Football! It's back, it's real and it's spectacular. While there's still a pandemic in the background, it feels vastly different from a year ago, when football legitimately could have just disappeared. Now we have fans in the stands and it could present some interesting betting opportunities -- at the very least it's going to create wildly different game situations for these players.
After a year of being able to easily communicate in empty stadiums, quarterbacks now will have to adjust to mildly different environments. If you don't believe me, watch this goosebumps-inducing video of Virginia Tech blasting "Enter Sandman" ahead of its huge upset of North Carolina last Friday night.
There are at least three starting quarterbacks -- Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa and Joe Burrow -- who have not played against NFL defenses on the road with full stadiums of fans losing their minds. I'm not suggesting they'll crumble or anything this season, but road games are going to be more difficult (and probably some home games for Herbert). It felt like college football delivered a pretty big home-field advantage in some situations. So the trend warrants monitoring this week in the NFL as well.
Before we get to the picks, big shoutout to Ryan Satsky, Justin Page and the entire CBS Sports research team. That crew puts an insane amount of work into creating these massive packets of info for us and don't get nearly enough credit for how hard they grind behind the scenes.
NFL Week 1 Picks
Cowboys at Buccaneers
Thursday, 8:20 p.m. ET
TV: NBC | Stream: fuboTV (click here)
Follow: CBS Sports App
Let's not sugar coat this. If you want to back the guy who brought out an "Austin Powers" meme in front of a bunch of 25-year-old kids instead of backing the single greatest player in NFL history, who recently declared that his favorite ring was his next while preparing to appear as the oldest defending Super Bowl champion quarterback in NFL history, backed by 22 returning starters and an elite defense captained by Todd Bowles, who got shafted by the Jets and Devin White, who you should bet for DPOY and Lavonte David, the most criminally underrated linebacker in the NFL over the last five years, plus Vita Vea/Ndamukong Suh going up against an offensive line without Zack Martin, by all means go ahead.
The pick: Buccaneers 35, Cowboys 24
Props, Best Bets: Over 51.5, Tom Brady 1st TD (40-1), Antonio Brown over 4.5 receptions, O.J. Howard anytime TD +490
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