Announcement

**Udog** · 10-04-2010, 08:00 AM

Bettors’ best friend: Monday’s wagering tips

Lines to watch

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins opened as a pick ‘em but the Dolphins are now at +1 at some books.

Weather to watch

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins – Northeastern winds expected at 14 mph.

Who’s hot

Miami Dolphins have covered in eight of their last 10 games against AFC East opponents.

Middle Tennessee State is 8-3 ATS in its last 11 games heading into Tuesday’s matchup with Troy.

Who’s not

Tiger Woods and partner Steve Stricker were pounded 6&5 by Europe’s Lee Westwood and Luke Donald.

Key stat

260.3 – yards per game the New England Patriots are allowing through the air, which puts them 27th in the NFL. New England will be without corner backs Darius Butler and Leigh Bodden and is counting on rookie corner Devin McCourty to matchup up with one of Miami’s starting wideouts.

Injury that shouldn’t be overlooked

Evan Longoria (strained quad), Tampa Bay Rays – Longoria tried to convince manager Joe Maddon to let him play in the final week of the regular season to no avail, but says he will play Wednesday when the postseason begins. As of Saturday, Longoria said his quad was about 80 percent. Tampa Bay’s third baseman hit .294 with 22 home runs and 104 RBIs in the regular season.

Game of the day

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins (+1, 47.5)

Notable quotable

"You'd much rather have a 10-year vet going against a 10-year vet. That's always the case. You'd like to think we get smarter as we get older. And that's true of a player - if he's played a long time, and particularly if he's played against a player a lot of times, he knows what to expect. And that's very helpful." – Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator on his young defense facing Tom Brady on Monday.

Tips and notes

The Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots won’t have to deal with the dirt infield at Sun Life Stadium on Monday night. Sun Life Stadium spokesman George Torres says the dirt infield will be covered with grass turf even though the Marlins finished off their MLB season at home just 30 hours before Monday’s kickoff. This will be the first time since the Marlins came into the majors that the Dolphins won’t have to deal with the dirt infield. The only snag in the plan would be if it rains heavily between now and kickoff, but our most recent weather reports expect just a 10 percent chance of precipitation.

The MLB playoff matchups are finally set and ready to go. In the NL it will be Reds-Phillies and Braves-Giants while the Rays will tangle with the Rangers, while the Yankees go up against the Twins. The playoff action gets started on Wednesday with Cincinnati at Philadelphia, Texas at Tampa Bay, and New York at Minnesota.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mike Vick will undergo an MRI on his injured chest Monday morning. Vick was sandwiched by two Redskins at the end of a 24-yard run during a 17-12 loss to Washington as 5-point favorites. Vick left the game and didn’t return while the early speculation out of Philly is that Vick may have three broken ribs. Since then another report states that Vick's X-rays were negative. Kevin Kolb came on to take the snaps for the Eagles.

**Udog** · 10-04-2010, 08:05 AM

Monday's six-pack

Some NHL knowledge, with the season starting this week......
-- Teams with most empty net goals last season:
13--Devils, Carolina 12. Least EN goals: Chicago, Edmonton, 2 each

-- There was only one goal scored all LY by a team that was down two men at the time-- Columbus Blue Jackets scored that goal.

-- Washington scored eight goals with a 2-man advantage; Colorado, Toronto and Anaheim all scored seven.

-- Washington scored the most goals with a traditional 5-on-4 power play (69); Toronto scored the least (33).

-- Phoenix had the best shootout record (19-7); Rangers (4-11) and the Blue Jackets (5-15) had the worst shootout records.

-- Three players who averaged most icetime per game LY:
1) Duncan Keith 26:35, 2) Chris Pronger, Jay Bouwmeester 25:55.

**************************************************

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend.......

13) OK, everyone who had the Chiefs as the NFL's last unbeaten team when the schedule came out in April, take one step forward. Uh-huh.

12) There were 70 QB sacks in the 13 games played Sunday; Giants (10) Chargers (9) and Tennessee (6) had 25 of the 70.

11) 12 of the 32 NFL teams are 2-2, with three teams in NFC East and NFC West all tied for first place at 2-2.

10) There were five 0-3 teams going into Sunday; Cleveland won, Bills got crushed 38-14, the three 0-3 teams in NFC all lost by two points.

9) Steelers had tough loss Sunday, but as they go into their bye week, have to be happy to be 3-1, since they get their QB back for a Monday night game with the Browns in Week 6. Some coincidence, huh? Bigtime QB gets a 4-game suspension, and his return is on national TV. That could ehlp the TV ratings during the baseball playoffs, no?

8) Pete Carroll had a rough second quarter Sunday; he lost a challenge, so with 4:28 left in the half, he was out of challenges for the game. Later in the same quarter, Seattle tried a fake FG that failed miserably, leading to a St Louis FG at the gun to give the Rams a 10-3 halftime lead.

7) Detroit's Shaun Hill was 21-26 for 237 yards in first half at Lambeau Sunday; in second half, he was 13-28 for 94 yards. After Hill threw an INT for TD to Woodson that gave the Pack a 28-14 lead, Detroit kicked FGs on their next four drives (three in span of 4:52), but never caught up to the Pack. Another difficult, yet gritty loss for the Lions.

6) 49ers led for 53:27 in the Georgiadome Sunday, Falcons led for 0:02, but it was the right two seconds, the last two, as San Francisco had its hearts ripped out in 16-14 loss Sunday. Nate Clements picked off Matt Ryan to seemingly give 49ers the upset win, but he fumbled and Falcons recovered with 1:20 left, and Atlanta drove down for the winning FG. If Clements had just fallen down with the ball, Niners win the game.

5) Through first three weeks of season, holding calls were up 25% over the first three weeks of 2009. Just great.

4) Teams that won the turnover battle were 8-3 Sunday. Favorites were 1-7 vs spread in early games, 4-9 for the day; over was 7-6. Home dogs were 2-2, are now 15-9-1 for the year. AFC won only interconference game this week. 49ers were only halftime leader that wound up losing.

3) If Buffalo played Arizona and game was on TV, Calgary Stampeders would apply for membership in the NFL. Derek Anderson is horrible, so the Max Hall era is about to begin in the desert. Bills just look hopeless, giving up 273 rushing yards to the Jets. Buffalo/Chicago combined to go 0 for 23 on third down Sunday.

2) Baseball season ended Sunday; average attendance was 30,067, down from 30,350 LY and down from 2007's record high if 32,795. No matter what Bud Selig says, baseball is not more popular now than ever.

1) I'm trying really hard to keep perspective here, but when you root for a team that was 6-42 the last three years, and now on October 3rd, they're tied for first place, and they have a rookie QB who looks like he will be a star someday soon, well, things are looking up in St Louis.

**Udog** · 10-04-2010, 08:16 AM

Guys,

There are no games except MNF on the schedule today.

NHL starts Thursday. NBA starts the 26th. NCAA basketball starts at the end of the month, too, but, so far, I haven't been able to locate the exact date. MLB playoffs start on Wednesday.

Announcement

Monday's Trends and Indexes 10/4 (Misc.)

Monday's Trends and Indexes 10/4 (Misc.)

Comment

Comment

Comment