The first game of the 2025 NFL playoffs will pit the 12-5 Los Angeles Rams, one of the Super Bowl favorites with potential MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford, against the 8-9 division champion Carolina Panthers on Saturday afternoon.
Oddsmakers and bettors didn’t believe the game would be close — so much so that the Rams are now a historic road favorite.
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Los Angeles opened as a 10-point favorite over Carolina at BetMGM, and the line has moved to -10.5 (even as high as -11 at some bettors). If that line holds, the Rams would be the biggest road favorite in the Super Bowl era — dating back to 1966, according to sports betting history.
“We opened the Rams at -10, but so far it’s been a one-sided bet,” Thomas Gable, director of Borgata Sportsbook in Atlantic City, told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. “All the public money has been spent on the Rams. We’re now at -10.5 and the overall odds are still 46.5.”
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 10-point road favorites in the 2021 Washington Commanders, while the New Orleans Saints were 9.5-point or 10-point favorites in Marshawn Lynch’s famous “Beast Quake” game in 2010. points advantage against the Seattle Seahawks. Both weak teams were covered, with the Seahawks beating Drew Brees’ Saints 41-36.
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In fact, teams as road favorites by at least 4.5 points have gone 1-6-1 since 1966 and have only gone 4-4 straight up.
The Rams were 10-point favorites this season when they lost 31-28 to Carolina in Week 13, a game in which Bryce Young threw three touchdown passes and Stafford had three interceptions in one of his worst games of the year.
Los Angeles is one of the better teams against the spread this season with a 12-5 record, while the Panthers are 10-7. Carolina has won all eight of its games as underdogs, but the Panthers improved to 8-0 on the season following the loss. Carolina lost to the Buccaneers in Week 18, 16-14.
