2005 Indianapolis Colts Playoffs NFL Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

The Buffalo Bills were a team in which few in the sports handicapping world expected much from except a lot of losses. Buffalo had a new head coach charged with the task of rebuilding the team and was coming off a horrible 2003, which is not the recipe for a contending pro football team. And in fact, Buffalo started off the season with four consecutive straight up losses, covering two of those games against the sports betting odds.

In their fourth loss, however, at New York against the undefeated Jets the Bill surprised many sports betting players with a 14-16 loss, (and cover against the sports betting odds), in a game that many online sports betting bloggers claimed would be a rout. For a sports betting player with his eyes open the Bills effort at New York should have been a good sports handicapping indicator for their next game at home against struggling Miami.

The Miami game was one in which the winless Bills had been pointing to for quite some time as a winnable game and the Bills came through for both their fans and sports betting players with football picks on them as they defeated Miami 20-13. The next week Buffalo lost at Baltimore 6-20 to fall to 1-5 straight up. What happened the rest of the way blindsided many sports betting players, including many sharp professionals at online sports betting websites and sportsbooks.

Buffalo was to win 8 of their next 9 games straight up and against the sports betting odds, which put them into a position to gain the playoffs with their home finale against Pittsburgh. The Bills lost that game 29-24 despite being 9.5-point favorites against a Pittsburgh team that had everything they could possibly win already clinched. Online sports betting blogs were full of posts by sports betting players boasting that there was no sports betting line high enough to scare them off huge wagers on their Buffalo football picks on the game.

Buffalo’s streak and season ending loss is a classic example of how NOTHING is assured or can be taken for granted when sports handicapping pro football picks against the online sports betting boards and casinos. If you wanted to point to one lesson on the difficulties regarding sports handicapping pro football the Buffalo Bills 2004 season from start to finish is a sobering reality check to sports betting players.