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2* ‘OVER’ 34 1/2 in the Hall of Fame game between NY Giants and Buffalo Bills
The price opened on the total at 32 ½, was 34 on Saturday, and is now at or approaching 35. There are some 34 ½’s left as we release this total late Saturday night. Curiously eight of the 10 Hall of Fame games have played ‘OVER’ with a total of 35 points or less. Both of these teams plan to get to the line quickly and get the snap off early on the possession clock. Last year preaching an up-tempo pace, the Bills had the NFL’s second-quickest offense, averaging 24.7 seconds of possession per play. Only the Philadelphia Eagles were faster. Yet the Bills’ speed didn’t translate into points. They had the NFL’s most offensive drives (214) but ranked 25th in points per drive. Moreover, the Bills had the NFL’s seventh-highest percentage of drives that ended without a first down or touchdown. The Bills aren’t backing down from their vow to hasten their offensive pace, either. Coach Doug Marrone and offensive coordinator Nate Hackett brought a no-huddle system from Syracuse, and they are sticking with it this season. “It needs to be moving a lot faster,” Marrone said Wednesday of the offense’s pace. “Obviously we’re installing again, so we’re reinstalling, and in the back of my mind that might tend to slow things down a little bit, but my expectation is to be right on the money with it, so we need to be faster.” Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hacket concurs. “We look back at last year, and those first four games when EJ had a lot of run going on, it was awesome,” Hackett said, via the Buffalo News. “We were really rolling. It’s funny. You look back on it and as the season went on, with the changes we had at that position, it slowed down. The better we get, the more we have of the understanding of the offense, the faster we can go.” The Bills ran 69.8 plays a game last year, behind only the Broncos and Patriots, two teams that have masters of the no-huddle offense at quarterback in Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Manuel may have a long way to go before he’s that kind of quarterback, but Hackett says Manuel has made huge strides. “It’s so much more fun now,” Hackett said. “Not having him as a first-year guy where you sit there and say a word to him and he goes, ‘What is that? OK, that’s what it is, now I go run that.’ Now it comes natural to him, and he can go play football. He can understand what’s happening to him, he can understand where he should go with the ball. So his advancement is growing rapidly, just even in the first couple days of practice.” Meanwhile the Giants will play up-tempo with new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo (from Green Bay) and new quarterbacks’ coach Danny Langsdorf, who predicted Eli Manning will complete 70 percent of his passes. I’ll go ‘OVER’ the 34 ½ as a 2* top opinion Sunday.
2* ‘OVER’ 34 1/2 in the Hall of Fame game between NY Giants and Buffalo Bills
The price opened on the total at 32 ½, was 34 on Saturday, and is now at or approaching 35. There are some 34 ½’s left as we release this total late Saturday night. Curiously eight of the 10 Hall of Fame games have played ‘OVER’ with a total of 35 points or less. Both of these teams plan to get to the line quickly and get the snap off early on the possession clock. Last year preaching an up-tempo pace, the Bills had the NFL’s second-quickest offense, averaging 24.7 seconds of possession per play. Only the Philadelphia Eagles were faster. Yet the Bills’ speed didn’t translate into points. They had the NFL’s most offensive drives (214) but ranked 25th in points per drive. Moreover, the Bills had the NFL’s seventh-highest percentage of drives that ended without a first down or touchdown. The Bills aren’t backing down from their vow to hasten their offensive pace, either. Coach Doug Marrone and offensive coordinator Nate Hackett brought a no-huddle system from Syracuse, and they are sticking with it this season. “It needs to be moving a lot faster,” Marrone said Wednesday of the offense’s pace. “Obviously we’re installing again, so we’re reinstalling, and in the back of my mind that might tend to slow things down a little bit, but my expectation is to be right on the money with it, so we need to be faster.” Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hacket concurs. “We look back at last year, and those first four games when EJ had a lot of run going on, it was awesome,” Hackett said, via the Buffalo News. “We were really rolling. It’s funny. You look back on it and as the season went on, with the changes we had at that position, it slowed down. The better we get, the more we have of the understanding of the offense, the faster we can go.” The Bills ran 69.8 plays a game last year, behind only the Broncos and Patriots, two teams that have masters of the no-huddle offense at quarterback in Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Manuel may have a long way to go before he’s that kind of quarterback, but Hackett says Manuel has made huge strides. “It’s so much more fun now,” Hackett said. “Not having him as a first-year guy where you sit there and say a word to him and he goes, ‘What is that? OK, that’s what it is, now I go run that.’ Now it comes natural to him, and he can go play football. He can understand what’s happening to him, he can understand where he should go with the ball. So his advancement is growing rapidly, just even in the first couple days of practice.” Meanwhile the Giants will play up-tempo with new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo (from Green Bay) and new quarterbacks’ coach Danny Langsdorf, who predicted Eli Manning will complete 70 percent of his passes. I’ll go ‘OVER’ the 34 ½ as a 2* top opinion Sunday.
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