ATL WEEK 1 - LET'S PLAY FOOTBALL!

[MickeyDavis]

First game tonight. Eagles getting no respect in Vegas:

The defending champs aren't getting much respect in Las Vegas.

Entering the first week of the NFL regular season, a number of teams -- including the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers -- had better odds to win the Super Bowl than the Philadelphia Eagles did.

The Eagles were listed at 14-1 on Thursday to win the Super Bowl at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. The New England Patriots, at 6-1, are the consensus favorite for a third straight season, with significantly better odds than the Eagles, who beat the Patriots in last season's Super Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers, New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams are each 10-1, followed by the Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Chargers and Texans at 12-1.

At 14-1, the Eagles have the worst preseason odds for a defending Super Bowl champion since the Baltimore Ravens kicked off their title defense in 2013 at 30-1.

Even at the longer odds, bettors haven't shown much interest in Philadelphia. As of Tuesday, 10 teams had attracted more bets to win the Super Bowl at the Westgate than the Eagles, including the New York Giants.

Ed Malinowski, sportsbook director for Stratosphere in Las Vegas, described the betting interest on the Eagles at his shop as "middle of the road."

"There are a ton of teams that have a lot more action [than the Eagles]," Malinowski said.

That includes Philadelphia's opener Thursday night at home against the Atlanta Falcons. The betting action has been lopsided on the underdog Falcons -- even at the new sportsbooks in New Jersey that are just a few hours' drive away from Philadelphia. At William Hill sportsbooks in Nevada and New Jersey, 78 percent of the money bet on the game was on Atlanta. FanDuel and DraftKings each reported at their New Jersey sportsbooks Tuesday that more than 80 percent of the money on the game was on the Falcons.

The line on Falcons-Eagles had shrunk as low as Philadelphia minus-1 as of Thursday morning. It had been as high as Eagles minus-5.5 this summer.

A lot of the line movement is caused by the Eagles' quarterback situation, according to Ed Salmons, head football oddsmaker at the Westgate.

"No one knows when [Carson] Wentz is going to be back," Salmons said. "And it became pretty clear to everyone in the preseason, when he didn't play at all, that he wasn't going to play Week 1."

Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles will start at quarterback until Wentz is cleared to return from a knee injury.

While there is a lack of interest in the defending champions, bettors are flocking to the Rams. More bets had been placed on the Rams to win the Super Bowl than on any other team at the Westgate, and more money has been bet on coach Sean McVay's team than on any other team at William Hill books.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Buffalo Bills are the biggest Super Bowl long shots on the board at the Westgate, each listed at 300-1.

[MickeyDavis]

Games I'm interested in this week:

Niners at Vikings. Let's see if Jimmy G can continue where he left off. GO NINERS

Texans at Patriots. Watson back. Watt back. GO TEXANS.

Bucs at Saints. Have to root against the Saints every game. GO BUCS

Jets at Lions. Darnold starting game 1. GO JETS.

Rams at Raiders. Lots of Rams hype and expectations.

[RRyder823]

Just how quickly Steelers players are to bury Bell on this raises some red flags. For the most part players stay out of other players business publicly when it comes to their money regardless of how they feel behind closed doors.

The fact that they were so quick to throw him under the bus raises questions for me about Bells personality in the locker room.

I'm not opposed to Bell using his leverage to get what he can just sayin these guys were quick to burn bridges and that raises concerns

I mean I was going up against Bell week one in fantasy. Get your money Bell

Sent from my SM-G892A using RealGM mobile app

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[Mags FTW]

Tonight’s line has moved from PHI -4 at Open to ATL -1.

[rilamann]

This is why I love the NFL, first game of the season and there's already big playoff implications on the line. Both of these teams I see in that 10-6/11-5 range.

Kind of excited to see Ridley tonight, he was the guy I wanted in the draft. I am happy we ended up with Alexander, I wanted Ridley, but it's not a Reuben Foster situation for me like it was last season. I think Alexander is going to be a good one.

[Mags FTW]

Kickoff delayed because of lightning. Half hour at least.

[RiotPunch]

LOL Dan Quinn.

[Mags FTW]

These red zone stalls will have us appreciating Graham.

[Mags FTW]

6-3 game. 15 penalties. League must be thrilled.

[StickeeFingaz]

Green zone is stupid and this game is making me sleepy.

[Mags FTW]

RPO for the Eagles is more like “we may run the ball one out of ten times, so watch out”.

[Rockmaninoff]

One of the worst games ever thus far?

I appreciate good defense, but this is flat, sloppy, poorly officiated crap in between commercials.

[humanrefutation]

This Eagles offense is turrible

[MickeyDavis]

Zzzzzzz

[MickeyDavis]

Terrible game

[MickeyDavis]

22 accepted penalties so far

[MickeyDavis]

Missed xp, no OT. Thank God

[HKPackFan]

I think the reality is the first couple weeks of the regular season is now preseason that counts.

What I mean by that is, with all the restricted practicing for player safety, and all the precautions of withholding players to prevent injury, none of these units truly play together. Maybe teams get a quarter of time all together. Rodgers got like 1 drive in the entire preseason. The oline starting 5 never played together the entire preseason.

I doubt that's the exception, why risk injury in games that don't count when it's a game of attrition. If you are decently healthy in December and have a decent team you have a legit shot. Winning in Nov/Dec is way more important than winning in Aug/Sept.

In the old days we used to watch starters get a couple of games worth reps in preseason, that's over and it's never coming back.

So we might as well get used to the first 2 or 3 weeks of September watching games that count but look sloppy like preseason. It's just the nature of things. I know I'd rather go 4-0 in December instead of 4-0 in September.

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter