After three weeks of preseason pro football, there are only 3 undefeated teams remaining in the NFL. The Seattle Seahawks, the Washington Redskins and the New Orleans Saints are the only teams left without a loss in the preseason.
On the other hand, there are 4 teams that have yet to win a game in the preseason. Predictably one of them is the Jacksonville Jaguars, but the other three have to be considered longshots to not have won any of their first three outings of the new football season… they are the Pittsburg Steelers, the Minnesota Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons, all of whom were preseason picks to do well this year.
The New England Patriots, with future Hall of Famers Tom Brady and Coach Bill Belichick at the helm, are almost always favored to win regardless of who they are playing. Not so for week three of the preseason… and with good reason. The Detroit Lions were 2.5 point favorites to beat the Pats, the Over & Under set at 46. When it was all over, a total of 49 points had been scored… 40 of them by the Lions!
The Carolina Panthers have not gotten a whole lot of love or respect from the press in recent years but Las Vegas bookmakers gave then the nod to beat the world champion Baltimore Ravens by 3 points… Over & Under at 42. The Panthers actually did end up beating the Ravens by a final score of 34-27 and the total went way, way over.
It seems that every day we see a new article about how strong the Atlanta Falcons will be in 2013… however, they have not managed to win a single preseason game so far. Some might claim that they just don’t care about exhibition games… but, a game is a game and nobody likes to lose three in a row. The Falcons lost to the Titans by 11 points after being posted as 3 point underdogs. Once again, the Over won the day… but just barely.
The New Orleans Saints are playing football this year with a chip on their shoulders. They have something to prove and they want to win… badly. Oddsmakers had the Saints as 2.5 point underdogs for their third preseason game over in Houston against the Texans. The Saints got pushed around early on in the contest but finished strongly beating the Texans by a final score of 31-23. The Over won this one as well.
