The National Football League doesn’t hand out any hardware for pre-season success.

Just don’t tell Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh that exhibition games don’t matter.

Harbaugh’s Ravens have won an NFL-record 20 straight pre-season games dating back to 2016.

They’ll have a chance to extend the longest pre-season win streak in league history in their exhibition opener tonight against the Tennessee Titans.

FanDuel made Baltimore the biggest favourite in Week 1 of the pre-season at -4.

Is that enough to convince those of us that have been riding the Harbaugh gravy train over the past few pre-seasons to stay away?

Not exactly.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Thursday, August 11th, 2022.

NFL Pre-Season Best Bets

The Ravens are 20-0 straight up and 18-2 against the spread in the pre-season dating back to 2016.

While laying more than a field goal with a team that won’t play its starting quarterback in a pre-season game isn’t the most enticing scenario, four points isn’t enough to convince me to stay away.

 

Since 2010, NFL pre-season favourites that are listed between -3.5 and -7 have covered at a 55.9 per cent rate.

While Lamar Jackson won’t play, Harbaugh has a decent quarterback competition going between Tyler Huntley, Brett Hundley and Anthony Brown.

That trio should be able to put up enough points to give their team a chance to win and cover tonight.

 

You don’t win 20 straight pre-season games unless it’s important to you to establish a specific culture on an annual basis, and coming off a disappointing year in which almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Baltimore, Harbaugh will want to set the tone for a new season with a big win tonight. 

Again, I don’t love the idea of laying more than a field goal in a pre-season game, but it’s not enough to keep me away from going back to the Ravens after riding with them over and over again at this time of the year.

Meanwhile, the New England Patriots will host the New York Giants in the exhibition opener for both teams.

 

The Patriots were initially favoured in this game, but that has flipped as FanDuel now has the Giants as a 3.5-point favourite.

New head coach Brian Daboll is expected to start the majority of his starters as he looks to overhaul the culture in New York and make sure that his team is ready to go for Week 1 of the regular season.

Daboll was the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills when they went 7-0 straight up and against the spread over the past two pre-seasons.

Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley could both play tonight.

 

Meanwhile, Bill Belichick has talked about taking care of fundamentals in New England’s pre-season opener, and it appears as though Mac Jones and the starters on offence aren’t expected to play tonight.

Belichick is 9-2 straight up and 8-3 against the spread in the pre-season since 2018, but he’s dealing with significant turnover to his coaching staff, and it doesn’t appear as though the Patriots are approaching tonight’s game with the same level of urgency as the Giants.

 

These teams have alternated wins and losses in each of the last four pre-seasons, with three of the four games decided by exactly two points.

At this point, I’m interested to see how high this number gets ahead of kick-off tonight.

I’m leaning towards taking the points with the Patriots at +3.5 or higher, but I’m not in a rush to bet it at FanDuel as we wait for confirmation on who will be in and who will be out for New England tonight.

 

Bombers Aim To Stay Perfect On Thursday Night Football

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have won nine straight games to open the 2022 season.

The two-time defending Grey Cup champions will look to stay perfect entering their bye week when they host the Montreal Alouettes on Thursday Night Football.

Winnipeg opened as a 12.5-point favourite at FanDuel, but that number has ticked down to -11.5.

 

CFL favourites are on an 8-2 run both straight up and against the spread over the past two weeks, and that includes the Bombers beating the Calgary Stampeders as a 2.5-point underdog at FanDuel in Week 8.

 

While I lean towards laying the points with a Winnipeg team that just beat the Alouettes by 15 points in a game that was tied entering the fourth quarter in Montreal last week, I’ve already bet a two-team money line parlay with the Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders this week.

The Winnipeg + parlay has cashed for me in three straight weeks, so lets hope it continues this week with wins by the Bombers and Riders on a two-team parlay that you can bet at -139 at FanDuel this morning.

Mets, Dodgers Extend Win Streaks

Wednesday’s FanDuel best bet cashed again with the New York Mets beating the Cincinnati Reds 10-2 and covering the run line at -1.5.

The Mets have won six straight games and have covered the run line in each of their past 12 wins overall.

 

They’re off today before a three-game set with the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers kept pace ahead of the Mets for the best record in baseball with an 8-5 win over the Minnesota Twins.

The Dodgers have won 10 straight games to improve to 77-33 this season.

 

They’ll travel to face the Kansas City Royals this weekend.

MLB favourites went 9-5 on Wednesday.

With the Mets and Dodgers both off today, I’ll have to look elsewhere for a baseball best bet.

Stay tuned.