The 2022 Falcons might be etched into gambling history if they keep playing this way. Atlanta embodies the Good teams win, great teams cover saying. The Falcons are the only NFL team that is 5-0 against the spread, and if you’ve been following the site, you’d have a little extra spending money following my picks.
In the season opener, the team opened as 3.5-point underdogs to the Saints, but the public quickly bet that line up to 5.5 points. Easy money. In Week 2, the Falcons were even bigger underdogs against the Rams, who opened as 10.5-point favorites in Los Angeles. The Rams quickly jumped out to a 28-3 lead, but the Falcons fought back to cover. I definitely had to sweat that one out.
The following week, the Falcons stayed on the west coast. Seattle opened as 1.5-point home favorites at Lumen Field, Home of the 12th Man. Grady Jarrett and Richie Grant sealed the win with a third-down sack and fourth-down interception, giving the Falcons their third cover of the season. In Week 4, Cleveland opened as 2.5-point road favorites, but I still wasn’t fazed. The Falcons just decided to win outright for the second-straight week as underdogs.
Against the Bucs last week, Atlanta opened as 8.5-point underdogs, but the public quickly bet that all the way up to 10 points. Here are my own words on that line:
I LOVE THAT LINE. Two scores? This scrappy Falcons bunch might not win this one, but they’ll undoubtedly fight. I would lay the points and even sprinkle some money line. The public just sees the Falcons as the same team as always and sees the Bucs as a far superior team. I’ll be interested to see if Atlanta can cover for a fifth-straight game!
The Falcons have covered five games by a total of 24 points; they’re better than oddsmakers are giving them credit for being. This isn’t a football piece; it’s a gambling one. And if you’ve been riding with us at SportsTalkATL, you’re sitting on a boatload of cash.
The Falcons sit at 2-3 and are unlikely to win the NFC South. Sure, there’s a chance they can sneak into the postseason with a very unimpressive NFC field. But they’re still rebuilding. They have the most amount of dead money in the league, and it’s not particularly close. That means the Falcons have the fewest cap dollars allocated to players that are actually on the field on Sundays.
Atlanta will likely end up somewhere around 7-10, but that far outpaces what the national media and fans believed the Falcons could do. They look like they’ll easily eclipse their 4.5-win total. In Week 6, San Francisco opened as 6-point road favorites, and the Falcons will once again be the play.
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Photographer: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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