Week 3 NFL Picks: Vegas Betting Odds, Over-Under Spreads and Line Projections

It's time for bettors to make a comeback against the house. 

Week 2 was an absolute mess with teams such as the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars winning games. Bettors won't want to overreact to the odd happenings, though, as every team in the league sorts out the usual early-season hiccups.

Bettors can't afford many iffy weekends in a row, though. Good news—the Week 3 slate looks simple enough on the surface. Below, let's take a look at how Las Vegas feels about each game on the slate and offer advice on how to best the house and recoup losses from last week.

Well, for those who didn't believe in Johnny Manziel and Blake Bortles.

NFL Week 3 Odds  

Matchup	Spread	Predicted Winner
Washington vs. New York Giants	NYG -4	NYG 28-17
Atlanta Falcons vs. Dallas Cowboys	E	ATL 33-14
Indianapolis Colts vs. Tennessee Titans	N/A	IND 17-14
Oakland Raiders vs. Cleveland Browns	CLE -3.5	CLE 23-20
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens	BAL -2.5	CIN 24-14
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New England Patriots	NE -14.5	NE 30-13
New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers	CAR -3	CAR 24-23
Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Jets	NYJ -2.5	NYJ 27-20
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Houston Texans	HOU -7	TB 17-10
San Diego Chargers vs. Minnesota Vikings	MIN -1	SD 20-10
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. St. Louis Rams	E	PIT 28-20
San Francisco 49ers vs. Arizona Cardinals	ARI -7	ARI 24-20
Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins	MIA -2.5	MIA 27-24
Chicago Bears vs. Seattle Seahawks	N/A	SEA 36-24
Denver Broncos vs. Detroit Lions	N/A	DEN 20-17
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Green Bay Packers	GB -7.5	GB 28-17

Odds courtesy of Odds Shark.   

Top Early Week 3 Bets

Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens (-2.5)

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Look, an AFC North contest is never the simplest thing in the world to figure out. In recent years, the division has almost acted like the SEC at the collegiate level where the teams just beat the absolute tar out of each other.

Regardless, this line appears a bit off. The Baltimore Ravens play at home for the first time this year but already resemble a hobbled mess. After an offseason in which the defense lost Haloti Ngata, the unit is already without Terrell Suggs for the season.

Baltimore's defense looked respectable in Denver to open the season before the injury, but the Ravens still lost 19-13. Without Suggs, the team traveled west and lost 37-33 to the Oakland Raiders.

Now, folks may want to point out that a trip west is never easy and such jazz, but the Cincinnati Bengals seemed to do just fine against the same Raiders in a 33-13 whipping—before taking down playoff hopeful San Diego 24-19.

In fact, the Bengals might be the hottest team in the league. There's no major injury of note, Tyler Eifert has three touchdowns in two games and Andy Dalton hasn't been sacked behind an elite line and has turned the ball over zero times to five touchdowns.

This isn't to say the Ravens don't stand a chance, but a healthy Bengals team against a hobbled squad screams easy bet, especially after Cincinnati missed some key pieces last season (such as Eifert) and still swept Baltimore in the season series.

Expect the Cincinnati offense to make it 1-0 this year for now.

Prediction: Bengals 24, Ravens 14

Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New England Patriots (-14.5)

This is going to get ugly. 

In all seriousness, the Jacksonville Jaguars deserve praise for a Week 2 win against Miami no matter how bad it hurt bettors. The key, though, is not putting too much stock into Jacksonville's win—Miami looks rough so far, struggling against Washington before the road loss to the Jaguars.

Something to put loads of stock into? Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

The Patriots are 2-0 with 68 points in that span. Brady has completed 69.2 percent of his passes for 754 yards and seven scores against solid Pittsburgh and Buffalo defenses. The scary part is his suggesting after the win in Buffalo that the numbers should look even better.

"We had a lot of good plays, but I think we left a lot of plays out there," Brady said, per ESPN.com. "But it's great to be 2-0."

Don't expect the Patriots to leave many plays against Jacksonville. The Jaguars allowed 20 points to Carolina at home despite Cam Newton having no legitimate targets to throw to on each down. They let up another 20 with the Dolphins in town.

Jacksonville's defense doesn't have anyone who can slow Rob Gronkowski (four touchdowns in two games), but the attention the unit gives him will leave Julian Edelman (22 catches, 194 yards, two scores) underneath.

This is a home contest for New England, too, meaning the week's biggest line really isn't so outlandish.

Prediction: Patriots 30, Jaguars 13

Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Jets (-2.5)

Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

Before the season, the Philadelphia Eagles were one of the last teams most would have picked as bust candidates. Ditto for the New York Jets entering Week 3 undefeated. 

For one reason or another, Chip Kelly's vaunted offense can't seem to move the ball enough behind the arm of Sam Bradford, who has a pair of interceptions in each loss to date.

NFL Network's Chris Wesseling points out one possible issue:

Whether the coaches have intended for Bradford to take such an approach doesn't matter—it's a nightmare situation going into a road encounter with the Jets.

The Jets walloped the Browns in Week 1 31-10. Then the team hit the road in impressive fashion and shut down the Indianapolis Colts 20-7, picking off Andrew Luck three times.

So instead of this looking like a strength vs. strength encounter, it almost looks lopsided.

On offense, the Jets look respectable with Ryan Fitzpatrick under center, who has four scores. Chris Ivory and a stable of backs can play the ball-control approach well. 

The biggest mismatch of all? New York's defensive line against Philadelphia's offensive unit. The former is one of the best units in the league led by Leonard Williams and Muhammad Wilkerson, the latter allows more leaks than a strainer and has helped star back and big-name acquisition DeMarco Murray gain 11 rushing yards in two games.

Eleven.

The Jets are about to have a field day against one mess of a franchise.

Prediction: Jets 27, Eagles 20

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and accurate as of Sept. 22. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.