I said a few days ago that my betting strategy for the 2026/27 NFL season was going to be to bet against the spread on the Carolina Panthers for every game of the year. In this first game, I feel as though the Chicago Bears were not favored enough by the bookies when they only gave them 3 points advantage in this matchup.
Well, it only took the first half played in front of yet another group of very displeased fans in Charlotte to recognize that Carolina fans are going to be in for yet another very long year.
The Panthers are my favorite team. I am a lifelong fan and was there when the team was formed in the early 90's. I don't want them to lose, I just know they are going to. They have made terrible decision after terrible decision over the past 15 years or so and I honestly don't think there is anything that can be done to make their setup better unless we were to just get rid of everyone and start from scratch. When I say this I mean the entire team, the entire management, and also the entire coaching team.
They say don't fix something if it isn't broken: Well it's broken. The week one game vs the Bears was a highlight reel of how broken it is.
Now to be as fair to Bryce Young as I can be, the 2 times he was sacked would have resulted in a sack for almost any QB in the league. The offensive line has to give this dude more time to play with especially since the defense has to be aware of the fact that he is almost never going to attempt to run the ball himself. He is just too small. I don't know what the deal was when the Panthers decided to pay such huge money for a guy that is 6 inches shorter than the average QB and less than 200 lbs in a sport where all the guys that are trying to break you in half are at least 60 lbs heavier than that. If the idea was he would make up for it with speed, that was a very incorrect hope on the part of whoever thought that dumb shit up.
I stopped watching after the first half for 2 reasons. One: the writing was on the wall. The Panthers were not going to be able to stop the Chicago offense and that was, leading into this, the only real hope that they had. Carolina likes to talk about how great their defense is and if that was actually true, a good defense can actually trump a good offense very frequently. Either the Panthers defense actually isn't that good or the Bears are just outstanding on offense.
This is a big departure from what Chicago normally goes for but I think that the answer here might actually be that it is both. Carolina ALWAYS over-rates their defense and Chicago does have an explosive offense as well.
While I was not watching at the time, the Panthers, who got a basic "gimme" TD towards the end of the 4th quarter ended up having the PAT (point after touchdown kick) blocked so they only got 6 instead of 7 points for that TD...not that it mattered because even with the TD Carolina was down by 15 with around 4 minutes left to play.
Just a kick in the nuts after that TD tough was the fact that it took Chicago a mere 19 seconds and 4 plays to score a return touchdown.
I don't want to say right away that Carolina is one of the worst teams in the NFL again, but I fear that this could end up being the case.
Now as far as gambling is concerned, the bookies are going to adjust their spreads dramatically after that piss poor performance by Carolina so the games in the future are not going to be so much guaranteed to pay out.
Their next game is again the Atlanta Falcons, who are in a many year slump at the moment as well. The Falcons lost their first game as well although it wasn't as humiliating at the battering the Panthers received.
I can only imagine what their thinking is, but Carolina is actually favored ATM to win this next game with a spread of -1.5. As is always the case, I am going to bet against this spread.
My record using a very simple tactic of simply betting against my favorite team so far this season is 1-0 Let's see if I can make it 3 years in a row where my no-brainer betting system pays out.