Betting Odds For Week 16 NFL Games
In the last two weeks of the NFL season it's likely that the playoff picture will be 90 percent clear. At least in theory, that means fans are likely to see teams with sure-thing playoff berths resting their stars while teams hungry for a last-ditch effort at the postseason pull out all the stops in an attempt to put another mark in the W column. With this admixture of long-term strategy and all-or-nothing action at play, you had better believe that the betting odds for Week 16 NFL games were through the roof at all the legal offshore sportsbook sites we recommend – Bovada, SportsBetting, BetOnline and 5Dimes.
Those aforementioned online betting shops, which we refer to throughout our guides to season-long legal NFL betting, have all the wager types and betting options a 21st century bettor could ask for, with betting boards and bonuses brick-and-mortar sportsbooks can’t beat. Even though the 2017-2018 season is behind us and we’re already deep into the Playoffs, a closer examination of the goings-on that took place in Week 16 will help the fan and the sports bettor alike gain a clearer understanding of the season from a historical perspective. NFLBettingOdds.org takes a look at the weird and wonderful game lineup for the sixteenth week of the 2017-2018 NFL season and find out how next year’s outcome could already be in the making.
Week 16 Thursday Night Matchup
Week 16 is different from almost every other week each season in that we don't get a Thursday night matchup in Week 16 - instead, for 2017-2018, we were treated to two thrilling throwdowns on Saturday night. Indiana hit the road for Maryland to take on Baltimore in a game that turned out to be a down-to –the wire, 23-16 affair while, on the other hand, Minnesota easily dealt with Green Bay, blanking the Packers 16-0. These matchups were interesting because they both, in their own way, show the fallacy involved in overestimating the impact of home field advantage. Even though the Ravens ended up the victors on Dec. 23, 2017, they actually only led by three points going into the fourth quarter, and, had Maxx Williams not hauled in a short 4-yard pass from Joe Flacco with 8:40 to go, the game might have been closer than that. Still, the Colts (who finished the year 4-12 overall) acquitted themselves well against the 9-7 Ravens, scoring a nice field goal in the closing minutes to put them within striking distance of a tie ballgame, although they couldn’t pull the trigger on one last score. As for Minnesota’s Saturday night NFL game, the Vikings demolished their hosts, practically coasting to a win even though they only scored once per quarter in the second half – and then only tacked on field goals – in what was the worst blowout on the Week 16 docket.
Notable Sunday Matchups For Week 16
With the majority of the games set for the second-to-last week of the regular season taking place on Sunday, there were plenty of notable Sunday Matchups for Week 16 of this year in the NFL. Usual suspects like New England and the LA Chargers demolished their Week 16 opponents (the Pats defeated Buffalo 37-16 and the outlasted the New York Jets 14-7), but there were plenty of strange occurrences to go around as well. For instance, San Francisco stunned the AFC Championship-bound Jacksonville Jaguars with a stinging 44-33 loss thanks to a massive 21-point fourth quarter in the week’s biggest upset. The biggest blowout of the week, on the other hand, goes to the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals game – a real fracas that ended up 23-0 in the host team’s favor – though neither squad made it into the post-season.
Week 16 Sunday Night Football Matchup
As luck would have it, the NFL decided not to have just one late Sunday game in the second-to-last week of the regular season. That means there technically was no Week 16 Sunday Night Football Matchup, but what there was instead was the aforementioned 23-0 Arizona blowout over the Giants and a concurrent Seattle at Dallas game that, regrettably, didn’t turn out much better in the end. The Seahawks came out on top 21-12, but they didn’t score at all in the first quarter (though neither did the embattled Cowboys), instead relying on a steady supply of one touchdown-and-extra-point situations in every subsequent period to get the win. The Cowboys, on the other hand, did their level best on offense, but all their scores came courtesy of four Dan Bailey field goals – one of 51 yards at the end of the first half. It wasn’t the best game by any means, but no one can say this Week 16 game failed to be entertaining in its own right.
Week 16 Monday Night Football Matchup
This season, Monday Night Football took place in the evening Christmas day. The Week 16 Monday Night Football matchup was between the 6-10 Oakland Raiders and the Playoffs-bound 13-3 Philadelphia Eagles, the latter of which made a powerful statement with a rousing 19-10 conclusion. The first half of the game was a defensive struggle for the most part, with only Jay Ajayi and Amari Cooper scoring touchdowns for their respective teams. Things heated up in the second half by a considerable margin, with the Raiders’ Giorgio Tavecchio scoring a 25-yard field goal in the early third quarter, though the Eagles’ Jake Elliot did the same to tie the game just a few minutes later. Most of the fourth quarter was another defensive scrum right up until the waning moments of the contest: that’s when the Eagles really took off, as Elliot aired out a 48-yard field goal with just second remaining in the entire game. Derek Barnett scooped up a Raiders fumble and scrambled 23-yards back for a touchdown to seal the deal even further, giving the home team another exciting win.