NFL Week 16 Officiating Angles: Finding Edges in Colts-Falcons, Cardinals-Bears and Giants-Eagles
We went 3-0 last week, bringing this column to 28-17 (+9.3 units) on the year. We cashed the Lions and 49ers spreads and the Over in Steelers-Colts. With the season winding down, let's see if we can stack some profits.Â
Joe Gibbs (not the Hall of Fame coach, the NFL referee expert who tweets @NFLrefstats1) is collaborating with SportsLine to provide weekly, referee-based betting angles. He analyzes the NFL ref assignments from the moment they're released each Tuesday.
Before you make any Week 16 NFL picks or NFL parlays, you need to see what Gibbs and SportsLine senior analyst Larry Hartstein have to say about the officiating crews' tendencies.
We can tell you Hartstein and Gibbs are betting Atlanta (-2.5) over the visiting Colts, in part because Alan Eck drew the assignment. Home teams are 10-3 straight up and 9-4 against the spread in Eck's first season as a head referee. "Eck was a member of John Hussey's crew prior to this season, and he has been a strong home field referee like Hussey," Gibbs said.
Eck's crew has called 23% of its overall penalties on defensive backs, below the NFL average. The crew ranks in the bottom three in calling defensive pass interference and defensive holding. The Atlanta defense is a top-three penalized unit for passing penalties, primarily DPI and defensive holding.
In addition, Eck's crew has called an abovre-average 53% of its overall penalties on the offense. Forty-four percent of Atlanta's penalties are committed by its offense, compared to 51% for the Colts.
Hartstein also is sharing key officiating angles in Cardinals-Bears and Giants-Eagles. You need to see this critical referee data before locking in your picks!
So which side of Cardinals-Bears has the edge? And what other officiating edges can be found on the Week 16 slate? ... Join SportsLine right now to see Larry Hartstein's Week 16 NFL officiating trends, all from the expert who went 53-34-3 in the SuperContest last year!
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