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Don’t read too much into Week 1 results

Seldom do Sundays disappoint. From betting and entertainment angles, the NFL season made a grand entrance morning to night, beginning with an exciting rookie quarterback and finishing with Peyton Manning’s triumphant comeback.

Ben Roethlisberger ended up disappointed, and so did the New Orleans Saints, but in football, gambling and life there always are an assortment of winners and losers.

It’s a brisk business and a risky one, especially for those of us who place the wagers. At the end of an action-packed day, Las Vegas sports books and the bettors who crowded them got all they could handle.

“I keep marveling and I keep talking about it,” said Jimmy Vaccaro, director of public relations for William Hill sports books, “but football is something that has no equal to it. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

Vaccaro called the Week 1 wagering handle a “monster,” and an upset of that size was pulled off by the Washington Redskins and Robert Griffin III, who blew up the theory that rookie quarterbacks are destined to be roadkill.

While the books recorded a solid win Sunday, Griffin orchestrated a stunning one, passing for 320 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Redskins, 8½-point underdogs and plus-375 on the money line, to a 40-32 victory over the Saints.

The sharp money was on the Redskins, and the public was on the other side, so the Saints’ loss trashed enough parlays and teasers to set up the books for positive results.

“The Saints looked really bad,” LVH sports book director Jay Kornegay said. And we have to wonder, are the Saints really as bad as they looked?

“There’s going to be a lot of overreaction,” Kornegay said. “Looking at the NFL, and we know how much parity there is, the teams that looked great this week will come back to Earth in either Week 2 or Week 3.”

Griffin has tough days ahead, but he made his first Sunday look too easy.

“Let’s give that young kid some credit. He’s like a cheetah, and they can’t catch him,” Vaccaro said. “It’s one game, and it’s a long season. But it doesn’t look like the Saints will be knocking on the door for the Super Bowl.”

The five rookie QBs who started went 1-4 straight up and 2-3 against the spread. The two covers just so happened to be the best decisions for the books.

Cleveland, a 9-point home underdog, covered in a 17-16 loss to Philadelphia. Michael Vick’s 4-yard touchdown throw with 1:18 remaining won it for the Eagles, but Vick also tossed four interceptions and needed some help.

Browns rookie Brandon Weeden was awful, and when Cleveland should have attempted a two-point conversion one minute into the fourth quarter, it instead kicked the extra point to go ahead by six and leave the door cracked for Vick.

“If you’re a bookmaker, I don’t know what more you could ask for,” Vaccaro said of the Eagles and Saints failing to cover. “It’s hard to lose for the day once you knock games like that down.”

Detroit also disappointed its betting backers, needing Matthew Stafford’s 5-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds left to hold off the St. Louis Rams, 27-23. The Lions were 8½-point favorites, and the late score put the game over the total of 46½.

Favorites finished the day 6-7 ATS, with Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, New England and the New York Jets chalking up covers. Arizona, San Francisco and Tampa Bay joined Washington as underdog winners.

“We got beat up pretty bad on the Patriots,” Vaccaro said, “but you know that you’re never going to win them all.”

And neither will you convince everyone the replacement referees were not much of a factor. In the LVH theater, where there was a standing-room-only crowd, one emotional bettor swore he was done betting NFL games until the regular refs returned. It was a ridiculous statement.

“If we were to tell nobody there were replacement refs, I don’t think there would be any complaining,” Kornegay said.

The Saints looked bad. But Manning was as good as ever, leading the Denver Broncos to a dramatic 31-19 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers that was sealed when a Roethlisberger pass got picked for six with two minutes to go.

The final assessment from Week 1 is there is none. Never overreact to one game. In the NFL, everything is under further review.

■ BOTTOM LINES – Eight of the 14 games this week went over the totals. Favorites are 6-8 ATS going into tonight’s doubleheader. … The LVH SuperContest drew a record 745 contestants at $1,500 each, putting the prize pool over $1.1 million.

Contact sports betting columnist Matt Youmans 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, 98.9 FM). Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.

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