Now that the first official point spreads have been released for the 2012 NFL regular season, fans of (and bettors on) the Kansas City Chiefs can know where their team stands in the minds of the oddsmakers coming into this fall. Interestingly enough, it seems that Cantor Gaming doesn’t quite know what to do with Kansas City.
We laid out the official point spreads for all of the Chiefs games here, but to tally it all together, it breaks down like this:
Chiefs Favored:
Oakland Raiders (@ KC)
Denver Broncos (@ KC)
Cincinnati Bengals
Carolina Panthers
Cleveland Browns
Indianapolis Colts
Chiefs Opponent Favored:
Buffalo Bills
New Orleans Saints
San Diego Chargers (@ KC)
Baltimore Ravens
San Diego Chargers (@ SD)
Pittsburgh Steelers
Oakland Raiders (@ Oak)
Pick ’Em (Even):
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlanta Falcons
In short, the Chiefs are favored to win six, lose seven and two games are toss-ups heading into the final game of the season (for which no lines were released). For the Chiefs, their final game is against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos at Mile High.
The spread doesn’t seem to quite know what to do with the Chiefs. Through the first six games of the season, the Chiefs have two games at even with the opponents favored in every other competition. Even the Buffalo Bills are favored by 2.5 (likely from the game being in Buffalo). It’s clear even to Vegas that the Chiefs’ gauntlet comes early in 2012.
On the flip side, the Chiefs end the season favored in nearly every game. The Browns, Colts, Bengals, Broncos and Panthers are all games in which KC is favored from Week 11 onward. That’s a strong way to close out the season. The only game in which the Chiefs are favored in the final third is at Oakland which will likely be a win for the Chiefs unless Oakland surprises everyone.
If the Chiefs can be prepared well enough for the early season challenges, the schedule will be very kind to them in 2012.
Check out Arrowhead Pride for more discussion on the Chiefs upcoming schedule.