Weekend Sports Gambler: Yes, Raiders Are Favored, But Check Out Opponent
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By Dan Behringer, LVSportsBiz.com Sports Betting Writer
Cue the laugh track.
The stumbling, bumbling, can’t-hold-a-lead, “fire the damn coach already” Las Vegas Raiders are favored in their game Sunday vs. the Indianapolis Colts. And favored by 4.5 points, a generous line in the normally competitive NFL.
The total has been bet down from 43 to 40.5.
Of course, it’s the Colts. Who have issues of their own. After being drilled by the New England Patriots, 26-3, the Colts fired fifth-year coach Frank Reich and replaced him with interim coach Jeff Saturday. As noted by Field Level Media, the lowly Colts rank last in points per game (14.7) and 30th in yards per play (4.8) and yards per rush (3.7).
Yet they own a 3-5-1 record and are in second place in the AFC South behind the Tennessee Titans.
On the other hand, the 2-6 Raiders have lost three of their last four and are dead last in the AFC West, four games behind the first-place Chiefs (6-2).
“I definitely am not going to go in there and panic and say we need to uproot everything we’ve done. That’s not really the right thing to do,” first-year Raiders coach Josh McDaniels told reporters. “There’s things we’re doing very well, there’s things that we need to do better. And I think for us to try to figure out what those are and then address them and address them in the right way.”
So a first-year coach, McDaniels, who has already stirred the wrath of many in Raider Nation after the team’s dismal start, will face an interim coach named Saturday who is charged with rescuing a team that is floundering in a game Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
In the NFL, that’s high drama. Or low comedy. Maybe both.
Kickoff is at 1:05 p.m.
Elsewhere:
— Home again: The Vegas Golden Knights return home Saturday to T-Mobile Arena after a highly successful Canadian and Eastern road swing in which they won all five games. Their trip concluded with a 7-4 rout of the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
“It was a back-and-forth game. Give them a lot of credit. They have a lot of great players, and they put us on our heels,” the Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel, who scored a hat trick for the game, told reporters on the postgame broadcast. “We’ve been away for 11 days, and it’s nice to cap it off with a nice win.”
They return home to host the St. Louis Blues (4-8) on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. No line yet for that game, but assume the VGK (13-2) will be -285 or so favorites with a total of around 6.
The puck drop is at 7 p.m.
The Golden Knights, who were +1400 to win the Stanley Cup at the start of the season, are now +900 at BetMGM.
— Trying to go bowling: It wasn’t that long ago, the UNLV football Rebels were 4-1 and entertaining dreams of a break-through season. Now they are 4-5 and those dreams are a foggy memory.
During their four-game losing streak, the Rebels offense has generated only 45 points.
“You will not be given a bowl (game),” coach Marcus Arroyo said of the Rebels, who need to win two of their remaining three games to achieve bowl eligibility. “You have to earn it. You have to earn everything in this game.”
The Rebels are +9.5 vs. Fresno State (5-4) on Friday night. Ironically, the Bulldogs are 3-6 ATS while the Rebels are 6-3 against-the-spread.
The total is 60.5, up from 58.
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
— Fading the Lakers: Betting against the Los Angeles Lakers continues to be an extremely profitable play in the NBA. The Purple and Gold have lost their last four games ATS — all by double-digit margins. They are 2-8 ATS on the season.
The Lakers (2-8) are +3.5, up from +2, when they host the Sacramento Kings (4-6) on Friday night. The Kings are 7-3 ATS on the season.
— Not-even-close over: If you thought last week’s SMU-Houston football game shaped up as an over, you were right. The Ponies rang up 77 points, and the Cougars were relatively close with 63 in a score that more resembled a college basketball game. Officially, it went over the total of 65.5 by 74.5 points.
— Play of the Week (7-3): Lady Luck smiled on us last week and let us hit over 56.5 in the Alabama-LSU game when the game went to overtime. That left us at 7-3 for the season. This weekend, we are on Auburn -1.5 vs. Texas A&M.
