Time Joins Yards From Steelers

Football Betting Lines

Joe Flacco went 23-for-34 through the air for 226 yards and two scores, but was intercepted twice in the third quarter as the Ravens (10-4) had their four-game win streak snapped.

 

Baltimore was guaranteed a playoff spot prior to the game, though, thanks to losses by the Jets and Titans earlier on Sunday.

 

The Chargers then marched down the field in 11 plays, converting the lone third down they saw with a nine-yard grab by Randy McMichael before Mike Tolbert capped the drive by rumbling into the end zone from two yards out.

 

Baltimore responded with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that stretched into the second quarter to tie the game at 7-7. Rice carried the load on the march, reeling off six runs for 30 yards before Flacco found Ed Dickson for a 15-yard score.

 

The Chargers continued to roll in the second half, as they scored 17 straight points while intercepting Flacco twice.

 

Rivers finalized an eight-play, 80-yard drive to open the third quarter by dropping a pass over Floyd's shoulder in the right side of the end zone for a 28-yard score.

 

The turnover resulted in Mathews leaping over the line of scrimmage and into the end zone for a three-yard touchdown and a 31-7 Chargers lead.

 

Novak's 28-yard kick was true on the Chargers' next touch to put San Diego up by 27 before a 36-yard catch-and-run by the Ravens' Torrey Smith late in the game accounted for the final margin.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two of the most successful teams of this 2011 NFL season will go head-to-head under the Monday night lights when the defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers pay a visit to Candlestick Park to take on the playoff-bound San Francisco 49ers, though some of the luster of this otherwise marquee matchup may be removed due to the potential absence of a pair of star players. The Steelers will enter this high-profile showdown with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger a question mark due to an ankle sprain he suffered in the team's most recent win, while All-Pro outside linebacker James Harrison is guaranteed to sit out the contest after being handed a one-game suspension by the league office for an illegal hit on Cleveland quarterback Colt McCoy during Pittsburgh's 14-3 triumph over the Browns on Dec. 8.

 

"I'm going to do everything I can to be out there; it's probably more on [the coaches]," said Roethlisberger, who finished 16-of-21 for 280 yards with two touchdown strikes and one interception in the gritty performance. "If I'm not out there it's probably because they didn't feel comfortable with me being out there to protect myself or whatever it is. They know better than I do."

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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."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

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.