In a matchup between two of the worst offenses in the NFL, someone had to win. Despite producing only 9 first downs and’3 yards of total offense, the Cleveland Browns got a late game field goal from Billy Cundiff to defeat the Buffalo Bills 6-3 and win their first game of the season. The Bills had the more productive afternoon statistically, with- first downs and 288 yards of offense but were undone by three costly turnovers. Both teams are now 1-4 on the 2009 NFL season. Neither team appears to be headed anywhere but down in the NFL standings.

To successfully bet on the NFL, one needs to find opportunities to play underdogs”this is particularly true in games where neither team is expected to put many points on the board. Such was the case here, as Cleveland easily covered the pointspread as +6 road underdogs. Both teams are now 2-3 against the number on the season. The Browns have now won and covered the last three head to head matchups between the teams.

It was a game without many highlights. The Browns got on the board first with a 24 yard Cundiff field goal in the second quarter, and took that 3-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. Buffalo would tie the score in third on a Rian Lindell 36 yard field goal. That would set the stage for Cundiff to nail the game winner from’ yards out with: 23 left to play. Despite todays victory, Cleveland is averaging a woeful 11 points per game this season. Buffalo’s PPG numbers are slightly better thanks to decent scoring output in their first two games of the season–theyre averaging just over 15 points per contest. In the Bills last three games, however, theyre averaging a meager 6.6 points per game.

The real loser in Sundays contest may have been Buffalo head coach Dick Jauron. Many were surprised that he was retained after the Bills third straight 7-9 season last year and things have gone from bad to worse so far in the 2009 NFL season. Buffalo has lost to winless teams in back to back weeks, part of a three game losing streak. Overall, the Bills have wound up losers in 12 of their last 15 games. Not that Cleveland has done much better–the win today ended a 10 game losing streak, one short of the all time franchise record.

Cleveland will have a tough road assignment next Sunday, heading to Pittsburgh to face the World Champion Steelers. Theyll return home for a game against the Green Bay Packers on October 25th before playing the Chicago Bears in The Windy City the following week. Buffalo will play the next two on the road, heading to the Meadowlands next Sunday for a game against the New York Jets followed by a trip to Charlotte, NC to take on the Carolina Panthers.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and a noted authority on sports betting and NFL point spreads. He is a frequent sports radio guest where he gives advice on how to successfully bet on football. He lives in Las Vegas with three dogs and a dingo.

Tags : football, National Football League, NFL football, pro football, pro sports, recreation, Sports

The New York Jets and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez found a sure fire cure to their recent struggles-a game against the lowly Oakland Raiders. Sanchez passed for–3 yards and a touchdown, plus added a rushing touchdown as New York thumped Oakland 38-0 in the largest regular season shutout win in franchise history. The Jets improved their record to 4-3 while the Raiders dropped to 2-5.

NFL football betting enthusiasts who took the Jets as -6 road favorites had smooth sailing throughout the game for an easy pointspread cover. The Jets improved to 4-3 against the spread while the Raiders fell to 3-5 against the number.

It was such an effortless game that the only thing that Sanchez had to apologize for was surreptitiously eating a hot dog near the end of the contest:

“I want to apologize for that. I wasn’t feeling very good and didn’t eat much before the game, so I was feeling a little queasy. Toward the end of the game, I probably should have eaten one of those bars or something, but someone offered a hot dog, so I grabbed it and tried to be discreet about it, but obviously not discreet enough. So I shouldn’t have done that, and it won’t happen again.”

Sanchez praised the defense for making his job easy:

“It makes it so easy on the offense when your defense is playing like that. Hats off to them, they had a heck of a game to shut that team out. I don’t care who we’re playing, that’s a big-time accomplishment for our team.”

Jets’ coach Rex Ryan was very pleased with Sanchez’s performance:

“Sanchez was great. He was just smart with the football. I think sometimes he could have put the ball on a receiver, but he was making sure the ball wasn’t intercepted. It was great to see him respond.”

Raiders’ defensive lineman Richard Seymour, who boldly predicted the team would make the playoffs despite their slow start, was singing a different tune after the rout:

“I don’t think we could have beaten an Oakland high school team today.”

Despite Russell’s struggles, Oakland coach Tom Cable remains committed to him as the team’s starter:

“I thought he was really out of sorts early in the game. I just did not feel like at that point he gave us the best chance to have the success we needed to have offensively and made the move. JaMarcus will continue to be our starter. There is no issue there.”

The Raiders will try to bounce back this weekend in a big rivalry game on the road against the San Diego Chargers. Oakland is +16′ road underdogs with the total set at 42′. They’ll then enjoy a bye week before back to back home games against the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals. The Jets host Miami this Sunday, with New York a -3′ home favorite and the total set at 40′.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

Tags : football, hobbies, NFL football, recreation, Sports

While football in the United States is associated with crisp autumn days and cool nights, in Canada professional football begins in the summer time. While NFL training camps won’t open until mid-summer by then the Canadian Football League (CFL) will be well into their regular season schedule.

Most Americans dont realize that the CFL has a lengthy and storied history. The league itself has been around since’30, and the Canadian Football championship–known as the Grey Cup–has been contended since’09. More recently, American fans are aware that a number of NFL stars got their start in the CFL including Doug Flutie, Jim Kelly, and Jeff Garcia.

The CFL is very high level professional football, but there are some significant differences between it and the NFL game:

The most obvious difference is the football itself–the CFL football is longer and fatter than the NFL ball. The CFL still has their goal posts on the goal line, which the NFL moved to the back of the end zone years ago. The field is 10 yards longer and 12 yards wider than the NFL field, and the CFL end zones are 20 yards deep instead of the NFL’s 10 yards.

Teams have 12 players on the field at once as opposed to 11 in the NFL. On offense, the extra player is a receiver, on defense a defensive back. And unlike the American game, where teams have 4 downs to move the ball ten yards the CFL has only 3. Maybe the hardest thing to get used to when listening to CFL broadcasts is the frequently references to teams going two and out. There are a few other subtle differences as well”teams only have 1 time out per half, only 20 seconds between plays, and all backfield players can be in motion prior to the snap (as opposed to only one in the NFL).

A major difference in the scoring is the ‘single’ which awards CFL teams one point for a kick–usually a punt or missed field goal–that lands in the end zone. This will frequently produce partial game scores of 1-0 or 1-1 that are impossible in the US game.

The rule differences don’t end there–CFL teams are required to maintain a certain percentage of Canadian born players on their roster. The idea is that this will protect the unique identity of the game, as well as prevent it from becoming little more than a farm system for the NFL. Currently’ of the 40 players on a CFL roster must be Canadian natives.

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding is that the average NFL fan looks at the rules of the Canadian game with more players, a wider field, and fewer downs and concludes that the game is a wide open shootout similar to Arena Football. Thats not really the case–you’ll see some offensive battles but most games end up with final score totals in the mid to high 40s. In Arena Football, youll frequently see teams with potent offenses enforcing their will over and over again against teams with porous defenses. You don’t see that too often in the CFL. The rules may be different, but as is the case in American pro football you need a solid rushing game and a stout defense to win games and championships.

Furthermore, the parity that you see in the NFL where on any given Sunday any team can beat any other team is magnified in the CFL. The primary reason is the rules mandating Canadian native players. I dont think itll offend any Canadians if I suggest that football is played at a higher level in American high schools and colleges. That means that at least 50% of each team is of essentially equal level of talents. Now that may be a bit of an oversimplification”certainly there are differing levels of talent among Canadian players”but the Canadian native rules do serve to further codify the inherent tendency toward parity that you see in most professional sports.

The CFL isn’t in a financial position to draw the top level US players away from the NFL or, in most cases, even a NFL practice or developmental squad. While some US players are uniquely suited to the CFL style of play, most of the US players that end up there are of a similar talent level as to that seen in Arena Football.

Despite the differences between the CFL and American football, at the end of the day its still high level, professional football. Once you understand the unique aspects of the CFL, it’ll become second nature much as NFL viewers quickly assimilate rule changes there.

Before the Internet became ubiquitous, it wasn’t easy for an American fan to keep up with the CFL. While they still don’t receive coverage on ESPN, the Internet affords access to the sports media of every CFL city along with the national Canadian sports media at sites like Slam! Sports. The CFL’s official site is also a great source of news, stats and information on Canadian football.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

Tags : Canadian Football League, entertainment, football, hobbies, marketing, recreation, Sports, Travel

The Miami Dolphins were the surprise football team of the 2008 NFL regular season. After going 1-15 in 2007, they were literally the joke of the NFL and no one expected much more out of the team entering 2008.

The 09′ season for the Miami Dolphins has been nothing like 08′. Statistically, Chad Pennington is the most accurate passer of all-time. While he might not have the “big arm”, he finds his receivers when they are open.

The duo of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams really came together. This opened up a ton of room for Chad Pennington as well. Anthony Fasano also stepped up as one of the top TE’s in the league. What a year it was!

Things looked promising for 2009, until the Dolphins lost their first three games. Things looked even worse, when during their third game, the team lost Pennington for the season.

Unfortunately, things started out on a discouraging note for the Dolphins. Having lost by 12 points to the Falcons in Atlanta was a tough blow to the team, despite the fact that Atlanta was the favorite to win the game. The Dolphins had still hoped for a better result. No team wants to score 7 points in its season opener.

Seven points scored in a game against an average Falcons defense raised questions about the Dolphins’ offense and their effectiveness. It’s going to be a long season if they don’t get it right.

After week 3, the Dolphins looked like a hopeless team with an 0-3 record, having been 3 games behind the first place Jets. Suddenly, the Dolphins are now 2-3 and the Jets are 3-2, with the Dolphins only one game behind the Jets now.

They performed a miraculous turn around in one year; hopefully that type of magic exists with the Dolphins again. If the Dolphins somehow manage a 8-8 season, that would be considered a successful season.

For more Dolphins chatter, check out the Dolphins forumss and create your own NFL polls all at RootZoo Sports.

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Quarterback Tony Romo had another solid game, and the Dallas Cowboys made short work of the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday afternoon in a 38-17 victory. Romo threw for 256 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and receiver Miles Austin caught a touchdown pass for the third straight game. The Cowboys improved to 5-2 with the win, while the Seahawks dropped to 2-5.

The Cowboys also got on the winning side of the NFL pointspread ledger with the win and cover as -10 home favorites. Dallas is now 4-3 against the spread for the season, while Seattle fell to 2-5 versus the number. The 55 combined points scored went OVER the posted total of 46′.

Romo has made greater patience in the pocket a priority this season, and it’s paying dividends. Sunday’s game was his third straight without an interception and he’s stayed interception free in five games this season-more than he did all of last year. Romo couldn’t resist a joke at his own expense:

“Shock! I’m seeing things. It’s as simple as that. I’m not throwing and hoping.”

Head coach Wade Phillips expressed his pleasure, but didn’t want his team to start believing their own press clippings:

“I feel good about the progress we’ve made, but we’ve still got a ways to go.”

Team owner Jerry Jones was happy with the performance and already looking ahead to next Sunday’s game at Philadelphia:

“I’m just glad to see as many people really do as well and play as well as they did today. Philadelphia is the kind of game that I think we’re ready for. … Plus, I think we all remember so much — I know I do and so many players on this team remember — how we left Philadelphia last year.”

Seattle quarterback Todd Hasselbeck played well, amassing 249 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions but didn’t get much help from a defense that couldn’t put the necessary pressure on Romo. He sounded frustrated in his postgame comments:

“We put two weeks into this game plan. I felt like we were ready. We just didn’t get it done. …. I feel physically drained, emotionally drained. I’m frustrated. We’re all searching for answers.”

The big game for the Cowboys that Jerry Jones alluded to is next Sunday night as they travel to Philadelphia to face the Eagles. The Cowboys have been installed as +3 underdogs with the total set at 47′. They’ll head to Green Bay to take on the Packers the following Sunday before returning home to play the hated Washington Redskins. Seattle will host the lowly Detroit Lions next Sunday, with the Seahawks a -10 home favorite and the total set at 43. They’ll hit the road for their next two games, facing the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

Tags : entertainment, football, gambling, NFL football, recreation, Sports