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09/10/2010 -
Louisiana-Monroe will have one factor in its favor when it tries to pull off the upset against No. 14 Arkansas: the element of mystery.
The Warhawks are only now playing their season opener, and that means no scouting report from last weekend to help the Razorbacks. In fact, even last year's tapes might be a bit deceiving because Louisiana-Monroe has a new coach and a new quarterback.
``There's no question about it,'' Warhawks coach Todd Berry said. ``There are some unique things to us that they haven't seen from us before or haven't seen from me.''
Berry's team will need to take advantage of any edge it can, because the Warhawks will be heavy underdogs Saturday night against the Razorbacks. Led by quarterback Ryan Mallett, Arkansas is expected to brush aside Louisiana-Monroe in Little Rock, Ark., before massive clashes later this month with Georgia and Alabama. The Razorbacks started the season with a 44-3 win over Tennessee Tech in which Mallett completed all but three of his passes.
Arkansas also looked sharp on defense, holding the Golden Eagles to a field goal after an early goal line stand and shutting them out the rest of the way - and the Razorbacks (1-0) think they're still capable of much more.
``I feel like it was dominant, but we always can do better,'' linebacker Jerico Nelson said. ``We still had some missed assignments and things like that. In a different game, a different situation, we probably could give up a big play.''
The offensive story was similar. The Razorbacks made mistakes, even if not all of them were noticeable or costly.
``It was a lot of technique breakdowns and guys not having their eyes open and seeing what the front was and seeing the right cuts to make,'' offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said. ``And our quarterback missed a couple of checks in the run game. Just little things that will get us beat.''
The last time Arkansas faced Louisiana-Monroe, the Razorbacks needed a late fourth-down conversion to rally for a victory. Of course, those Hogs didn't have Mallett, the 6-foot-6 passer in the discussion for this year's Heisman Trophy.
``Last year I thought he forced some balls. He's showing great patience right now,'' Berry said. ``A lot of times with quarterbacks you can get up in their face and challenge him to be able to see the receivers. Well, we don't even have anybody tall enough to reach his face.''
Mallett is surrounded by a veteran corps of receivers, including Joe Adams, who caught six passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns last weekend.
``There was a time frame there at the University of Arkansas where you could focus on the running back and that was the only guy that you had to worry about stopping,'' Berry said. ``Ryan Mallett does such a wonderful job of distributing the ball to all of his receivers, to the running backs.''
Berry took over Louisiana-Monroe in December - he is a former head coach at Army and was Louisiana-Monroe's offensive coordinator in 2004 and 2005. Already, big changes are afoot, with redshirt freshman Kolton Browning winning the quarterback job over incumbent Trey Revell, who has shifted to tight end.
Another redshirt freshman, Jyruss Edwards, will start at running back, with Frank Goodin recovering from a minor injury. Goodin, less than 900 yards from the school's career rushing record, is expected to play.
Edwards is another X-factor the Razorbacks will have to account for, and it's hard to be sure how Berry will use him or anyone else. Berry and Arkansas wide receivers coach Kris Cinkovich both served on the UNLV staff as recently as last year, and Cinkovich apparently did a little bit of prying recently.
``He was trying to bait me into, the other day, kind of giving some things up,'' Berry said. ``I said, `Cink, you know me better than that.'''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds
Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.
The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.
The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.
Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.
MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:
Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)
Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)
Matt Foust won both of his conference championship plays yesterday and he is ready to serve up plenty of Super Bowl action. Each individual play costs $15.00, however, MySportsbook.com recommends purchasing Matt's NFL Playoff Package which includes all of Matt's Super Bowl props and picks from just $45.00.
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