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Colts shut down mistake-prone RavensFootball Betting Lines01/16/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Peyton Manning threw for a pair of touchdowns and the Colts took advantage of four Baltimore turnovers and numerous penalties to shut down the Ravens, 20-3, to advance to the AFC championship game. The top-seeded Colts will be at home next Sunday against the winner of the contest between the New York Jets and San Diego Chargers. Manning, coming off an unprecedented fourth NFL MVP award, connected on 30- of-44 passes for 246 yards and was picked off once, while Reggie Wayne had eight receptions for 63 yards and a score. Indianapolis was on its way to a possible 16-0 record in the regular season before pulling its starters in the second half of a December 27 home loss to the Jets. The Colts were then throttled in Buffalo in the final week of the season, but secured a playoff win for the first time after a bye in the Manning era. Prior to Saturday, the Colts were 0-3 in their playoff opener after earning a bye, falling in 1999 (19-16 to the Titans), 2005 (21-18 to the Steelers), and 2007 (28-24 to the Chargers). Austin Collie had a TD catch for Indianapolis, which beat the Ravens for an eighth straight time, including playoffs. Joe Flacco finished 20-of-35 for 189 yards with a pair of interceptions for the Ravens, who were coming off a resounding 33-14 wild card victory at New England. Baltimore's Ed Reed had a pair of interceptions negated, one by a penalty and another via fumble. The Ravens had seven penalties for 64 yards, and many of those were costly miscues. Ray Rice finished with 67 yards on 13 caries and also had nine catches for 60 yards in defeat. Baltimore had 234 yards rushing last week, but just 87 in this game. Already holding a 17-3 lead at the half, the Colts never let the Ravens off the mat in the final 30 minutes. Baltimore punted on its first possession of the third quarter, and on the next drive Flacco's fourth down pass from the Indy 45 was tipped at the line and fell incomplete. On the ensuing play, Reed picked off a deep ball intended for Pierre Garcon, but Garcon raced all the way down the field and stripped it away from the star Baltimore safety. The ball fell in the hands of the Colts' Dallas Clark, who returned it to the Indianapolis 28. Just five plays later, Reed intercepted a ball over the middle and returned it to the Colts 11, but cornerback Corey Ivy was whistled for pass interference. The Colts kept the ball and Matt Stover finished off the 14-play, 56-yard march with a 33-yard field goal, 1:34 into the final quarter. The misfortunes continued for the Ravens on their next possession. Rice was stripped of the ball by Raheem Brock and Clint Session pounced on it for the Colts at their 20. Later in the game, Flacco's deep pass intended for Derrick Mason was intercepted by Antoine Bethea at the two-yard line with under five minutes left, and Jerraud Powers intercepted Flacco with 1:07 remaining. The Colts got the ball first and drove 54 yards in 10 plays, capped by Stover's 44-yard field goal. Jalen Parmele returned the ensuing kickoff 64 yards to the Indianapolis 40, but L.J. Smith was whistled for an illegal block. The Ravens then moved the ball 87 yards in 15 plays, covering nearly eight minutes before Billy Cundiff split the uprights from 25 yards out with 2:57 left in the quarter. Baltimore attained a 1st-and-goal from the eight, but the drive stalled after a pair of incomplete passes, the second of which could have proved disastrous. On third down, Bethea dropped a sure interception at the goal line with plenty of open space ahead of him. After a series of punts, the Colts finally pushed ahead for good by moving the ball 75 yards in 14 plays over an eight-minute span. They converted a 4th- and-4 with a Manning pass to Joseph Addai for four yards to the Baltimore 31. Manning finished the march with a 10-yard pass to Collie in the left corner of the end zone with two minutes left. The Colts then forced a three-and-out, and immediately went to work with 1:36 left in the half. They moved the ball from their own 36 and received a couple of breaks thanks to penalties, helping them extend the margin to 17-3 on Manning's three-yard TD pass to Wayne with three seconds remaining. A pass interference penalty on Domonique Foxworth advanced the ball to the 14, and two plays later Manning threw to the end zone for Collie. The pass was broken up by Ray Lewis, but his helmet-to-helmet hit resulted in a penalty, giving Indy a 1st-and-goal at the seven. On third down, Wayne caught the ball off a slant pattern at the goal line and reached the ball across the plane before getting knocked back. Game Notes After winning the Super Bowl over Chicago to conclude the 2006 season, Indianapolis was bounced by the Chargers in both the 2007 and 2008 playoffs...Addai was limited to 23 yards on 11 carries. He left late in the second quarter with a shoulder injury, but returned...The Colts held the ball for over 11 minutes in the second quarter.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?" A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook. In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small. "Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets." But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?" Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year. This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here. Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions. In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries. No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning. And that's all any bettor can ask for. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. |
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