There were several surprises in week 1 of the NFL season.
Some teams disappointed, while other teams may have improved their season outlook with a quality week 1 showing.
Here are the three teams that fared best against the spread in week 1.
Tennessee Titans +31 ATS
The Titans actually entered Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay as a three-point underdog.
By the end of the first quarter, this game was already over.
Marcus Mariota looked far better than his rookie counterpart Jameis Winston. Mariota hurled four touchdowns against no interceptions, while Winston’s first NFL regular season pass went for six points — in favor of the Titans with a pick-six.
We’re not hopping on the Titans bandwagon yet. This win might say more about the Buccaneers’ defense rather than this new explosive Tennessee offense. The Bucs were terrible on defense last year, and this past week didn’t do much to restore optimism on that side of the ball.
Tennessee did this last year, too, with a big win against Kansas City. We all know how that played out.
New York Jets +17.5 ATS
The first two teams on this list are teams that last year didn’t do much winning. After week 1, though, they look like they may be able to compete.
The Jets entered Sunday’s game as a 3.5-point favorite against Cleveland, and won by 21 points in one of the more lopsided games of the day.
Let’s not get too carried away, though. Cleveland’s starting quarterback Josh McCown went out of the game early with a concussion, and the Johnny Football train came rolling in, and proceeded to halt any offensive momentum the Browns may have had with McCown.
Like we predicted, the Jets ran the ball at will against a leaky run defense of the Browns. That’s concerning for Cleveland, and for the Jets, this win shouldn’t be reason for more optimism this season.
Week 1 is all about matchups and for the Jets, this matchup worked well in their favor. We’ll see in the next few weeks if that offense can continue to move the ball. We’re guessing it won’t and that week 1 was only a mirage.
Cincinnati Bengals +17 ATS
We don’t want to overreact to week 1, but maybe we were a bit wrong about the Bengals.
Cincinnati demolished Oakland, which wasn’t competitive at all in this game. Even before Derek Carr got injured, this game was already out of hand.
The Raiders didn’t show anything on offense or defense, and that was surprising. Cincinnati, once again, went about its business and methodically pounded the Raiders through the air and on the ground.
We’re beginning to backtrack on the Bengals a bit. There’s just something about this team that doesn’t have much flash, but it gets the job done. With the Ravens, Browns and Steelers all losing this weekend, the Bengals may be the class of that division.
