Key Trends and Stats For Weekend Football Betting

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Special to Outkick The Coverage courtesy of OddsShark.com

The NFL betting public got clobbered in Week 2 as upsets galore dotted the landscape and basically shut down the stream of winning tickets at sportsbook windows. But another week offers another opportunity and it's not likely NFL fans get scared off by a bad week.

Here are some interesting stats, trends and observations for the NFL and college football this weekend, courtesy of FoxSports.com's longtime lines partner OddsShark.

Big Dogs for da Bears

The line is slowly getting bet down, but when it opened at 16 points this week, it was the biggest point spread involving the Chicago Bears as an underdog in nearly 20 years. Back on Dec. 6, 1998, the Steve Stenstrom-led Bears got smacked 48-22 by the Minnesota Vikings.

Fast forward to 2015 and the Bears get between 14 and 15 points at books monitored by OddsShark.com as they visit 0-2 Seattle.

The Jaguars, far more accustomed to huge underdog numbers, are also dogged by more than two TDs at New England. The Patriots have not been very kind to backers in this situation, as their 2-8 ATS streak as double-digit home favorites would indicate, so buyer beware.

In college, Alabama remains the biggest chalk of the week at -38, fresh off a home upset loss to Ole Miss and fretting that UL-Monroe might duplicate their epic upset of 2007. Baylor lays 34.5 points at home to Rice in the next biggest number of Week 4.

Big Line Moves

The biggest college line move of the week was in Thursday's Cincinnati-Memphis game. The line opened at -4 and climbed to 10 points.

Elsewhere, the betting public is pounding Ohio State, who opened at -27.5 against Western Michigan but now faces a 32-point line at the Westgate in Vegas.

The biggest NFL line move so far is three points in the Houston vs Tampa Bay game. Books monitored by OddsShark.com opened the host Texans at -4, but it was -7 midday Friday at one shop and -6.5 at most others.

Big Consensus Numbers

Fans who like to follow the betting public seldom see such a huge disparity as in the Carolina-New Orleans game. Currently, 89% of the bets coming in on the OddsShark.com consensus data are on the UNDER 44.5.

For comparison sake, the next-highest total is 71% on the OVER in Indy vs Tennessee.

On the point spread, 65% of bettors are currently backing the Atlanta Falcons at Dallas and the same number is behind the Buffalo Bills (+3) at Miami.

In college, nearly 70% of bettors are on Texas A&M (-7) as they visit Arkansas Saturday. If you wondered how the betting public is viewing the aforementioned Bama spread, they are voting with two of every three bettors siding with the UL-Monroe at +38.

See the latest football odds here on FoxSports and check out more stats, matchup reports, injury updates and sortable defensive stats at OddsShark.com.

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Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021. One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape. Throughout the college football season, Travis is on Big Noon Kickoff for Fox Sports breaking down the game and the latest storylines. Additionally, Travis serves as a co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour conservative radio talk program syndicated across Premiere Networks radio stations nationwide. Previously, he launched OutKick The Coverage on Fox Sports Radio that included interviews and listener interactions and was on Fox Sports Bet for four years. Additionally, Travis started an iHeartRadio Original Podcast called Wins & Losses that featured in-depth conversations with the biggest names in sports. Travis is a graduate of George Washington University as well as Vanderbilt Law School. Based in Nashville, he is the author of Dixieland Delight, On Rocky Top, and Republicans Buy Sneakers Too.