Sportsbooks Shorten Patriots’ Odds for Super Bowl LII
Week 8 of the NFL regular season begins on Thursday as the season closes in on the halfway point of the schedule. After the results of Week 7, odds makers have reshuffled the futures board for Super Bowl LII.
Still sitting atop the board, and making a better case for itself with its Week 7 win over Atlanta are the New England Patriots. The defending Super Bowl champions beat the Falcons easily 23-7 on Sunday Night Football in a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl LI.
Following their 16-point victory at home in Foxborough, the Patriots are once again appearing to be a step above the rest of the NFL and odds makers have rewarded them for that.
Prior to last weekend, New England topped the board at +450, but following its strong play and drubbing of Atlanta, its odds shortened for Super Bowl LII to +325.
The team with the second shortest odds on the board, albeit more than double those of New England, is the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers played two weeks ago on the road and beat Kansas City and followed that with a strong performance at home last week in their 29-14 win over AFC North rivals the Cincinnati Bengals. Pittsburgh is now +700 to win Super Bowl LII.
Rounding out the top five teams with the shortest odds are the Kansas City Chiefs at +900, the Philadelphia Eagles also at +900 and the Seattle Seahawks at +1000.
The team that fell the most following Week 7 was the Green Bay Packers. Despite the Packers losing star quarterback Aaron Rodgers the week before to a broken collarbone, the Packers remained in the mix close to the top of the board with +1600 odds.
However, following their first complete game with Rodgers on the sideline and backup Brett Hundley under center, the team’s offense sputtered in route to a 26-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints and books makers adjusted their odds accordingly.
The Packers’ odds more than doubled following their loss and Green Bay now is +3300 to win Super Bowl LII.
The Los Angeles Rams are considered a legitimate threat to win the NFC West and odds makers have noticed as the Rams are now +1800 to win the Super Bowl. The odds for the Rams are the eighth shortest in the NFL.
