Titans Still Not Getting Love in Super Bowl Odds
By Jon Helmkamp
The Tennessee Titans are the No. 1 seed in the AFC, are coming off a first-round bye, and have home field advantage throughout the playoffs, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the betting odds.
At WynnBET, the Titans are +800 to win the Super Bowl, fifth on the list. There’s a Rodney Dangerfield “respect” joke in here somewhere.
Titans Are Sleeping Giants
What’s a team have to do to get the nod? They’ve been staunch on defense all year, they have one of the best running backs in the NFL in Derrick Henry coming back, and they’ll be playing at home, where they’re 7-2 this season.
The presence of Henry cannot be understated. While their rushing game has continued to be strong without him, the Titans were eighth in Rush EPA over the first eight weeks of the season with Henry, and dropped to 19th without him. Henry demands the attention of opposing defenses, and the Bengals run defense isn’t great. They ranked 21st in Rush EPA allowed.
Henry is capable of single handedly controlling a game and imposing his will. The Titans will lean on their ground game and their defense to keep Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals' big-play offense off the field.
Titans Win Their Way
Listen, I don’t love the Titans. It’s easy to get enamored by the big-play offenses, and I still think the Bills are the best team in the AFC right now with their first-ranked pass defense and their big play abilities on offense, but even the Bills have a weak spot against the run, which could be a problem if they meet the Titans in the AFC Championship game.
Every team in the playoffs has a flaw. If the Titans, the home-field-advantage-having Titans, are being counted out because of their passing attack this year, that poses great odds to put a bet on.
They win how they want to win, which is by obliterating opposing teams on the ground, dominating the time of possession, and playing good defense. That recipe can work.
This team held the Rams to only 16 points on Nov. 7, beating them by 12. They beat the Chiefs in October, 27-3. They Beat the Bills in October, 34-31. They’ve proven to have the ability to hang with the betting favorites. You can do a lot worse than bet on +800 odds for a No. 1 seed.