Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
12/29/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's a tough week for New York Jets fans.
Serving as a silent counterweight to the prospect of their team giddily reaching the playoffs against an inferior foe in its home stadium on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, is the always-present knowledge that it's all been promised up like this before.
So, in the midst of such a fairy tale set-up, here's a little fatalist reality:
In 1993, a season-ending victory at already-clinched Houston would have given the 8-7 Jets a playoff berth. Instead, the team lost, 24-0, to the Bucky Richardson-led Oilers and prompted the inglorious exit of coach Bruce Coslet.
In 1997, a season-ending victory at 8-7 Detroit would have given the 9-6 Jets a playoff berth with quarterback Neil O'Donnell. Instead, the team lost, 13-10, to finish a three-losses-in-four-games stretch run for first-year coach Bill Parcells.
And in 2000, a season-ending victory at already-clinched Baltimore would have given the 9-6 Jets a playoff berth. Instead, the team lost, 34-20, blowing a 14-point first-quarter lead and spoiling a career-best 481-yard passing day from Vinny Testaverde.
Such a recurrent pattern of holiday bait-and-switch might be sufficient to make a die-hard "Gang Greener" reach for his autographed Rich Kotite pistol, even before names like Doug Brien, Blair Thomas and Browning Nagle enter the subconscious.
Still, the few surviving optimists of the bunch will insist this year is different.
Under first-year coach Eric Mangini - who's used a mix of Belichick-like solemnity and Rocky-esque motivation to concoct a team - the perennial swamp- side second bananas have cleared many adverse obstacles their more-talented predecessors never could.
A 41-point throttling in Jacksonville was followed by two wins. An ugly pre- bye loss at Cleveland preceded a victory at New England. And a wretched 18- point home no-show against Buffalo yielded a pair of road upsets and set Sunday's celebratory stage.
Somehow, the "same old Jets" have not only become the newly-crowned football kings of New Jersey, but also the newly-found underdog darlings of TV producers amid the glut of Sunday morning NFL preview shows.
A win over 2-13 Oakland would give the 9-6 Jets a clear path into the playoffs in January's initial week, where they could meet either Baltimore, Indianapolis or New England, pending the results of the rest of the conference's weekend games.
A loss...well, let's just say it'd make things a little less jubilant in the Valhalla that is the Newark suburbs, except for those fans somehow predisposed to jumping about in celebration of the big-game misery that's traditionally dogged Jets Nation.
"We've got to come and play a good game and focus on that game, and focus on winning that game," said the always-staid Mangini, whose team will host the festivities at 1 pm "I believe now things are fully in our control."
Control, meanwhile, seems a word barely still applicable to the Raiders.
Veteran coach Art Shell has endured a dreadful return to the silver and black sidelines after a multi-year/multi-coach hiatus, dealing with injuries to quarterback Aaron Brooks and feature runner LaMont Jordan, as well as the perpetual pain in the neck chaos that's surrounded star wideout Randy Moss.
Both Moss and Brooks are questionable this week with ankle and neck injuries. And Jordan, a former Jet who came to Oakland as a free agent prior to the 2005 season, has been labeled "out for the season" since hurting a knee in mid- November.
Oakland saw its season-worst losing streak reach eight games last weekend, when it dropped a 20-9 decision to Kansas City in the tattered remnants of what was once the AFC's premier on-field rivalry. In addition, the game was the eighth straight in which the once point-prodigious Raiders failed to post more than 14.
"I can't make miracles happen," Brooks said. "Right now, it seems like we need a miracle to make something happen offensively."
SERIES HISTORY
The Raiders hold a 19-13-2 lead in their all-time regular season series with the Jets, but have lost each of the last two meetings against New York. The Jets were 26-10 home winners when the teams met in Week 14 of last season, and also took a 27-24 overtime decision in Oakland in 2003. The Raiders' most recent win in the regular season series took place in 2002, at home, and their last road win in the series occurred in 1996.
In addition to the regular season series, the teams have split four postseason meetings all-time. The Jets defeated the Raiders in the 1968 AFL Championship and in a 1982 AFC Second-Round Playoff. Oakland returned the favor by downing New York in a 2001 AFC First-Round Playoff and a 2002 Divisional Playoff.
The most infamous contest played between the two franchises took place on Nov. 17, 1968, when the Raiders came from behind in the waning moments to defeat the Jets, 43-32, in Oakland. NBC-TV ill-advisedly switched programming to the movie "Heidi" with 1:05 to play, just after the Jets had taken a 32-29 lead. The tilt has gone down in NFL legend as the "Heidi Game."
Shell is 2-0 against the Jets as a head coach, including a 14-7 win in the first game of his head coaching career, at the Meadowlands in Week 5 of the 1989 season. The Jets' Mangini will be meeting both Shell and Oakland for the first time as head coach.
RAIDERS OFFENSE VS. JETS DEFENSE
The aforementioned stats and quote pretty much illustrate the plight of a team that's 28th overall in weekly rushing yardage (95.4), 31st in passing yardage (153.3) and a rock-bottom-in-the-NFL 32nd in total yardage (248.7).
Should Brooks miss the game with his neck malady, the Raiders would go with youngster Andrew Walter, who's thrown 13 interceptions to just three touchdowns while spelling Brooks at various points during the season.
Walter, for what it matters, has won two of his last five starts.
In Jordan's absence, the running game is in the hands of Justin Fargas, who ran for a career-best 90 yards on 19 carries against the Chiefs last week and has racked up 580 yards and one touchdown on 161 carries for the season.
Veteran receiver Jerry Porter will miss the game with a hip injury, leaving more of the responsibility to the dinged-up Moss and youngster Ronald Curry, who has a career-best 28 receptions over his last three games.
He had 11 catches against Kansas City and leads the team with 57 - for 680 yards and one TD - on the season. The last Raider to catch at least 11 in a game had been Tim Brown, who grabbed 13 in October 2002.
Elsewhere, Oakland's turnover ratio is a charitable minus-20.
Defensively, the Jets have been an improving work in progress since the 41-0 blowout to the Jaguars. Only two opponents since have scored more than 20 points, a 10-game stretch in which New York has gone 7-3.
Yardage-wise, the team is 25th overall with 339.8 surrendered per game, though the pass defense has improved to 16th in the league while the collective run- stopping prowess is 25th.
Linebacker/end hybrid Bryan Thomas has a team-high 8.5 sacks overall and has had at least one sack in six of his last eight games. Also, linebacker Victor Hobson has four sacks in his last three outings.
Cornerback Andre Dyson and safety Kerry Rhodes share the team lead with five interceptions.
JETS OFFENSE VS. RAIDERS DEFENSE
Much like the Monday night game against the Dolphins, the Jets this week face a record-poor foe that nonetheless sports one of the league's top defensive units.
Quarterback Chad Pennington was often sloppy and occasionally excellent in the rain in Miami, completing just 14-of-29 passes for the game but nonetheless leading a 2-minute drill that ended with the game-winning points.
Pennington, in two career starts against the Raiders, is 40-for-61 for 534 yards, four touchdowns, one interception and a 108.2 QB rating. Already at a career high in yardage with 3,195, the Marshall product needs 205 to become the seventh passer in Jets history to reach 3,400 in a single season.
Favorite target Laveranues Coles took a vicious hit from Zach Thomas on a Pennington floater across the middle against Miami, but is expected to play this week even though he's against listed questionable on an always-crowded New York injury report.
Coles is tied for third in the NFL with 89 catches and has scored six times while gaining 1,074 yards. His wideout mate, Jerricho Cotchery, needs 92 yards to reach 1,000, which would give the team a pair of four-digit pass catchers for the first time since Keyshawn Johnson and Wayne Chrebet in 1998.
The three-pronged running game made a star out of little man Leon Washington last week, primarily after his 60-plus yard gallop with a screen pass on the game's clinching possession. For the season, Washington has run for 597 yards in 136 carries.
Cedric Houston, who was absent last week with a calf injury, has gone for 208 yards and three touchdowns in his last three games. And ex-49er Kevan Barlow, who's scored seven touchdowns, has helped the team to wins in four of the five games in which he's found the end zone.
The Jets are 20th in the league in per-week rushing offense (108.1 yards) and 17th in passing (200.3), giving them an overall yardage rank of 308.3 (21st in the league).
Their turnover ratio is minus-3.
On the other side, Oakland's defense is routinely the reason the Raiders have even had a chance at staying competitive into the late going of games this season.
In a statistical anomaly, the team has yielded 135.1 yards per game on the ground - 27th in the league - but is first among the 32 teams with just 150.9 yards allowed in the air. Of course, most teams are playing with a lead against them, making them less likely to rack up big numbers in passing yardage.
Overall, the 286 yards allowed per game is the league's fourth-best average.
Individually, cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha has picked off eight passes to lead the team and place him in a second-place tie in the NFL as a whole. The last Raider to grab at least nine in a season was Lester Hayes, who had 13 picks in 1980.
Derrick Burgess leads the pass rush with 11 sacks, followed closely by veteran ex-Buccaneeer Warren Sapp, who has nine, his most since getting 16.5 with Tampa Bay in 2000. One more for Sapp would give him 10 for the fourth time in his 12-year career.
OVERALL ANALYSIS
It's watershed time for the Jets.
With a win and the playoff ticket that comes with it, Mangini will have gone a long way toward shedding the laughingstock mentality that's followed the franchise since its Super Bowl win in January 1969. While with a loss, much of the shine of a five-win improvement over last season's injury-filled Herman Edwards swan song will be lost.
Toward that end, the self-professed boxing buff coach - who's made a habit of showing his team old fight clips on the eve of big games - might want to take a look at such recent upsets as Spinks-Ali, Barkley-Hearns and Douglas-Tyson, in which a seemingly unbeatable and forward-looking favorite was toppled by a unheralded opponent.
It could happen here. But it says here that it won't.
Somebody get Springsteen on the phone - the Jets are going to the "Promised Land."
Sportsbook Betting Lines Predicted Outcome: Jets 20, Raiders 10
<< Will Win Over Bucs Precede Hawks Playoff Start?
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NFC West champion Seattle Seahawks are playoff-bound,
despite struggling down the stretch with three straight losses.
The Seahawks backed into a division title last week, thanks to a loss the
49ers, but still have a ch
<< Cutler, Broncos, Try to Sew Up Playoff Bid Vs. Niners
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler is peering over the
precipice of his first NFL playoff experience. By the time Denver takes the
field on Sunday afternoon against the visiting San Francisco 49ers, the rookie
may have already ma
<< Rams-Vikings Tilt Could Have Playoff Implications
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Rams still have a shot at a playoff berth,
and will put their chances on the line Sunday when they pay a visit to the
Minnesota Vikings at the Metrodome.
The Rams have won two in a row, and defeated the Washi
<< Notre Dame crushes Rider
South Bend, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rob Kurz recorded a game-high 23 points to
go with eight rebounds, as 19th-ranked Notre Dame crushed Rider, 101-51 at
Joyce Center.
Kyle McAlarney added 21, including 7-of-9 from beyond the arc for the
Streaking Titans Vying to Keep Hope Alive Vs. Pats >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It required a major effort for the Tennessee Titans to
salvage their season from the scrap heap of an 0-5 start, and the hard work
will continue for Vince Young and his band of AFC Wild Card hopefuls on
Sunday.
The 11-4 P
Shaky Colts Need to Heat Up Against Dolphins >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indianapolis Colts will have one final chance to build
some sorely-needed momentum for the upcoming playoffs this Sunday, when
the reeling AFC South champions conclude their regular season by hosting the
Miami Dolphins.
Chiefs-Jags Winner Likely Left Out of Playoffs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In the end, will it really matter?
That existential question faces the Jacksonville Jaguars and Kansas City
Chiefs on Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium, as the two AFC Wild Card
hopefuls will seek a win and some substa
Bears Might Stand Between Pack, Postseason >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's official. This Roger Goodell guy is a genius.
But it's not because the league's new "flex scheduling" plan allowed him to
slot Brett Favre in the weekend's NBC spotlight for what could be the final
game of his career,
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Since the late 1990's, MySportsbook.com has been an online sportsbook / poker room / casino that focuses on quality.. MySportsbook caters to the experienced sports fan who values reliability and accuracy, with great attention to detail. MySportsbook's success over the past 3 years has made them the envy of the sports gambling industry. There are hundreds of sites appearing all over the Internet claiming to be the next best sportsbook online, each one is trying to use the same marketing techniques as MySportsbook originated.
If you want to try the most stylish and reliable type of online sportsbook, go with MySportsbook. Most online sportsbooks give you live odds and plenty of games and events to bet on, at MySportsbook they'll give you that and more. While perfection may be a lofty goal, MySportsbook attempts to achieve that goal. All sorts of ways to bet on football, football betting, Super Bowl betting lines.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football sportsbook needs.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting