Denver Broncos at Buffalo Bills Odds

The Buffalo Bills (5-9) will try to avoid an eighth straight loss when they host the Denver Broncos (8-6) Saturday.

Odds makers believe Buffalo’s misery will continue. They have listed the Bills as a three-point underdog with the total set at 42.5.

The Bills enter Week 15 off a 30-23 loss to the Miami Dolphins that wasn’t as close as the final score leads you to believe.

Ryan Fitzpatrick connected on 31 of 47 pass attempts for 316 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted three times.

C.J. Spiller, who led the team with nine catches for 76 yards, hauled in one of the touchdown tosses. He also rushed for 91 yards and a score on 12 carries.

The Broncos’ six-game winning streak came to an end last week with a 41-23 home loss to the New England Patriots.

Tim Tebow completed 11 of 22 passes for 194 yards with no touchdowns or picks and rushed for 93 yards and two scores on 12 carries with one lost fumble.

In all, the Broncos totaled 252 rushing yards.

Demaryius Thomas led the team with seven catches and 116 receiving yards.

Denver, who enters Week 16 ranked No. 1 in the NFL with 163.1 rushing yards per game, shouldn’t have much trouble finding running room against a Buffalo defense ranked 29th in the league against the run with 139.5 yards allowed per contest.

The Broncos have rushed for an average of 198.1 yards in winning seven of nine games since Tebow took over as starter. The Bills, who surrendered a season-high 254 rushing yards last week, have given up an average of 159 yards on the ground during their losing streak.

Besides finding a way to slow down Denver’s potent running attack, the Bills must do a better job of taking care of the football if they hope to pull off the upset.

Buffalo has turned the ball over 17 times during its skid and has only come up with eight takeaways for a poor minus-nine turnover margin. The Bills had a plus-nine margin during their 5-2 start.

The Broncos have won five of the last six in this series, but the Bills won the most recent meeting 30-23 in Denver on Dec. 21, 2008.

The Broncos could be the play this week, considering they are a perfect 5-0 straight up and against the spread this season in road games with Tebow as the starter.

Before penciling in the Broncos, however, it should at least be considered that underdogs or pickems playing in the second half of the season that check into a matchup off seven or more consecutive losses are 77-38 against the spread the last 28 years.

As far as the total is concerned, the over just might be the play. The Broncos are 7-6-1 to the over on the season, and the Bills have finished over the number in nine of 14 games this season.

These two have combined to finish over the total in four of their last five head-to-head matchups.

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