Chris flies solo this week as Paul is recovering from a well-earned vacation. Week 2 was an absolutely outstanding week for our crowd and perhaps an unbeatable individual performance by one of our competitors, but it unfortunately also featured some truly devastating injuries. I’ll cover all the results and cover what the injuries mean to the league.

Show Notes

Barrel Wagers & Whiskey

• A barrel wager is a prediction in which we’re so confident we’d wager everything we own… but that if we get it wrong we’d be left wearing nothing but a barrel.

• The Whiskey of the Week: Bad Dog Distillery out of Arlington, Washington, about an hour north of Seattle. I’m drinking their Grandpa’s Rye and it is quite tasty. I highly recommend it.
• Chris – Chiefs to cover the 9.5 at the Chargers
  • I said in my tweet that picking another road barrel wager might cost me my shirt, and sure enough, that’s what happened.
• Paul – Rams to beat the Eagles
  • The Eagles might be in real trouble having dropped their first two games and looking pretty bad doing it.
• So Paul takes the 1-barrel lead going into Week 3 as he is now at 1-1 while I am 0-2.

Crowd Results

Highlights and lowlights:

• Bagels – No bagels again this week. Keep up the good work!
• Trifectas – 7!
  • Detroit Lions-Green Bay Packers (-6), total: 50; 21-42, Green Bay Packers win, Green Bay Packers cover (-21), Over 50 (63)
    • Crowd: 20.67-30; Green Bay Packers win, Green Bay Packers cover (-9.33), Over 50 (50.67)
  • (Thread the needle) Atlanta Falcons-Dallas Cowboys (-3.5), total: 53.5; 39-40, Dallas Cowboys win, Atlanta Falcons cover (-1), Over 53.5 (79)
    • Crowd: 25.89-27.78; Dallas Cowboys win, Atlanta Falcons cover (-1.89), Over 53.5 (53.67)
  • San Francisco 49ers-New York Jets (7), total: 41.5; 31-13, San Francisco 49ers win, San Francisco 49ers cover (18), Over 41.5 (44)
    • Crowd: 28-15.56; San Francisco 49ers win, San Francisco 49ers cover (12.44), Over 41.5 (43.56)
  • Los Angeles Rams-Philadelphia Eagles (-1.5), total: 45.5; 37-19, Los Angeles Rams win, Los Angeles Rams cover (18), Over 45.5 (56)
    • Crowd: 28.33-23.33; Los Angeles Rams win, Los Angeles Rams cover (5), Over 45.5 (51.67)
  • Carolina Panthers-Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-8.5), total: 47; 17-31, Tampa Bay Buccaneers win, Tampa Bay Buccaneers cover (-14), Over 47 (48)
    • Crowd: 19.33-28.78; Tampa Bay Buccaneers win, Tampa Bay Buccaneers cover (-9.44), Over 47 (48.11)
  • Washington Football Team-Arizona Cardinals (-7), total: 46.5; 15-30, Arizona Cardinals win, Arizona Cardinals cover (-15), Under 46.5 (45)
    • Crowd: 18.13-25.5; Arizona Cardinals win, Arizona Cardinals cover (-7.37), Under 46.5 (43.63)
  • New England Patriots-Seattle Seahawks (-4), total: 44.5; 30-35, Seattle Seahawks win, Seattle Seahawks cover (-5), Over 44.5 (65)
    • Crowd: 23.33-29.22; Seattle Seahawks win, Seattle Seahawks cover (-5.89), Over 44.5 (52.56)

Weekly Crowd Summary

• Overall Crowd score for the week: 76(!) points
• 15-1 straight-up
  • Off to a nice start with a 68.75% winning percentage straight-up
  • All but 1 favorite won this week
  • Record: 26-6 (81%)
• 13-3 ATS
  • Record: 19-13 (61%)
• 10-6 against the total
  • Record: 17-15 (57%)
• 9 total predictors

Detailed Crowd Records

Crowd Records so far:

• Straight-up:
  • Favorites: 15-1 (Year-to-date: 25-6)
  • Underdogs: 1-0 (YTD: 1-0)
• Spread:
  • Favorites: 6-2 (7-4-1)
  • Thread-the-needle: 6-1 (YTD: 10-8)
  • Underdog: 1-0 (YTD: 2-0)
• Over-under:
  • Over: 8-2-1 (YTD: 12-6-1)
  • Under: 2-3 (YTD: 5-7-1)

Contest Results

• Contest Results:
  • MyBookie.ag Super Contest – 3-2 again this week
    • Rams +1 at the Eagles – Win
    • Vikings +3 at the Colts – Loss
    • Packers -6 vs. the Lions – Win
    • Chiefs -9.5 at the Chargers – Loss
    • Seahawks -4 vs the Patriots – Win
    • So far, we’re 6-4; Good, but we’ll need a couple of more good weeks to climb the charts

Hot Take Counter

Week 2 was just an absolutely brutal week of injuries.

In the West – Paul and my divisions – the 49ers suffered an ungodly amount of injuries: Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas on defense and Raheem Mostert and Jimmy Garapolo on offense. In Denver, Cortland Sutton and Drew Locke both suffered injuries as well. Both of those teams seasons are now in real jeopardy barely before they begin.

Additional tragic injuries included Saquon Barkley; the Eagles had a slew of injures; Christian McCaffrey is out 4-6 weeks with an ankle injury; the Cowboys have lost almost every starting lineman; and Tyrrod Taylor got a punctured lung from the team doctor, the list goes on.

The hot take here is that I heard multiple times people connecting the lack of a preseason with the injuries. This is a ridiculous take. Injuries happen every year. The injury that took down Nick Bosa and Saquon Barkley were freak events. There is no way to connect the lack of a preseason to those injuries with any real evidence at all. All of these injuries are tragic, but to try to explain them as anything other than bad luck is ridiculous at this point. I could point to two dozen injuries off the top of my head that happened early in the season to superstars after a full preseason, so you have to stop trying to explain injuries as anything other than bad luck.

But it goes to show that, just like the NHL, NBA, and MLB, the NFL season is going to be a war of attrition, but that’s kind of how it is every year. In general, the team that both plays consistently well and has good injury luck makes it through to and usually deep into the postseason. There is no reason to think that this season will be any different.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Here’s who came out on top on our Leaderboards in Week 2.

• Prediction Score: Bryan Cole with 76 points
  • Straight-up: 15
  • ATS: 12
  • O/U: 11
• Stake Stacks of the Week: 
  • Split decision this week
  • Biggest Stack
    • Gemma with 29 net stakes off 61 total stakes wagered
  • Best ROI
    • Paul – 100%(!) ROI off 21 stakes wagered

Wrap-up

Head over to stakehousesports.com to download the app and start predicting (or predict using our web app. Remember, you can win up to $50 a week in Amazon gift cards as well as a prestigious shout-out on this here program. Odds update daily, so make sure to check your predictions before gametime.

You can also follow us on Twitter using handle @houseofstakes, and on Facebook at facebook.com/stakehousesports. And you can always contact us at podcast@stakehousesports.com.