NFL Preseason Totals and Rest
The NFL preseason is vastly different from the regular season in a number of ways. One way is simply the schedule.During the regular season you can assume there will be games on Sunday and the Monday night game, although with the typical Thursday night game during the second half of the season. There will also be an opening week Thursday night game this year, with a rematch between Minnesota and New Orleans, but the next Thursday night game won't be until Nov. 11.
Preseason is a different beast altogether, as there are games scheduled throughout the week. For the 2010 preseason, between Aug. 12 and Aug. 29, there are just four days where there are no games scheduled.
Because of the scheduling factors, there are weeks where both teams are playing a game just four or five days after their most recent game, just as there are teams who have 9 or 10 days between games.
Days Between Games and Totals
Since the start ofthe 2003 season, several trends have developed that relate to the number of days off both teams have between games. In games where both teams have five or fewer days between games, the over is just 18-22-2, which is only 45%.In games where both teams have nine or more days between games we see the opposite, as the over is 10-6-1, which equates 62.5%.
Likewise, in games where both teams have the traditional six to eight days between games, the over is 96-91, which is pretty much break even.
Naturally, what we want to look for are those games involving two teams which are coming off short practice weeks or elongated practice weeks and bet accordingly.
