You can’t win the Super Bowl in the early weeks of the NFL season, but you can certainly lose it – that’s an old adage that suggests how tough it is to overcome a slow start to the regular campaign.
It’s one of the reasons that bettors don’t want an inch of the Cincinnati Bengals. Available as a 12/1 chance to win Super Bowl LIX before a pass had been thrown this term, Zac Taylor’s men have already been lengthened to 25/1 after their wretched 0-3 start to the season.
But the opposite is true for the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings, whose impressive openings to the campaign have very much caught the eye of punters.
Bills Making It Rain
As far as the pre-season sports betting odds were concerned, Buffalo were very much in with a chance of making it to the Caesars Superdome for the Super Bowl. The Bills were priced at 12/1 before the off, but unlike the Bengals, they have seen plenty of support in the outright market: Sean McDermott’s side are at 10/1 at the time of writing.
Sites like the Paddy Power blog had been talking up Buffalo’s chances anyway, but so good has their start to the campaign been that the betting community has also very much sat up and taken notice.
In truth, victories over the Cardinals and Jaguars on home soil were taken as a given, while a trip to the Hard Rock Stadium to tackle the Dolphins provided a much sterner test.
But the Bills have lived up to their billing every step of the way. After squeaking by Arizona 38-24 in their seasonal opener, Buffalo produced an outstanding road performance to down the Dolphins 31-10, before parlaying that confidence into a 47-10 dismantling of Jacksonville.
We’re live with Coach McDermott, Josh Allen, James Cook and more after our Thursday Night Football win over the Dolphins!#BUFvsMIA | #BillsMafia https://t.co/HSwVEbmDfS
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) September 13, 2024
Those scorelines are confirmation of just how well McDermott’s offensive unit is operating. Josh Allen’s pass completion rate is, at the time of writing, the second best in the NFL, with an average of 8.8 yards per attempt. His first three appearances of the season yielded seven touchdown passes too.
James Cook has been at his rushing best, notching three touchdowns in as many games, while the receiving corps have also hit the ground running.
Defensively, the Bills have especially impressed in the amount of turnover ball they have secured, so all told McDermott will be happy with his team’s work. Such positivity has not gone unnoticed in the betting market, either.
Vikings On the Charge
Typically, every NFL season has that underdog outlier that exceeds expectations.
Whether the Minnesota Vikings are able to maintain their early season form over the entirety of a campaign remains to be seen, but the shift in their Super Bowl odds – from 80/1 pre-season to 16/1 after Gameweek 3 – is significant.
While the Bills have, in essence, done what was expected of them in the early skirmishes, the Vikings have gone above and beyond any perception of what they are capable of.
A 28-6 away win at the Giants was impressive enough on the opening weekend, but the 23-17 victory over the 49ers – the pre-season favourites for the Super Bowl, lest we forget – was wholly unexpected.
Took it to the Texans. pic.twitter.com/s1u7KL7w2j
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 22, 2024
The 34-7 demolition of the Texans, many pundits’ dark horse pick to go deep into the play-offs, was equally as outstanding; confirming that the shock win over San Francisco was more than a one-off day in the sun.
Jonathan Greenard and Pat Jones II have been terrorising opposition quarterbacks, while Sam Darnold leads the passing touchdown rankings after three rounds of games.
His main targets, such as Jalen Nailor and Justin Jefferson, have been revelatory in the early going; whether they can sustain that over the whole campaign remains to be seen, but it will certainly be fun watching them try.
The Vikings, like the Bills, are amongst the teams most catching the eye of NFL bettors right now.
