"Despite the success of the favorites," Kornegay said, "we had a pretty good morning."
The New York Giants closed as 1½-point favorites at Washington in a public-versus-sharps showdown. I was on the wrong side with the public. The wiseguys were right about the Redskins, who won 20-14 to tie the Giants for first place in the NFC East at 5-6, and the books took that decision, too.
"There wasn't much of an opportunity to reload in the afternoon," Rood said, "and the Steelers seemed to be the side most people fell on."
Arizona, which failed to cover in a lackluster 19-13 win at San Francisco, also dealt the betting public a bad hand.
"We went 2-for-2 in the afternoon, and both of them were sizable decisions," Kornegay said. "We won our biggest decision of the day on the Cardinals."
New England closed as a 2½-point favorite at Denver in the most anticipated game of the day. Tom Brady staked the Patriots to leads of 14-0 and 21-7 before they lost tight end Rob Gronkowski and the lead. Peyton Manning was missing, but Brock Osweiler rallied the Broncos, throwing a go-ahead touchdown pass with 1:09 left in the fourth quarter after getting a big assist by a questionable defensive holding call.
"It's not a huge decision for us, but we certainly needed the Broncos," Kornegay said. "The Patriots had the most tickets on them of any team this weekend."
The prop tickets on the Patriots going 16-0 are trash. And as a bitter side note, losing the Steelers and Patriots wrapped up my first 0-5 week in NFL handicapping since 2012.
On the surface, the last game of the week looks like garbage. But Baltimore-Cleveland has a curious smell to bookmakers. The Browns are 3½-point favorites, and it never smells right when teams such as Cleveland and Jacksonville are favored by more than a field goal.
"We are massive Ravens fans. We've got absolutely zero money on the Ravens to massive money on the Browns," Rood said. "It will be easily the biggest Monday night decision of the year."