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By Dan Behringer, LVSportsBiz.com Sports Betting Writer
Your last chance to bet on — or against — the Las Vegas Raiders this season has arrived.
The Raiders will be hosting the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday at Allegiant Stadium. The Raiders are 6-10 and will be watching the NFL playoffs from the comfort of their living rooms. The Chiefs are 13-3 and polishing up their playoffs résumé.
And for the bettors? The Raiders are +9.5 after opening at +10. The total has been bet up from 50.5 to 52.5.
Not exactly where coach Josh McDaniels & Co. expected the Silver and Black to be at the beginning of the season. But after coughing up an NFL record of five double-digit leads and also benching and effectively parting ways with starting quarterback Derek Carr that’s where the Raiders find themselves.
In fact, the Raiders were leading the Chiefs, 17-0, way back on Oct. 10 before Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes tossed four TD passes and rallied the team to a 30-29 comeback victory.
“The second game of these division rivalries is always a little bit different because you’re gonna change some things, there’s no question about it,” McDaniels said. “Our focus is going to be on getting to know the team they have now, the way they’re playing now.”
Also, on not blowing a lead if you get one.
Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m.
Elsewhere:
— For the championship trophy: The College Football Playoff Championship game goes Monday. To no one’s surprise, one of the teams is Georgia. But to the amazement of many, the other team is not Alabama. Nor Ohio State. Nor Michigan. Rather, it’s Texas Christian University of Fort Worth, Texas, which was predicted by some to finish seventh in the Big 12 Conference.
After opening at -13.5, Georgia is now -12.5 or even -12 in some shops. The total is up from 62 to 62.5.
“I think, in some ways we probably viewed ourselves as (a Cinderella team) early on because we were figuring this thing out,” Horned Frogs coach Sonny Dykes said. “I think that if you had asked us before the season started — ‘Would we play for a national championship?’ — most of us probably didn’t think that we would.”
But at 13-1 after stunning Michigan in the CFP Semifinals, they are there. Only Georgia at 14-0 and contending to become the first team to win back-to-back titles in the CFP era that began in 2014 stands in their way.
Personnel has obviously changed dramatically since the two teams last met in 2016. But Georgia won that game 31-23.
Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
— Regrouping: The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, who ran off an 11-1 mark in the nonconference play before going 0-2 in MWC competition, will be at New Mexico (14-1) on Saturday.
“We are a team that hates losing so there’s a lot of frustration in the result,” coach Kevin Kruger said of their loss, 76-67 loss to San Diego State on New Year’s Eve. The Rebels failed to cover +5 for the game, but the total cruised over 136.5.
No line yet on Saturday’s game. Tipoff is at 6:30 p.m.
— Where are they now? In case you were wondering, former UNLV basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger is enjoying success with Iowa State in his second season there. The Cyclones upset Oklahoma, 63-60, on Wednesday to improve their record to 11-2. They play at TCU on Saturday.
— On the ice: The Vegas Golden Knights, still atop the Pacific Division of the Western Conference with a 22-14 mark, host the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. The Kings trail the VGK by only six points in the standings but oddly enough have a -8 goal differential for the season.
The early line shows Foley’s Finest at -154 with the total at 6.5. The puck drop is at 7 p.m.
Coach Bruce Cassidy to reporters after the Golden Knights beat beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2, as relatively cheap -111 favorites Thursday for their fourth straight home win: “From start to finish, we had a really good hockey game. We’ve got some time to get (to a full 60-minute game), but that is the goal: Get healthy, and get your game in order to where you’re as close to 60 minutes as you can be.”
— Play of the Week (9-7): We suffered a tough loss last week when Georgia failed to cover in its 42-41 win over Ohio State. The betting line actually moved from -6.5 to -5 so everyone saw it except us. That left us at 9-7 for the season. This week we’ll play the Chiefs-Raiders total over 52.5.