Welcome to Week 5 of the 2024 NFL season. It’s been a little up and down this season, with favorites failing more often than not.
Week 4 was no different, and 9 of the 12 games had spreads of 3.5 or fewer points, making it that much more difficult from a handicapping perspective. In Week 5, we have just 4 games with a spread of 4 or more points.
In Week 5, we also have the 1st of 3 straight weekends with a morning kickoff from the United Kingdom at 9:30 a.m. ET. Bye weeks are kicking in, too. Because of the byes, there are fewer games in the 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. windows Sunday, so we must choose more wisely.
Last week, we played the Over (44.5) in the Jacksonville Jaguars-Houston Texans game but missed by just a half-point. It got worse. The Cleveland Browns lost to a Las Vegas Raiders team missing its best offensive player, and its best defensive player. And, we expected defense to rule the Monday Night Football game between the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions, but it turned into a track meet at Ford Field instead. We’ll do better in Week 5.