ers win. The Saints have got to have that on their minds a bit and it puts them in a really tough spot this week as -4 ½-point favorites out in Oakland. The Saints are coming off that emotional rivalry game vs. Atlanta where they were the first in the NFL to beat the Falcons and have a playoff revenge game on deck. Flying cross-country to play a Raiders team that just got their butts handed to them by Baltimore sets up horribly for New Orleans here.
