Irony abound on Championship Sunday
Football Betting Lines
01/23/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers had been living off turnovers and stellar special teams play all throughout their tremendous 2011 season. Tom Brady had been bailing out a condemned New England Patriots defense time and time again over that same time frame.
Which makes it all the more harder to explain how the former's championship dreams died because of a pair of disastrous mistakes from the NFL's best "third phase" unit over the course of this campaign, or how Brady's maligned mates on the other side of the ball saved their star quarterback's bacon in the first of a strange and spellbinding two games that determined this year's Super Bowl contestants.
Then again, in a season where close contests and rousing comebacks have been anything but uncommon, such puzzling twists of fate probably shouldn't seem all that peculiar.
Still, to have Sunday's NFC Championship nail-biter between the 49ers and New York Giants decided on a second botched punt return by San Francisco's Kyle Williams was a bit weird, a circumstance almost as eerie as the similar sequence of events that unfolded to make Rex Ryan's worst nightmare come true -- a rematch between the Giants and Patriots for all the marbles on the grandest stage of them all four years after the teams put on one of the most dramatic Super Bowl shows ever.
While the lasting image from the Patriots' 23-20 outlasting of Baltimore in the AFC title match will be Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff's shocking shank of a chip- shot field goal in the final seconds that would have forced overtime, that moment of infamy wouldn't have taken place if not for the contrastingly clutch performance of a New England defense universally viewed to be along for the ride for the club's journey to the conference championship. A rag-tag mixture of castoffs, inexperienced unknowns and offensive defections had by far its finest three hours, continually rising to the occasion and keeping a game on the verge of slipping away in several spots within reach before Brady shook off a few uncharacteristic stumbles to engineer one of his trademark late comebacks.
Cundiff's unfortunate initiation into the dreaded fraternity made famous by Scott Norwood and Gary Anderson came about after a game-saving play by New England cornerback Sterling Moore, an undrafted rookie released back in mid- December before being promoted back off the practice squad just prior to the regular season's penultimate week. The green 21-year-old looked like an established veteran, however, in successfully jarring the football out of the unsteady hands of Ravens receiver Lee Evans in the closing seconds, preventing a would-be game-winning touchdown catch and redeeming himself for a costly miscue earlier in the afternoon, when the backup defender whiffed on a tackle that turned into a 29-yard score for Baltimore's Torrey Smith late in the third quarter.
Moore wasn't the only unlikely hero. Right after Smith's touchdown put the Ravens up by a 17-16 count, Baltimore recovered a Danny Woodhead fumble at New England's 28-yard line on the ensuing kickoff. But the defense stood its ground and forced a successful Cundiff field goal when safety James Ihedigbo (an ex- Jet, no less) buried Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco on a third-down blitz.
Baltimore was able to make the most of every break that came its away in last week's hard-earned 20-13 victory over Houston, converting three Texans' turnovers into 17 points. The Ravens induced three more on Sunday, including two interceptions of a surprisingly-shaky Brady, but came away with nothing more than a pair of Cundiff three-pointers off those errors. Four times Baltimore invaded the red zone, but only one of the trips resulted in a touchdown.
"They're the real MVP of this game, without a shadow of a doubt," Patriots guard Brian Waters said of the defense. "You look at how many bad situations they were put in today and they held their own. They create a turnover and we give it right back. We get a turnover on special teams and they hold [the Ravens] to three. They did an unbelievable job of creating pressure, but yet tackling guys."
While Moore, pressed into an increased role after starting cornerback Kyle Arrington sustained an eye injury in the second quarter (which in turn landed another unsung performer, reserve wide receiver Julian Edelman, as the team's primary nickel back), managed to atone for his previous mistake, Williams couldn't capitalize on his opportunity for restitution. The second-year receiver, handling punts with regular return man Ted Ginn Jr. unavailable due to a knee problem, set the Giants up in scoring position early in the fourth quarter by failing to get out of a way of a short kick and watching the opponent recover the loose ball. Less than three minutes later, New York quarterback Eli Manning connected with Mario Manningham for a 17-yard touchdown that loomed large in a game that ultimately went into overtime.
Williams' second fumble, stripped away by Giants' rookie linebacker Jacquian Williams deep in San Francisco territory after the Niners' sturdy defense created a quick three-and-out in the extra period, would be even more pronounced. Shortly after two hard Ahmad Bradshaw runs gave Big Blue a first down inside the 10-yard line, kicker Lawrence Tynes did what Cundiff couldn't and knocked home a 31-yard try for the deciding points in a 20-17 triumph that sparked its share of deja-vu visions from onlookers everywhere.
The kick was one of the two biggest in Tynes' life. The other came four years ago, also in the NFC Championship. On the road. In overtime. In rough weather conditions. Just after the Giants came up with a pivotal turnover. Against the conference's No. 2 seed. Just one week after they upset the No. 1 seed.
And of course, to bring about a showdown with the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Notice the symmetry here?
Now, the historical correlations between this upcoming matchup and the one that took place between these two tradition-rich foes in Arizona's University of Phoenix Stadium during February of 2008, when the underdog Giants pulled off a stunning 17-14 upset of the then 18-0 Pats in Super Bowl XLII, won't at all guarantee a duplicate outcome. But it certainly ensures that the onslaught of media that will be descending upon Indianapolis in the coming weeks won't be scraping for material to promote a game that had a few fascinating storylines already built in.
The idea of Manning attempting to win a second Super Bowl -- or one more than big brother Peyton -- in the city where his elder sibling carved out his legendary career is pure gold for writers and broadcasters, as is the underlying rivalry between the unflappable Giants quarterback and Brady that was unintentionally stoked when Manning confidently commented that he belonged in the same class as his two-time league MVP counterpart over the summer.
There's also a sentimental angle that adds to New England's revenge motive, with the Patriots having dedicated the season to beloved owner Robert Kraft's late wife Myra after she passed away from a long and courageous battle with cancer in July.
Or how about the connection between Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin, two of the game's premier head coaches and former co-members of the Giants' staff under Bill Parcells, who once roamed the sidelines of both franchises and is one of this year's finalists for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with the class to be announced the night before the Super Bowl?
Bring on the hype.
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Football Betting
NFL Football Betting OnlineThe San Francisco 49ers (5-11 SU, 5-10-1 ATS in 2007; 1-1 SU & ATS in pre-season) found some offensive life last week, and they will try to build some momentum on Thursday night as they travel to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears (7-9 SU & ATS in 2007; 0-2 SU, 0-1-1 ATS in pre-season) in an NFL matchup that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Soldier Field (natural turf) in Chicago.
Thursday, August 21
NFL betting odds: CHICAGO -3 (-120), Total 37
NOTABLE STAT: San Francisco was last in points, last in total offense in 2007
KEY NFL BETTING TREND: SF has lost its last seven SU on pre-season road
In the BetUS NFL pre-season football betting odds, the Bears are listed as a three-point favorite (laying -120), with the total posted at 37 points.
Here are some NFL football betting trends as they relate to this matchup (reflecting numbers going into the 2008 season):
* SF has lost 11 of its last 14 games SU
* SF has covered three of its last 11 games
* SF has lost six of its last seven road games SU
* SF has covered one of its last seven road games
* CHI has covered five of its last eight games
* CHI has played five of its last seven games OVER the total
* CHI has covered four of its last 13 home games
* SF has lost its last seven pre-season road games SU
* CHI has covered two of its last seven home pre-season games
Well, I guess we should congratulate the Bears on making their quarterback choice for the season's opening game, as they have designated Kyle Orton the starter against Indianapolis. The Bears obviously have lost patience with Rex Grossman, and what they do with him at this point is anybody's guess. But suffice it to say that there isn't a quarterback competition anymore, at least in training camp.
Meanwhile, the quarterback competition may also be settled in San Francisco, where the Niners bounced back from a lackluster 18-6 loss to the Raiders, in which they turned the ball over four times, to execute a 34-6 rout of the Packers last Saturday. However, coach Mike Nolan has stopped short of saying that, insisting that the job is still open. But J.T. O'Sullivan, the longshot of the trio of Niner signal-callers who opened camp, will start his third straight pre-season game here. Against Green Bay, O'Sullivan was only 8-for-17, and was intercepted, but he also threw for 9.1 yards an attempt, which included a 59-yard TD pass to Josh Morgan. The others struggled.
Some offensive cohesion is badly needed, in light of the Niners' dismal 2007 campaign, in which they were dead last in the NFL in scoring, with just 13.7 points a game. And O'Sullivan is the guy who is most familiar with offensive coordinator Mike Martz's exacting system, because he learned it last year in Detroit. O'Sullivan will go at least the entire first half and may even last longer. He'll be relieved by Alex Smith, with Shawn Hill doing the mop-up work. Three receivers who were out last week - Bryant Johnson, Ashley Lelie and Arnaz Battle - will miss this game too.
That may hurt a little here, especially since the Bears will be using a lot of their defensive starters. And it's the defense that has been keeping the Bears in games thus far. In fact, the defense and special teams were responsible for the first 19 points Chicago scored against Seattle last time out, as the offense really struggled with Grossman at the controls. But maybe the first-team offense has a chance to settle a little bit as it works more with Orton at the helm.
Certainly we have concerns about the Bears' offensive line, but we like the scenario for them here, especially if O'Sullivan doesn't make some bis plays. The Niners may have nowhere else to turn right now, and they have lost seven straight road games in the pre-season. Let's take Chicago, the three-point favorite in the NFL football betting odds.
CHICAGO -3 (-120) **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)
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Brandon Roy Favorite to Win 2007 NBA Rookie of the Year
Portland TrailBlazer’s guard, Brandon Roy, is MySportsbook.com’s overwhelming favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year odds.
Despite missing 20 games due to an injury earlier this season, Roy has definitely put up the best numbers of his 1st year peers. In 32 games, Roy is averaging 15.3 PPG, 4.2 boards and 3.5 assists in over 33 minutes of play per game. While most rookies breakdown as the season progresses (see Morrison), Roy is only getting stronger as his playing time and scoring average has increased each month.
With 30 or so games left in the regular season, Roy isn’t a lock for the award by any means. Other rookies are putting together some pretty impressive campaigns and a few could give Roy a run for the award with increased playing time. Heading the list is first pick, Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors. Even though he has started only two games all season, Bargnani is averaging 10.3 PPPG while shooting 35% from deep.
Randy Foye of the Minnesota Timberwolves could be set to give Roy the best competition NBA Rookie of the Year betting lines. With the benching of Mike James, Foye looks like he could be the starter in the T-Wolves backcourt for the rest of the season. So far, Foye has averaged 9 PPG and 2.4 assists in just under 21 minutes per game. With his new role of starter, Foye’s numbers will definitely increase. In his first game as the new starting guard this past Sunday, Foye had 10 points; five rebounds and 8 assists. More importantly, he logged 34 minutes of playing time; his third highest run of the season.
Adam Morrison, of the Charlotte Bobcats, was the favorite early on in the season after averaging 15+ PPG through the first month of the season. Ever since his torrid start, Morrison’s point production has declined each month. This really isn’t surprising, considering at 6’8” he only weighs 205 lbs. Obviously he will need to hit the weights big time during the off-season in order to keep from breaking down in the future.
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