If you watched the opening week of games, you probably saw away teams cover in low-scoring games.
In the first week of the NFL betting season, two trends stood out. Road teams covered at oddly high rates and the under was dominant.
Road teams were 12-4 against the spread in the opening week;according to BetMGM'sdata analystJohn Ewingthe under hit in 12 of 16 games.
It's great to know these trends. The trick is to determine if there is anything sticky about the upcoming weeks.
Road teams have been strong since the start of the season
Road teams covering is not a big surprise. Home field advantage has been shrinking for the past few seasons.
Giving the home team three points was standard practice a few years ago, but probably a mistake now. This number should be closer to two points or even less, depending on the team. This was not the case for many home teams that struggled despite being at home in Week 1.
The trend began in Thursday night's season opener, when the Detroit Lions beat the Kansas City Chiefs 21-20. The Chiefs were 6.5-point favorites for most of the summer, but an injury to Travis Kelce dropped the Chiefs to about -4, and the Lions won straight up.
Teams like the Seattle Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers, and New York Giants were blown out at home and looked terrible. While road teams won't cover 75% of the time this season, it might be best not to overestimate the home field advantage this season.
Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were among the road teams that won close games in Week 1. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)Scoring was down in Week 1
The early games in Week 1 were scoreless from kickoff. Brandon Iyuk of the San Francisco 49ers scored a touchdown, but it was the only touchdown scored in the first quarter of the entire game.
This set the tone for the week. The league as a whole did not score as many points. Through Sunday's game, the average score per game was 41.2 points, the second lowestin the last 13 years according to the Boston Globe. And on Monday night, the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets combined for 38 points. There was no great doubt about the under-44.5 figure. [| you really come across that you can do it, in fact i promise with my partner, anyone can quickly forget about just how seemingly exactly {} these seemingly just ignore a person. | You can do it so that you can really come across that you can actually forget about my partner and i promise, anyone who quickly just ignores these seemingly exactly how {} people. The fact that teams didn't play their starters much in the preseason is often cited as a reason, and perhaps that had an impact as well.
Scoring doesn't seem to continue to drop off; the NFL is set up for offense to succeed, and the lack of scoring in Week 1 was likely a fluke.
Much of what was seen in Week 1 will not be repeated. There will be a major overreaction by Week 2. We will see if the two trends of road teams and unders will continue for some time.