Season opening Super Bowl odds showed the Los Angeles Chargers at 17 to 1 and their longtime rival in the AFC West Division, the Las Vegas Raiders, 150 to 1. Their season win totals offered the Chargers at 9½ and the Raiders at 6½.
Those numbers reflect a gap between expectations for the Chargers and hopes for fans of the Silver and Black in Vegas. In fact, if these two teams would have met last week in Los Angeles the Chargers would have been an 11½ point favorite. We can compute that by seeing what their point spread price was in their opening games against the Miami Dolphins in Las Vegas and the Chargers meeting with the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium.
Then they played their first games.
The Raiders beat the visiting Miami Dolphins by two touchdowns, 27-13, and the Chargers lost at home by an almost equal losing margin to the Arizona Cardinals, 26-14.
This week, in Los Angeles, the Chargers are laying five points less on the point spread that they would have a week ago before they were upset at home by the Cardinals. The Raiders two touchdown margin win over the Dolphins had them open as a trimmed seven-point underdog for their contest against the Chargers on Sunday. The public, having seen the Raiders win and the Chargers lose on opening day, have cut that line an additional half-point to where today Las Vegas is only getting 6½ points on the line.
Warranted? Or overreaction?