Super Bowl Gambling Content:
Tuley: Super Bowl ATS pick | Vegas Experts | PickCenter
I hope everyone had a relaxing bye week, but now we're square in the middle of Super Bowl Week (and the prop bets that everyone seems to be discussing as much as the game itself).
I went 1-0-1 against the spread in the conference title games, as my Atlanta Falcons plus-4 pick against the San Francisco 49ers was a push with the 28-24 San Francisco win (I hope those also on Atlanta were able to get plus-4.5). The Baltimore Ravens were a clear-cut winner with their 28-13 upset of the New England Patriots, so that was nice to head into the Super Bowl off a win after a rough postseason overall for yours truly. In fact, my only two official wins in this column have been on the Ravens with their wins over the Denver Broncos and Patriots.
The dogs have been good on the NFL's biggest stage, going 8-3 ATS the past 11 years with five of those being outright upsets. That hasn't always been the case (at least those of the older generation remember), as Super Bowls in the 1980's and 90's used to be known for blowouts, usually by the favorite. Even when there were upsets, they seemed to be blowouts (Oakland Raiders over Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 in 1981, the Los Angeles Raiders over Washington Redskins 38-9 in 1984, Washington over Denver 42-10 in 1988), but it's interesting to note that with this recent underdog run, faves/dogs are now 22-22-2 ATS in Super Bowl history.
But enough about history. Let's look at this Sunday's game (including some of those ever-popular props).
Matchup: Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers
Spread: 49ers minus-3.5
Public consensus pick: 53 percent picked 49ers