Thursday Night Football Predictions & Best Bets Week 5

We kick off Week 5 of the NFL season with two teams with a familiar past—the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos.

It’s not a rivalry, but a few years ago, former Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was cut from the Colts and went on to win a Super Bowl with the Broncos.

Today, these teams are different, but each has two starting quarterbacks that just joined their respective teams this year.

And boy, oh boy, have neither of these teams looked great.

Here, we’ll look at the best bet for this game—yes, “bet” as in one bet. We’re only going to look at the spread here.

Note: If we had to decide for the over/under, we’d go under, but our confidence isn’t quite enough to recommend it as a best bet.

Denver Broncos vs. Indianapolis Colts Best Bet

Denver Broncos -3 (-110) at BetMGM

As the home team, the Broncos get the typical three points, and that’s what we’ll ride with here.

While the Broncos offense has looked lost this season—head coach Nathaniel Hackett certainly hasn’t helped—the defense on this team has performed pretty well.

The Broncos allow 284.4 yards per game, which ranks fourth-best in the NFL. Of those, 170.8 is passing yards, and 113.3 are rushing yards.

The rushing yards number is something to be aware of because the Colts have Jonathan Taylor.

But wait. Taylor will miss this game due to an ankle injury.

Besides, the Colts offensive line hasn’t been able to help him get anything going.

That leaves the Colts with a not-so-good quarterback in Matt Ryan and a single receiver, Michael Pittman, that will go up against a reasonably stout Broncos secondary.

The Broncos offense has looked destitute and won’t get any better with starting running back Javonte Williams out for the year, but the Colts will be in dire straights.

Both teams are coming off a loss, but the Colts offense is bad enough with Taylor already. Without him, this should be a fairly easy game plan for the Broncos.

This should be a low-scoring affair. The Broncos pull this one out, 17-13.

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