Alouettes tangle with Tiger-Cats in home opener

Football Betting Lines

07/20/2010 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ranked fifth in the most recent power rankings in the CFL, the Montreal Alouettes hope to move up as they contend against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in their 2010 home opener at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium this Thursday evening.

After getting off to a rough start in the season opener, a meeting with Saskatchewan that resulted in a 54-51 overtime setback, the Als appear to be back on the right track after putting up consecutive wins against Edmonton (33-23) and British Columbia (16-12). At 2-1, Montreal matches the surprising Toronto Argonauts at the top of the Eastern Division standings.

Quarterback Anthony Calvillo, who is making a run at many of the all-time passing records in Montreal history, completed 30-of-47 for 297 yards against the Lions in a close call last time out. Calvillo failed to throw a touchdown pass in the contest and in fact, it was kicker Damon Duval who saved the day for the Als with four field goals and a couple of singles, accounting for the majority of the team's point production.

As for the Tiger-Cats, they dropped their first two outings of the regular season against Winnipeg and Calgary before hitting the win column with a convincing 28-7 romp over the Blue Bombers in week three of the campaign. In that meeting, Kevin Glenn hit on 29-of-36 passing for 340 yards and three touchdowns, with Maurice Mann turning half of his four catches into scores. Running back DeAndra' Cobb began the meeting with a two-yard touchdown catch and finished it with a six-yard run into the end zone as well.

From a defensive standpoint, Hamilton limited the Blue Bombers to less than 24 minutes of possession and 290 yards of offense overall, while knocking starting quarterback Buck Pierce out of action in the third quarter with a right knee injury.

As well as the defense played for the Cats last week, there has to be some concern with the squad's inability to stop opponents on the ground, given that they are second-to-last in the league with an average of 146 ypg given up to opposing runners. Even though he is far off the pace he set a season ago, Montreal running back Avon Cobourne might use this opportunity to get well and improve upon his mere 4.8 yards per carry thus far.

As a unit Montreal, which is second in the league in scoring at 33.3 ppg, has just two rushing touchdowns thus far and has sputtered since the loss in the opener when the offense erupted for significant gains. Calvillo ranks second in the league with his 902 yards through the air, leading to six touchdowns and just two interceptions, yet it still feels as though he is not nearly as precise as he was last season.

On the other hand, Glenn currently ranks third in the CFL with his 889 yards passing and has completed a league-best 70 percent of his attempts. Add to that his five TDs and just a single INT and it is easy to see why he ranks second in efficiency rating with a mark of 110.0 after three games.

With an average of just 79 yards rushing per game the Tiger-Cats are the least likely club to take advantage of the Montreal defense, but don't tell that to Cobb, who ranked fifth last year in rushing with 1,217 yards. However, even though Cobb put up three more yards overall than Cobourne, it was the latter who led the CFL in rushing touchdowns with 13, while Cobb was credited with only five rushing scores in 2009.

Last year the Als made a clean sweep of Hamilton, taking all three contests, which means Montreal now owns an 83-74-7 regular-season mark versus the Tiger- Cats going back to 1946.

The teams are set to meet two more times this season, with both of those contests being played on Hamilton's home field on September 11 and October 22.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.