Time for winless teams to wake up

A losing quarterback is often heckled and ripped. It seldom happens to Andrew Luck, who usually leads a good life. But when things turned bad this week, Luck was the target, and the angry critic was his coach.

The Indianapolis Colts are in chaos, and they are not alone. It's getting ugly early for eight NFL teams sitting at 0-2.

The number was nine before Eli Manning, who deserved to get heckled and ripped, helped the New York Giants dent the win column Thursday night. The Giants came up big in a must-win game, setting the stage for the rest of Week 3.

"If you go down 0-3, I don't know what the exact percentage is, but it's slim and none to make the playoffs," William Hill sports book director Nick Bogdanovich said.

This is when we in the media use the go-to cliches — a must-win game, pressing the panic button, a sense of urgency, etc. We like cliches as much as free hot dogs. We also tend to write some teams off too soon.

More importantly, how do you handicap the 0-2 teams?

"The reason a team is in a must-win situation is that team must have lost before," said handicapper Bryan Leonard of WagerTalk.com.

Baltimore, which opened with road losses to Denver and Oakland, is a 2½-point home favorite against the Cincinnati Bengals (2-0) on Sunday.

"If there's ever a must win, it's Baltimore. The problem is, I think Cincinnati is the better team," Leonard said. "It's one of those obvious plays that I want no part of. I'm not a big believer in Baltimore."

Leonard is leaning toward taking the Bengals. He's also giving the Philadelphia Eagles a serious look while most others are looking at them as a joke. The Eagles are 2½-point road underdogs to the New York Jets (2-0).

"I'll probably be on Philadelphia," Leonard said. "Everybody loved the Eagles and they looked great in the preseason. Now, all of the sudden after two weeks, everybody has given up on them."

Eagles coach Chip Kelly is on the hot seat — to use another cliche — and quarterback Sam Bradford is getting heckled. DeMarco Murray has yet to rip off a big run in the right direction, and now he's questionable with a hamstring injury. Philadelphia, a popular public play the first two weeks, has turned into a contrarian play.

New Orleans is down two games and maybe a quarterback, too. Drew Brees has a bruised rotator cuff and might not go against Carolina. This is the toughest line to make this week, and while it remains off the board at most books, the Panthers are 6½-point favorites in a few spots. If Brees plays, expect a number around 4½.

"I don't think too much of the Saints," Bogdanovich said.

The Chicago Bears, who could be the worst of the 0-2 bunch, are 14½-point underdogs at Seattle. Jay Cutler was unable to practice Thursday because of a hamstring injury, but the offense limps with him at quarterback, and the Bears might be better off. Either way, the betting public is more likely to side with the winless Seahawks.

Houston has lost with two different starting quarterbacks, Brian Hoyer first and Ryan Mallett last week. The Texans are 6½-point favorites over Tampa Bay.

Detroit's two losses came on the road to San Diego and Minnesota, and quarterback Matthew Stafford was beat up by the Vikings. Stafford has bruised ribs but appears set to play against Denver, which is a 3-point favorite.

Despite the Broncos being 2-0, Peyton Manning has been heckled, ripped and almost put in retirement.

Luck, who beat Manning in the playoffs last season, has thrown five interceptions and lost a fumble in the first two games. That's why his coach, Chuck Pagano, threw him under the bus Monday after an ugly loss to the Jets.

"My feeling is whoever looked good on Monday night I want to bet against, and whoever looked bad on Monday night I want to bet on," Leonard said. "You know the public is going to be overreacting to what happened. The Colts are a better team than what they have shown."

The Colts are minus-300 favorites to win the AFC South, according to updated odds at the Westgate Las Vegas sports book, and 3-point favorites at Tennessee.

I'll bet on Luck to bounce back and quiet his critics, including the one on his sideline.

* CLOSING NUMBERS — Hot starts put the critics in hiding. I cooled off a little last week (2-2-1) and stand 11-3-1 against the spread on college football. Here are five plays for Saturday (home team in CAPS):

Tennessee (-1) over FLORIDA; Massachusetts (+29½) over NOTRE DAME; TEXAS TECH (+7) over Texas Christian; Utah (+12) over OREGON; ARIZONA (+3) over Ucla.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports betting columnist Matt Youmans can be reached at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. He co-hosts "The Las Vegas Sportsline" weekdays at 2 p.m. on ESPN Radio (1100 AM). Follow him: @mattyoumans247