Announcement

**Udog** · 09-04-2018, 09:30 AM

Armadillo: Tuesday's six-pack

Over/under totals on number of TD passes thrown this season:

33.5— Aaron Rodgers

32.5— Tom Brady

28— Ben Roethlisberger

27— Jared Goff

26.5— Brees, Rivers, Stafford, Watson

25.5— Cousins, Prescott, Wilson

**********

Armadillo: Tuesday's List of 13: Things I learned while watching way too much TV

13) Texas Tech’s marching band was the first marching band to to travel to its school’s road football games, way back in 1925.

12) Actor Dennis Quaid is left-handed; he was a quarterback in Any Given Sunday, a relief pitcher in The Rookie.

11) Since he became the starter ten years ago, Green Bay is 94-48 when Aaron Rodgers starts for them; they’re 6-11-1 in games he’s missed.

10) Pittsburgh’s Joe Musgrove began Thursday’s game with 21 consecutive strikes, the most by any starting pitcher to begin a game since pitches were first tracked in 1988.

9) There are 48 college football games this season where the visiting team is getting a guarantee of at least $1M. At the highest level, college sports is very big business.

8) There is a movie called Owning Mahowny that is about a bank manager with:
(a) a gambling problem and
(b) access to a multimillion dollar bank account;

The movie is based on the true story of the largest one-man bank fraud in Canadian history. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Minnie Driver.

7) Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich is the first player with a cycle, a 5th hit and an outfield assist all in the same game since Andre Dawson on April 29, 1987. Yelich had his big night Wednesday in Cincinnati.

6) Baltimore Ravens have won their last 14 preseason games; they’re also 21-27 in the regular season the last three years, haven’t made the playoffs since 2014.

5) Now I feel old: Trent Green’s son is the backup QB at Northwestern.

4) Something is amiss with the Red Sox’ front office; David Howard, who has been Boston’s minor league field coordinator for nine years, has been fired- no word on why. Odd timing.

3) The other night in Fenway Park, Red Sox scored 11 runs in an inning; Andrew Benitendi made the first out of the inning with a sacrifice bunt, then ended the inning by grounding into a double play. Research Doug Kern looked this up, and says that has never happened before in the big leagues.

2) Friday night’s Detroit-New York baseball game was first one this year where both managers were ejected. Ejections have to be way down since instant replay became a thing.

1) There are 24 grad transfer QB’s in college football this season, which means a kid got his degree at one school, wasn’t happy with his playing situation and went elsewhere to finish his college career.

**Udog** · 09-04-2018, 09:33 AM

WNBA
Dunkel

Tuesday, September 4

Washington @ Atlanta

Game 611-612
September 4, 2018 @ 8:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Washington
118.101
Atlanta
113.141
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Washington
157
by 5
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Washington
by 2 1/2
164 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
Washington
(-2 1/2); Under

Phoenix @ Seattle

Game 609-610
September 4, 2018 @ 10:00 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Phoenix
112.008
Seattle
117.993
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Seattle
by 6
176
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Seattle
by 4
170 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
Seattle
(-4); Over

WNBA

Tuesday, September 4

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Washington Mystics
Washington is 2-4-1 ATS in its last 7 games
Washington is 10-3 SU in its last 13 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Washington's last 6 games
Washington is 2-3-1 ATS in its last 6 games on the road
Washington is 5-2 SU in its last 7 games on the road
Washington is 2-4-1 ATS in its last 7 games when playing Atlanta
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Washington's last 6 games when playing Atlanta
Washington is 3-7-2 ATS in its last 12 games when playing on the road against Atlanta
Washington is 6-13 SU in its last 19 games when playing on the road against Atlanta
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Washington's last 5 games when playing on the road against Atlanta
Atlanta Dream
Atlanta is 17-3-1 ATS in its last 21 games
Atlanta is 17-4 SU in its last 21 games
The total has gone UNDER in 12 of Atlanta's last 18 games
Atlanta is 5-0-1 ATS in its last 6 games at home
Atlanta is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 15 of Atlanta's last 20 games at home
Atlanta is 4-7-2 ATS in its last 13 games when playing Washington
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Atlanta's last 6 games when playing Washington
Atlanta is 2-3-2 ATS in its last 7 games when playing at home against Washington
Atlanta is 13-6 SU in its last 19 games when playing at home against Washington
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Atlanta's last 5 games when playing at home against Washington

Phoenix Mercury
Phoenix is 5-1 ATS in its last 6 games
Phoenix is 8-2 SU in its last 10 games
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Phoenix's last 9 games
Phoenix is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games on the road
Phoenix is 3-6 SU in its last 9 games on the road
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Phoenix's last 8 games on the road
Phoenix is 16-7 ATS in its last 23 games when playing Seattle
Phoenix is 16-7 SU in its last 23 games when playing Seattle
Phoenix is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games when playing Seattle
Phoenix is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Seattle
Phoenix is 7-3 SU in its last 10 games when playing on the road against Seattle
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Phoenix's last 8 games when playing on the road against Seattle
Seattle Storm
Seattle is 16-7 ATS in its last 23 games
Seattle is 2-4 ATS in its last 6 games
Seattle is 18-5 SU in its last 23 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Seattle's last 7 games
Seattle is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
The total has gone UNDER in 8 of Seattle's last 12 games at home
Seattle is 7-16 ATS in its last 23 games when playing Phoenix
Seattle is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games when playing Phoenix
Seattle is 7-16 SU in its last 23 games when playing Phoenix
Seattle is 0-5 ATS in its last 5 games when playing at home against Phoenix
Seattle is 3-7 SU in its last 10 games when playing at home against Phoenix
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Seattle's last 8 games when playing at home against Phoenix

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Udog** · 09-04-2018, 09:37 AM

Recap: Storm , Mercury

PHOENIX (AP) Four times this postseason, the Phoenix Mercury have faced elimination.

They've won all four and now it's on to Seattle for another one.

Brittney Griner provided the deciding offense and necessary defense in the final seconds as the Mercury beat the Seattle Storm 86-84 on Sunday to force a deciding Game 5 in their WNBA semifinal series.

The 6-foot-9 center scored on a short hook shot with 14.1 seconds to play then prevented Breanna Stewart from getting a shot off before the buzzer as the Mercury rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat the Storm in Phoenix for the second straight time.

The Mercury had to survive single-elimination games against Dallas and Connecticut just to get to the Storm, then fell down 0-2 with a pair of losses in Seattle.

'It's the team that shows a lot of heart in every single one of these games,' Griner said. 'Doing whatever it is, whoever it is at the time. At different points of time different people step up and make big plays, hustle plays. I think that's what's giving us that edge right now.'

Griner had 29 points and 12 rebounds and DeWanna Bonner scored 21 of her 27 in the second half.

Game 5 will be Tuesday night in Seattle. Diana Taurasi, who had 16 points, is 13-0 in her WNBA playoff career in winner-take-all games.

The other semifinal series, between Atlanta and Washington, also has gone to a Game 5.

The Storm lost Sue Bird with a broken nose with 4:23 left in the third quarter when she took an accidental elbow to the face from Stewart. Bird, who has broken her nose five times, said she will play in Game 5.

'I think they lost their leader,' Bonner said. 'However, for her going out, they still played great basketball. They were still making shots. ... They lost a big part of their puzzle but they still played great basketball. They only lost by two points.''

Stewart, the WNBA's MVP, led Seattle with 22 points.

Griner's winning basket came after Bonner missed and Phoenix's Camille Little grabbed the rebound. Little got the ball to Griner, who scored. The Storm worked the ball to Stewart at the end but she couldn't get a shot off against Griner's defense.

'The initial play we wanted to run kind of broke down early,' Stewart said, 'and then we were just playing on the fly. Being under the basket with B.G. on you is a tough shot. Still, I should have gotten a shot off just because it was the last play of the game.'

Griner noted she'd fouled Stewart on a 3-point shot a few moments earlier.

'I had to do something to make it up,' she said. 'We knew the ball was going to go to into Stewart's hands and we had to play defense, don't foul, try not to let her score and tie it up to go to overtime. ... I stayed there and kept my hands up high.'

Phoenix trailed by 17 in the first half, 16 early in the second and still was down 69-57 after Stewart sank a 19-footer with 1:27 left in the third quarter. But the Mercury responded with a 13-2 run. Taurasi sank a 3 with 3.6 seconds left to cut the lead to 71-66 entering the fourth quarter and Bonner's basket sliced the deficit to 71-70 with 8:40 to play.

Griner's basket tied it at 76-76 and Bonner's two free throws put Phoenix up 78-76 with 5:29 to play, the Mercury's first lead since the game's opening moments.

'They got some real offensive weapons and when they're playing at a high level and they are very assertive, they're hard to stop,' Seattle coach Dan Hughes said.

Coach Sandy Brondello said the team got its offense going when she moved Bonner from the 'four' to the 'three' position.

'She's been great for us at the four, but I moved her to the three and put the ball in her hands and she got aggressive,' Brondello said.

TIP-INS

Storm: Seattle shot 72 percent in the first quarter (13-of-18), including 3-pointers by four different players. ... The Storm has lost consecutive games for the first time this season. ... After a franchise postseason record 31 points in the first quarter, the Storm had 31 in the entire second half, including 13 in the fourth,

Mercury: Phoenix is first team to force a Game 5 in a best-of-five format after trailing 0-2. ... Taurasi is 50-7 in elimination games including the WNBA, Olympics and NCAA competition. ... Mercury have outscored the Storm in the fourth quarter in the series 94-47.

SHE SAID IT: 'She's very picky about her nose. When you have a nose like mine, you don't (care),' Taurasi said. 'When you have a face like Sue, I would worry, too.'

UP NEXT

The teams meet Tuesday night in the deciding Game 5.

Announcement

Tuesday's WNBA Trends and Indexes - 9/4

Tuesday's WNBA Trends and Indexes - 9/4

Comment

Comment

Comment