The Recency Report: NFL Week 2 Market Moves And Week 3 Lookahead Lines

The Lines is here to provide you additional sports betting resources and information you can bet on. That includes advance lookahead lines for the following week’s NFL games along with some of the weekly market moves, storylines and betting situations to assist you in your pursuit of profit.

Week 2 Market movement

Week 2 of the NFL season can be coined "overreaction week" as bettors react to opening week upsets, unexpected results and gauge the betting lines without fully knowing how teams will respond.

Some notable line moves since the Week 2 lines were released by FanDuel Sportsbook include:

• Atlanta at Dallas: The Cowboys have been bet down sharply from the opener and lookahead line of -7. Dallas is currently a 4.5-point favorite after suffering a 20-17 Week loss to the LA Rams. The Falcons also lost in Week 1 to the Seattle Seahawks  38-25.
• Buffalo at Miami: The Bills are taking money and are up to a 6-point favorite at Miami. The lookahead line was -3 and Miami's offensive struggles in losing Week 1 at New England, 21-11, has impacted the line.
• LA Rams at Philadelphia: Injuries on the Eagles have impacted this line to move downward to Philly now just a 1.5-point favorite at FanDuel and -1 at DraftKings after opening -4.5. Philadelphia allowed eight sacks and blew a 17-0 lead in losing at Washington 27-17 last week while the Rams beat the Cowboys 20-17 as a home underdog.
• The Jacksonville Jaguars (+9) have also taken money at Tennessee following their big Week 1 upset of fellow AFC South rival Indianapolis. DraftKings has dropped the line to Jaguars +8.5 after opening +10.5.

Week 3 Lookahead lines and matchups

Week 3 match-ups and odds are unusual with no division games.

• A Week 3 game of note is Houston at Pittsburgh, as the Texans' opening slate is very tough. Houston lost at Kansas City in Week 1 and have to tackle the Baltimore Ravens for a win as home underdog in Week 2 to avoid an 0-2 start. The Texans' Super Bowl odds rose to +8000 at PointsBet following their Week 1 loss.
• If Green Bay and New Orleans win as favorites in Week 2, then this is the marquee Sunday match-up and one of the most bet games in Week 3 as both will be 2-0. The Saints will enter off a Monday night game in Las Vegas, and New Orleans is the early-season NFC favorite to reach the Super Bowl.
• The Arizona Cardinals pulled the opening week upset at San Francisco, and the Cardinals are favored at home in Week 3 against the Detroit Lions. In fact, the Cardinals will likely be favored on the road at Carolina in Week 4 and at the New York Jets in Week 5. Get your Super Bowl futures bets in now on the Cardinals as a potential 5-0 start would drop their Super Bowl odds significantly. Arizona is +3500 to win it all at FanDuel entering Week 2.
• The biggest early-season game of the year is on Monday night when the Baltimore Ravens host the Kansas City Chiefs. Baltimore is a projected 2.5-point favorite. The Ravens and Chiefs are the two early season favorites to win the Super Bowl and both are currently +550 at FanDuel.

How to use lookahead lines

We’ll be updating the NFL advance lines each week to allow you a sneak peak at the projected lines for the following week’s games. This advance information from a big bookmaker provides lessons in understanding lines and projections before the current week’s games are played.

The tendencies for many bettors is to over-react to previous weeks’ scores and results. The lookahead lines provide a sense of stability from the linemaker, who is unbiased in setting the lines in advance without the information from the current week’s contests.

Bettors can also gain an edge or find value in the lines once the current week’s lines are released. They do this based on not only a potential over-reaction to the recent week’s results, but by using information they have on teams, including power rankings. Making adjustments is part of the process, along with formulating an opinion on certain teams. This can be based on personnel, injuries, situations and stats that come to light as the season progresses.