Half of the 14 games this week have experienced significant NFL line moves this week, with a pair of games have moving a full point from the Sportsbook number.
And on the Monday Nighter, a Viking bye week combined with a Randy Moss trade has moved the line three points in favor of Minnesota.
The New Orleans Saints have moved from -7.5 to -6.5 over the Arizona Cardinals as the week has progressed. Despite the fact that Arizona was blown out last week against San Diego and are starting a rookie at quarterback Sunday (Max Hall), bettors still seem willing to bet against New Orleans in this spot.
The Saints are off to a 3-1 SU start, but are 0-4 ATS and have won all three of their games by five points or less.
San Diego has also moved a full point early this week from -5.0 to -6.0 over the Oakland Raiders. The Chargers saw the line move against them very sharply late last week against an inferior Arizona team (that they would proceed to blow out), and that may happen again this week, especially with Oakland’s running back Darren McFadden injured.
On the other hand, bettors might be dissuaded by San Diego’s 0-2 road record both SU and ATS this season.
Two lines that have moved a half point from 3.5 to 3.0 this week are Houston -3.0 at home against the New York Giants and San Francisco -3.0 at home against Philadelphia.
Both Houston and New York are coming off convincing wins last week, but they did it in different ways; Houston looked dominant on offense over Oakland while New York overpowered Chicago on defense. Bettors seem to believe that the Giants’ defensive line can bring it again against Houston coming off of their 10-sack performance.
San Francisco and Philadelphia, on the other hand, are coming off of losses. San Francisco fell just short to Atlanta, while Philadelphia lost Michael Vick to an injury and couldn’t get anything going on offense with Kevin Kolb at the helm. Despite Kolb’s struggles last week, bettors seem reluctant to side with San Francisco, who are 0-4 SU and 2-2 ATS this season.
The last two noticeable line movements this week came with Green Bay moving from -3.0 to -2.5 on the road against Washington, and Chicago moving from -3.0 to -2.5 on the road against Carolina.
Sportsbook
Neither of these slight moves is particularly surprising. Green Bay is coming off an ugly win against a Detroit team they should have beaten comfortably, while Washington and their stingy defense are coming off a comfortable win against Philadelphia.
Chicago meanwhile will likely not have Jay Cutler due to injury and looked awful without him on offense last week, while Carolina fought hard and lost by only two points in New Orleans.
