It was a party weekend for the House as five heavily backed teams crashed and burned on the NFL gridiron. The public party crashers included the Steelers and Falcons, but the biggest disappointments were the Bills, Colts and Chargers. Those three clubs entered Week 7 as four or more point favorites, but each was the victim of an outright upset on Sunday.
Buffalo, even with second-string quarterback E.J. Manuel at the controls, was favored by 4.5 points in their London showdown with the Jaguars. And the public liked the Bills at that number (63 percent were on Rex Ryan’s squad to cover the spread) largely because Jacksonville owned just one win and had lost its other five games by an average of 13.2 points per contest.
Buffalo out-gained the Jags by 80 yards, but 10 penalties and four turnovers, including two picks by the aforementioned Manuel, resulted in a 31-34 loss.
Indy and San Diego bit the dust in similar fashion, combining for five turnovers in 21-27 and 29-37 losses to New Orleans and Oakland, respectively. They were both getting nearly 70-percent of the public’s money.