The Minnesota Vikings’ dreams of a perfect season were squashed last week, as the last remaining undefeated team fell to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Heading into Week 7 at 5-0 the Vikings had been at +700 odds to capture their first championship on the Super Bowl 51 futures. Following their defeat at the hands of the Eagles the Vikings have slipped to +900, good enough for third on the odds list. With a matchup against the hapless Chicago Bears on deck this week Minnesota should return to the win column on Sunday.
The top of the Super Bowl futures still belongs to the New England Patriots at +275. New England reeled off their third straight win last week and sit comfortably atop the AFC East at 6-1. This week New England gets a rematch with the only team to beat them this year when they visit the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills had slowly been climbing up the Super Bowl futures, but that came to a quick halt last week. Buffalo had reached +3300 heading into last week’s matchup with the Miami Dolphins. After losing to the Dolphins as a favorite the Bills were knocked down to +5000 on the current Super Bowl futures.
The biggest riser on the odds list this week are the Indianapolis Colts. If your reaction to that news was ‘huh?, you’re not alone. The Colts were listed at +5000 last week before they defeated the Tennessee Titans 34-26 as a 3.5-point underdog. With that win the Colts are still only 3-4 on the season, but the oddsmakers thought enough of them to bump them up to +2500 on the Super Bowl futures.
If the Colts want to prove they’re really Super Bowl contenders and continue moving up the odds they will get their chance the next two weeks with games against the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers.
Oddsmakers had to deal with a rare tie game last week, and it had an effect on the two teams in the game differently on the Super Bowl futures. For anyone who missed it (and be glad you did because it was an awful game), the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals tied 6-6 last week.
For Seattle it didn’t mean much as they held steady at +750 in the No. 2 slot on the Super Bowl futures. For Arizona it meant a slim drop as they went from +1400 to +1600. During their roller coaster season the Cardinals have been all over the map on the futures since starting the year at +1000.
One other team bettors may want to continue to watch on the Super Bowl futures are the defending-champion Denver Broncos. After snapping their two-game losing streak last week the Broncos moved back up the odds list to +1400. Their brief losing streak had dropped them down to +2000, which is also where they opened the season.