The Patriots won as seven-point underdogs against the Ravens on Sunday night. Perhaps that shouldn’t have been a surprise.
Since Bill Belichick became New England’s head coach, the Patriots are 7-6 outright (including the postseason) when they’re underdogs by seven points or more, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN.
That’s a winning percentage of .538. No other NFL team has even won 40 percent of its games when an underdog by seven points or more since 2000.
Among the Patriots’ most famous wins as heavy underdogs were Belichick’s first Super Bowl, when they beat the Greatest Show on Turf Rams as 14-point underdogs, and Tom Brady’s first career start, when they beat Peyton Manning and the Colts as 11.5-point underdogs. More recently, the Patriots won the first game of 2016 when they were nine-point underdogs with Brady out because of his Deflategate suspension.
Betting against Belichick is never safe. Do so at your peril.