Sharp bettors back home underdog Cardinals over Broncos on ‘TNF’

The “Thursday Night Football” game is shaping up as a Pros vs. Joes showdown at Las Vegas sports books.

The Joes are on the Denver Broncos and the Pros are on the Arizona Cardinals, who are consensus 1-point home underdogs after the line opened at 2½.

“We’ve taken some sharp bets on the Cardinals,” CG Technology sports book director Jason Simbal said. “I can understand why the sharps are on Arizona. You go back four weeks and they should’ve beaten the Bears (in a 16-14 home loss). Then they lost by a field goal to the Seahawks, they beat the Niners and they hung pretty tough with the Vikings last week.

“They’re playing a little better each game, and now they’ve got a home night game.”

Arizona is 1-5 straight up but 3-3 against the spread.

Denver is 2-4 SU and 1-4-1 ATS, getting its first cover in back-door fashion in last week’s 23-20 home loss to the Rams.

The Broncos have allowed a 200-yard rusher in each of the last two games and have lost both road games this season — to the Ravens and Jets — by a combined score of 61-30. Denver is 3-14-1 ATS in its last 18 games and on a 1-11 slide SU and ATS on the road.

The public is backing Denver, as 73 percent of the bets at CG Technology are on the Broncos and 52 percent of the money is on the Cardinals.

“Even though the Broncos have struggled lately, they’re way more of a fan-favorite team than Arizona is,” Simbal said. “The perception is that they both stink, but the Broncos are not as bad as Arizona.”

The Cardinals rank near the bottom of the league in virtually every offensive category, but bettors are banking on the over, which ranges from 42 to 43. Sixty-nine percent of the bets are on the over, and 86 percent of the money is on the over.

“It’s a really low number,” Simbal said.

The Broncos are on a 9-4 under run, and the Cardinals are on a 7-3 under uptick.

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Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.