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08/21/2010 - Sunriver, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tom Lehman posted a three-under 69 on Saturday to move in front after the third round of the Tradition, the fourth Champions Tour major of the season.
Lehman, who won one of those majors, the Senior PGA Championship, finished 54 holes at 11-under 205 and is two strokes clear at Crosswater Club at Sunriver Resort.
Bernhard Langer is the only other player to win a Champions Tour major in 2010. He captured the Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open in back-to-back weeks and now he's in the hunt for a third straight major title.
The German Hall of Famer carded his third consecutive three-under 69 and is tied for second with J.L. Lewis (66) and 2008 Tradition champion Fred Funk (70). The group came in at minus-nine.
Second-round leader D.A. Weibring struggled to a two-over 74 on Saturday and fell into a tie for fifth place with Chien Soon Lu (65), John Cook (68), Bob Gilder (69), Bob Tway (71) and Gil Morgan (71). They finished at eight-under 208.
MORE TO FOLLOW.
<< Alouettes QB Calvillo out of hospital
Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony
Calvillo has been released from the hospital and is resting at home.
Calvillo was removed from Thursday's 39-17 rout of Winnipeg at Molson Stadium
with a bruis
<< A-Rod lands on DL with calf injury
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees placed third baseman
Alex Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left calf after
Saturday's 9-5 win over Seattle.
Rodriguez returned to the lineup as the designate
<< Padres activate Eckstein from DL
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Padres have reinstated
infielder David Eckstein from the 15-day disabled list among a handful of
moves prior to Saturday's game against Milwaukee.
Eckstein was placed on the disabl
<< Atwal alone at the top of Wyndham Championship
Greensboro, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arjun Atwal fired a five-under 65 on
Saturday to take sole possession of the lead after the third round of the
Wyndham Championship.
Atwal, who fired a 61 for the first-round lead and shared
Fish dunks Roddick, reaches Cincy final >>
Mason, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mardy Fish rallied past fellow American
Andy Roddick in the early rain-slowed semifinal matchup Saturday at the $3
million Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, a U.S. Open Series event.
R
Blind Luck captures Alabama Stakes >>
Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The two leading three-year-old fillies
in training met Saturday in Saratoga's $500,000 Alabama Stakes and it was
Blind Luck proving the better of the two in the 1 1/4-mile race.
Devil May Care, r
Feldman leaves Saturday's game >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers pitcher Scott Feldman left
Saturday's game in Baltimore with an undisclosed injury.
Feldman took over for starter Cliff Lee and got the final out in the sixth
inning. He came out to take his
Marseille tops Lorient for first win >>
Marseille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gabriel Heinze and Taye Taiwo scored and
defending champion Marseille defeated Lorient, 2-0, on Saturday for its first
win - and points - of the French Ligue 1 season.
Marseille lost to promoted Caen an
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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