NFL betting: Money is backing the Bills and Eagles on Monday night
Week 2 of the NFL season wraps up on Monday night with a doubleheader. In the earlier game, the Buffalo Bills are 10-point home favorites against the Tennessee Titans. A bit later on, the Philadelphia Eagles are 2.5-point home favorites against the Minnesota Vikings. Three of these four teams look to improve to 2-0, while the Titans look to avoid an 0-2 start after claiming the No. 1 seed in the AFC last season. Who do bettors like ahead of kickoff?
Bettors like Buffalo, lean Philadelphia
The Buffalo Bills sent a message in their Week 1 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. The Bills dominated the defending champions on both sides of the ball en route to a 31-10 victory. They cemented themselves as the betting favorites to win the Super Bowl and Josh Allen opened up a lead in the MVP race as well.
The Tennessee Titans were expected to take a step backward this year, but very few people had them losing straight up as 5.5-point home favorites against the New York Giants.
As a result of the Week 1 scores, the Bills are 10-point home favorites over the Titans. The Titans have beaten the Bills in back-to-back years, but it doesn't seem like bettors care. Currently at BetMGM, 59% of bets and 69% of the money is on Buffalo to cover the massive spread.
In the later game, the action is more split in terms of quantity of bets. Just 51% of bets are backing the Eagles as a 2.5-point home favorite against the Vikings. However, it's worth noting that the split of money wagered is much more pronounced. Currently, 71% of the money is backing the Eagles.
Minnesota kicked its season off with an impressive win over the Packers. Philadelphia looked good against Detroit before letting the Lions back in the game late, which resulted in a back-door cover for Lions bettors. Minnesota and Philadelphia both received significant hype over the offseason and looked solid in their opening games. This should be a tremendous game, but bettors are siding with the home team.
Despite unders cashing everywhere, bettors like the over
Through the first 30 games of the NFL season, unders are 20-10. However, that's not stopping bettors from rooting for points on Monday night.
In the Bills-Titans game, 60% of bets are on the game to go over 47.5 points. In the later game between the Eagles and Vikings, 65% of bets are on the game to go over 50.5 points.
The Bills, Titans and Vikings all went under in their first games of the season. The Eagles' game against the Lions went over. So far, scoring in the first two weeks of the NFL season is down almost five points per game compared to the first two weeks of last season. It's down 7.3 points compared to the first two weeks of 2020.
Eventually, the scoring will pick up. Bettors are expecting that to begin on Monday night.
Popular props
Let's take a look at the three most popular props for each of the two games:
Titans-Bills
The most popular prop bet for the Titans-Bills game is Derrick Henry to score the first touchdown of the game at +700. Obviously, the Titans offense runs through King Henry. Last year against Buffalo, Henry ran for 143 yards and three touchdowns. In 2020, he scored two touchdowns against the Bills. Some people are beginning to show some concern about Henry though. In his two games since returning from last year's injury, Henry has just 144 yards on 41 carries. He can stop that narrative with a big performance on Monday night. Bettors hope he finds the end zone early.
Stefon Diggs is featured in the second- and third-most popular props. Diggs to score at anytime is currently -105 at BetMGM, and it's the second-most popular bet. Diggs going over 75.5 receiving yards is the third-most popular bet. Diggs had 122 yards and a touchdown in the season opener. In two games against Tennessee as a member of the Bills, Diggs has posted lines of 9-89-1 and 10-106-0.
Vikings-Eagles
Unsurprisingly after his 9-184-2 performance in Week 1, Justin Jefferson is a popular bet on Monday night. Jefferson is +650 to score the first touchdown and -120 to score at anytime on Monday, and those are the two most popular bets at BetMGM. He scored the first touchdown of the game in Week 1.
The third-most popular prop bet is Jalen Hurts to go over 50.5 rushing yards. He had 90 rushing yards in Week 1. Including the playoffs, Hurts had an 8-8 over/under record against this rushing total last season.
