Toronto and Hamilton meet in pivotal Eastern Division matchup
Football Betting Lines
09/01/2010 - Hamilton, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The only matchup of the week that pits two teams that are at least .500 so far this season against each other has the Hamilton Tiger-Cats entertaining the Toronto Argonauts at Ivor Wynne Stadium on Monday afternoon.
Toronto is a surprising 5-3 after eight games, even though the team was taken down by this same Ti-Cats squad on August 20 by a score of 16-12. With the victory Hamilton moved to an even 4-4 overall, using a 13-point fourth-quarter explosion to capture its third win in a row after losing four of the first five games of the campaign.
Hamilton kicker Sandro DeAngelis played a crucial role in putting his team over the top in the last game, booting a pair of field goals in the final period and three successful conversions overall. But in fact, it was a six- yard TD run by DeAndra Cobb late in the meeting that actually put the visitors over the top. Cobb finished with a game-high 99 yards on 20 carries, while quarterback Kevin Glenn converted 25-of-36 passes for 247 yards and an interception. Receiver Arland Bruce continued to be a tough matchup as he reeled in eight balls for 68 yards.
Over on the Toronto side, Cleo Lemon made good on 18-of-31 passes for 208 yards, but he failed to throw a TD pass and was sacked four times. Instead, it was kicker Grant Shaw who had a hand in most of the scoring for the Argos, converting three field goals and adding a single through the third quarter.
As someone who has been thrown into the starting lineup this year, Lemon has made it work for the Argonauts with his 60.2 percent completion rate and just seven touchdowns against five interceptions thus far. Nevertheless, the Toronto passing attack is far from feared throughout the rest of the league, given that it ranks last in yardage (1,761) and second-to-last in TD passes with just those seven tossed by Lemon. What Toronto needs more than anything is for Boyd to continue to roll up yards on the ground so at least the Argos can at times threaten to put the ball in the air. Boyd is currently first in the league in rushing with 792 yards, yet after a league-high 133 carries he still has just four touchdowns to his credit.
As for the Toronto defense, there is no team in the league that is even close to how porous the Argos have become in 2010. The squad is giving up a staggering 439.3 ypg, the only team in the league permitting more than 393 ypg at the moment. But as poorly as the unit has played at times this season, the fact remains that Toronto is allowing 26.9 ppg which is right in the middle of the pack, and is actually tied with Hamilton at the moment in that department.
Glenn has seen plenty of action over the years against the Argonauts, throwing for almost 4,000 yards to go along with his 17 TDs. Most importantly, at least in the last four meetings, Glenn has tossed just a single interception and that has allowed his team to remain competitive in the series. One of five players in the league with at least 100 carries thus far, Cobb (104) has had his ups and downs with just 434 yards and three touchdowns. With an average of just 4.2 yards per attempt, Cobb has the lowest average of any of the top 30 ball carriers in the league right now and it is only a matter of time before all of those hits begin to take their toll.
Perhaps having Bruce out on the wing will help to take some of the attention off of Cobb, especially considering the receiver leads the CFL in receptions (53) and receiving yards (812) at this stage. Perhaps the only knock on the star is that he has just five touchdowns to show for all the times he has accepted a pass and taken the hit for the Ti-Cats.
Dating back to the 1950 season, Hamilton owns a 118-86-2 advantage in the all- time series with the Argonauts, winning two straight and three of the last four encounters between the clubs. They are due to meet one more time this season in Toronto on October 15.
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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting
NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.
That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.
A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."
It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.
The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.
So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."
Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.
Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Seriously.
The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.
The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.
Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."
The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.
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