NFL Week 1 opening odds: Arizona Cardinals open as three-point favorites

The NFL starts for real this week as Week 1 begins Thursday. The Arizona Cardinals play the last game on the docket, hosting the San Diego Chargers on the late Monday Night Football game.

With the beginning of the regular season comes the start of real wagers. Betting on the preseason seems foolish, but there will be a lot of money changing hands now.

The Cardinals open the week as three-point favorites.

It is the standard spread for a home team and it makes even more sense at the start of the season. San Diego was a playoff team and Arizona was not, although it was a very good team a season ago. But no one knows what type of team they will be in 2014.

As things stand right now, the money slightly favors San Diego.

As for the over/under, it is set at 45 points and the money is going heavily in favor of the over (63 percent).