2005 Tennessee Titans NFL Handicapping Review Part 2

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

After their stunning 48-27 Monday Night win at Green Bay, many sports betting players believed that Tennessee had “stopped the bleeding” and was ready to get back on track to a playoff run. Just as the overwhelming majority of sports betting players had abandoned the Titans BEFORE their loss at Green Bay, throngs of them now included the Titans on their list of football picks the very next week for their game at home versus lightly regarded 2-3 Houston, who was coming off a tough loss overtime home loss to Minnesota. Many sports handicapping this matchup went heavy on the emotional and motivational angle figuring that Tennessee’s win at Green Bay was a springboard and that Houston wouldn’t be able to recover mentally from their loss to the Vikings. Tennessee was installed as a 6-point chalk by the sports betting odds makers and many online sports betting blog posts touted the Titans, who lost 10-20, keeping the general sports betting public a week late and many dollars short, yet again!

For once, making pro football picks against the sports betting odds went “logical” in Tennessee’s following game at Minnesota as the 4-1 Vikings won 20-3 as 6-point chalks. Next, the Titans were installed as 3-point home chalks against Cincinnati in one of those “transitional” sports handicapping situations in which a team will either win to stay in the race or lose and be virtually finished as a contender. At 2-5, this was a definite must win and the Titans responded with a 27-20 win.

Tennessee’s win, and bye the followed, gave some sports betting players hope for a strong stretch run by the Titans. When struggling Chicago came calling as 5.5-road dogs, the Titans once again became a fairly popular team on many sports betting player’s lists of football picks that Sunday. The Titans betrayed their backers with a 17-19 loss. Now realistically written off as a certain also-ran by the sports handicapping fraternity, the Titans traveled to surprising Jacksonville to meet the contending Jaguars, who were installed as 3.5-point chalks. Online sports betting talk and dollars flowed towards the Jags, who lost 18-15, once again confounding the sports betting community. Tennessee would blow five consecutive games both straight up and against the sports betting odds after that win, before winning their season finale at home against Detroit. The 2004 sports handicapping lesson from the Titans is that a sports betting player must find ways to stay AHEAD and not BEHIND the sports handicapping curve. Tennessee had reactive sports betting players chasing their tails all year.