Having taken control of the top seed in the AFC, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots will be gunning for their seventh straight victory on Sunday afternoon as increasing favourites on the Week 12 NFL betting lines at the sportsbooks against the visiting Detroit Lions.
The Patriots dismantled the Indianapolis Colts and easily paid out as a road underdog on the weekend, winning their Sunday Night Football matchup by a score of 42-20 with Jonas Gray rushing for a surprising 199 yards and four touchdowns in the victory. Tom Brady completed 19 of his 30 pass attempts for 257 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in that blowout win, which improved New England to 8-2 SU and 6-4 ATS on the season. The Patriots opened as 5.5-point home favourites against the Lions, but that line had already grown to New England -7.5 as of Monday night.
New England heads into Week 12 up two games on the Miami Dolphins and three games on the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East standings, with the Dolphins (6-4 ATS) opening as 7.5-point road underdogs against the Denver Broncos for Week 12 and the Bills (4-6 ATS) pegged as 3.5-point home favourites against the New York Jets. Buffalo is 6-1 ATS in its last seven home games against fellow AFC East teams according to the OddsShark NFL Database.
Andrew Luck and the Colts will try to take out their frustrations at home against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend, with Indianapolis opening as a big 14-point favourite for the contest. The Colts have covered the spread in each of their last four games against the Jaguars. The Philadelphia Eagles, coming off a big loss to the Green Bay Packers, are also big favourites for Week 12 as they opened at -10.5 at home against the Tennessee Titans.
Sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com opened the Packers as 7.5-point road favourites against the Minnesota Vikings for Sunday, with Green Bay up to an 11-point favourite by Monday night. The Oakland Raiders, still looking for their first SU win of the season, opened as 6-point home underdogs against the Kansas City Chiefs for Thursday Night Football.
Elsewhere on the NFL opening lines for Week 12 it was Cleveland at Atlanta (-3), Cincinnati at Houston (pick’em), Tampa Bay at Chicago (-5), Arizona at Seattle (-5.5), St. Louis at San Diego (-6), and Washington at San Francisco (-7.5). The Giants then opened as 2.5-point home underdogs against the Dallas Cowboys for Sunday Night Football, with the New Orleans Saints 3-point home favourites against the Baltimore Ravens for the Monday night game.
