Edelman Could Make a World of Difference For Patriots
By Charles Jay
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The New England Patriots did not exactly finish the season like a speeding locomotive. In fact, after getting off to a 10-0 start, they lost four of their last six games, including two in a row to end the campaign. Thus, they blew the home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, but they can say that they are getting healthier as they head into the AFC Divisional Round matchup on Saturday against the Kansas City Chiefs, who currently sport an 11-game winning streak. This contest will kick off at 4:35 PM ET at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA, and while CBS televises it, Vietbet customers can place wagers while the action is in progress using the option of Live Betting Extra, which provides literally of real a minute.
Broncos vs Steelers – Vietbet NFL BETTING LINE:
In the reduced juice football playoff odds posted on this game by the people at Vietbet, the Patriots are the favorites at home:
New England Patriots -5 (-103)
Kansas City Chiefs +5 (-107)
Over 42 points -105
Under 42 points -105
Head coach Bill Belichick might be someone roughly analogous to Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, in that the highest playoff position sometimes has to take a backseat to the health of his starters. One of the guys he could probably have used last week in Miami (a 20-10 loss) was Julian Edelman, who has been sitting out since November 15 with a foot injury. But Belichick is going to have him in the lineup, and as we will illustrate, he makes a world of difference in the effectiveness of Tom Brady.
Kansas City, after they are 30-0 shutout of the Houston Texans in the wild-card round, are 12-5 straight-up and 9-8 against the football pointspread. The Patriots are 12-4 straight-up and 7-7-2 ATS. The Chiefs had four interceptions of Houston’s Brian Hoyer last week, which means that in 17 games they have picked off 26 passes. Unfortunately for them, New England is very rarely in a “giving” mood along those lines.
There are several members of the Patriots who are banged up and were really able to take advantage of the extra rest provided by a first-round bye. One of those is Brady himself, who suffered an ankle injury against the Dolphins that turned out to be something rather minor. Here’s a quick review of his stats – he’s thrown for 4770 yards with 36 touchdowns in only seven interceptions, averaging 7.6 yards per attempt.
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But his effectiveness takes a dip when he doesn’t have Edelman in the lineup. In fact, the Patriots have converted only 31% of their third-down situations without Edelman, and Brady completes only 59% of his passes when he has not had his main target on the field. So obviously it is critical that the former Kent State quarterback (61 receptions, 692 yards) is healthy and ready to play, and it is said that he has been practicing for the last three weeks.
Vietbet patrons may have also heard about a rather bizarre incident involving defensive Chandler Jones, who leads the team with 12.5 sacks. On Sunday, Jones went to a Foxborough police station begging for help, and was later taken in an ambulance to the hospital. Apparently he had a very negative reaction to synthetic marijuana in his system, and responded in a very strange way. He was back on the practice field mid-week, however, and all indications are that he will continue to lead this pass rushing unit that has posted 49 sacks, second in the NFL only to Denver.
One other thing to keep in mind is that while Kansas City has based a lot of its success on takeaways, New England has given the ball away only 14 times on the season, so if Brady and his teammates are not in a charitable mood, the Chiefs will have to find a “Plan B” in order to win this game.
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