Week 9 Lines - an early view

So Dallas did the business comfortably taking us to 6 & 0. It was another exciting night of action made easier by the horrible defense of Seattle.

Reading the Racing Post yesterday I was suprised to see their NFL writer tipping up Seattle to win especially as his arguements seemed to further enhance the view of Nutty Sports. He opened with the facts that The Seahawks were suufering with injuries and had just lost LB Lofa Tatupu for the season yet still took on an improving Dallas side. To give him his dues he did call it right with Baltimore and Oakland.

The Ravens sent Denver back to reality with a crushing display and San Diego were not even close to covering the 17 point start given to divisional rivals Oakland. I had thought Oakland may be a team to study as Vegas were slowly increasing their handicaps but they are on a bye week in week 9 so we will have to wait.

On to my lines for week 9, which I have ensured are the correct fixtures this week and have published below.

at Cincinnati -3.5 Baltimore
at Chicago -5 Arizona
at Atlanta -6.5 Washington
Green Bay -6 @ Tampa Bay
at New England -9 Miami
at Jacksonville -5.5 Kansas
at Indianapolis -4.5 Houston
at New Orleans -7 Carolina
at Seattle -6.5 Detroit
at San Francisco -3.5 Tennesse
at New York Giants -3.5 San Diego
at Philadelphia -2.5 Dallas
Pitsburgh -2.5 @ Denver

Byes: Buffalo, Cleveland, Minnesota, NY Jets, Oakland and St Louis.

I'm sure the Jets will be pleased for a rest week to try and regroup after what has been a bad few weeks for them.

Tough games to compile this week included Houston @ Indianapolis. As you know I've struggled to get Houston right this season so far but The Colts did not look as impressive against The 49ers yesterday and I wouldn't want to give them to much to do in the AFC South match up.

Denver face reigning champions Pitsburgh after their first defeat of the season and it will be interesting to see if they are capable of bouncing back with what would be a great victory or if The Steelers have found the right time to play them.

Another divisional match up for Philadelphia this week sees Dallas head to Lincoln Financial Field and the winner will take outright leadership in the NFC East after the Giants lost their 3rd game in a row. As a Giants fan it is a worrying time. They did have a decent start to the season but as soon as they came up against teams with winning records they struggled. They must beat The Chargers this week to get back on track.

I will post The lines from Vegas tomorrow - its normally better to wait until the completion of the Monday night game which could be a cracker as Atlanta travel to New Orleans.