Ravens at Steelers: Betting sneak peak

By Richard Cashen of Torreysports

Every week there’s one game that every sports bettor eyes. That of course is the NFL’s Monday Nighter. It’s the last chance to increase your bankroll for the football-week, and often this leads to larger wagers compared to that of a regular Sunday game. -NFL Football -

This Monday, two archrivals from the AFC North will take the field as the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Baltimore Ravens. For the first time since the 2002-2003 season the Ravens are ‘dogged by more than 7 ½- points, and interestingly enough they also played the Pittsburgh Steelers that game. -NFL Football -

Pittsburgh won the contest 34-31, but Baltimore walked away with the cash as eight-point pups.

Pittsburgh comes into this game with a 4-2 record, good enough for second in the AFC North. They also sport a 4-2 record ATS this season, which ranks fourth in the league. The Steelers are going to be especially ready for this game after a huge road win against division leaders Cincinnati 27-13, to inch them closer to the division leading ‘Cats.

Ben Roethlisberger can do no wrong right now leading the league in several categories including QB rating, which is currently at 120.7. The Steelers have scored at least 20 points in each game that Roethlisberger has started, even against the stingy defense of the Bengals who are fifth in the league in points allowed, and are 4-1 ATS with Big Ben in the lineup.

Where the Steelers really do their damage though is on the ground. They will pound their opponents with the run from start to finish, especially last week against Cincinnati, where they gained 221 yards on the ground, and only 304 in total. This enables Pittsburgh to control the ball, and in turn most of the games they play. -NFL Football -

Pittsburgh has a turnover ratio of +5 on the season thus far, while Baltimore has a turnover ration of –7, so there is a possibility for Pittsburgh to run the score up and take advantage of the turnovers that Baltimore cannot seem to avoid.

With a low total set at 34, it could easily play to an over if the Ravens cannot protect the football against this tough Steelers team. -NFL Football -

Baltimore comes to Heinz Field with an unimpressive 2-4 record, tied for last place with the dreadful Cleveland Browns in the AFC North. The Ravens were once considered to possibly win the Superbowl at the start of the season, but now look more poised to not even make the playoffs.

They are coming off a typical Ravens game this year, a 10-6 loss to the Chicago Bears, which played under the total as five of their first six games have done.

This is will be a tough battle for the Ravens as they will be without their leader on defense, Ray Lewis. He has a hamstring injury and will be out for Monday’s contest. They will also be without Safety Ed Reed, who also missed the Bears game last week. Reed has had 16 interceptions over the last two seasons. -NFL Football -

With two former ‘defensive player of the year’ sitting on the sideline in Reed and Lewis, it’s hard to say if the Ravens will be able to hold onto the respect that their once reputable unit demanded.

It will be exactly a year to the day since the Ravens covered as dogs. They are currently 0-6 ATS in the last year as dogs, and have not won straight up as dogs since October 21, 2003. However, the Pittsburgh Steelers have lost their last two home games as favorites, and only covered at home against the mediocre Tennessee Titans. -NFL Football -

Richard Cashen covers NFL football for Shawn Torrey of Covers Experts.

Copyright © 1995-2005 Sports Direct Inc. - All Rights Reserved

Smart, fast, physical
Recipe for success lies in drafting athletes and then teaching them

By Kevin Kelly
Enquirer staff writer

During a news conference earlier this season, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was asked about the playmaking ability of cornerback Keiwan Ratliff. - - - Football NFL - - -

"He finds a way to make football plays," Lewis said. "He's a smart guy who understands. He plays within his physical abilities and he's played big-time football.

"So when he goes out there on Sunday, he doesn't get rattled. He's able to handle the changes, the flow of the game and make the adjustments."

Provided within that answer was a blueprint to the type of defensive player the Bengals have sought in the NFL draft since Lewis arrived. - - - Football NFL - - -

While the 2003 draft supplied the Bengals with their starting quarterback, left guard and fullback, the past two drafts allowed Cincinnati to acquire players who have become key contributors on a defense ranked 13th overall entering Sunday's game against Tennessee.

"The building blocks that we can build on right now are incredible," said Bengals defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan, who directed a veteran Raiders defense to Super Bowl XXXVII. "I would much rather have it this way right now, for us, than the other way, because I've been there and watched that disintegrate in one year with those older guys." - - - Football NFL - - -

Only the Titans (11) and Colts (11) have used more draft picks on defensive players than the Bengals (10) the past two years. - - - Football NFL - - -

Neither team starts as many of those players as Cincinnati, which has started four first or second-year players in every game except one this season.

"You want to get those kids that really have that special desire to be the best, have a passion for the game, that understand it does take a lot of work and are willing to do that," Bresnahan said. "I think we've been very successful in doing that. - - - Football NFL - - -

"That's a credit to Marvin and (Bengals president) Mike Brown setting that level that we want to bring in not just good players but good people."

The Bengals' defensive draft classes from 2004 and 2005 - Ratliff, safety Madieu Williams, linebacker Caleb Miller, linebacker Landon Johnson, defensive tackle Matthias Askew, defensive end Robert Geathers and cornerback Greg Brooks in 2004 and linebackers David Pollack and Odell Thurman and defensive end Jonathan Fanene this year - have accumulated 113 games played and 56 games started. - - - Football NFL - - -

Ratliff and Johnson, who led the team in tackles last season, have played in all 21 games since the Bengals drafted them.

"They brought us in here to help the team get better, and we're trying to do that," said Ratliff, a second-round pick in 2004. "We're all just out there trying to make plays and help the defense out. It just so happens that we're all young." - - - Football NFL - - -

Williams, a second-round pick in 2004, has played in 20 games overall and started more games (16) than any other Bengals player drafted the past two seasons. He did not play the past two weeks because of a shoulder injury, but was listed Monday as probable to play against the Titans.

Geathers and Thurman, who leads the defense in tackles through five games, have started all five games this season. - - - Football NFL - - -

"All of us are very athletic," said Geathers, a fourth-round pick in 2004 who has started six of the 19 career games he's played in. "The guys, I can say, are all great character guys. We want to win and want to be the best."

If any team has done more than the Bengals to rework its defense via the draft, it is their next opponent. Years of generous spending aimed at keeping a roster and title hopes intact put the Titans in a salary cap crunch and forced the team to overhaul its roster. - - - Football NFL - - -

The Titans are now the youngest team in the NFL with 29 players in their first or second year.

The 11 defensive players acquired by Tennessee in the past two drafts have played in 152 games and started 39 times.

"(As a coach) you've got to be everything you could possibly think of with these young guys," Bresnahan said. "You've got to wear a lot of hats. You've got to be a counselor. You've got to be a friend. You've got to be a teacher. - - - Football NFL - - -

"You've got to be there for them. But that's part of the fun."

Copyright 1995-2005. The Cincinnati Enquirer, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper.

NFL's Tice, Capers, Turner stand in the line of fire

Skip Wood, USA TODAY

Win or else. Those three little words were appendages to the futures of at least three NFL coaches before the season, and three games into 2005, none of the three has done much to quell such ominous tidings. - Football NFL -

"Get rid of him now," cry some frustrated fans. "He will be the first to go," predict the oddsmakers. "We've decided to go in a different direction," general managers will say.

Among those who continue to find their seats a tad warm:

• Despite the 1-2 Minnesota Vikings win last weekend against the New Orleans Saints, Mike Tice has a new owner eager to establish an identity, and the team's effort in the first two games did little to pacify him. - Football NFL -

• Winning two of their final games of last season gave the Houston Texans hope, but a 0-2 start doesn't bode well for fourth-year coach Dom Capers. - Football NFL -

• Adding a superstar at wide receiver, a potential missing cog at running back and a new defensive set hasn't prevented the Oakland Raiders from reverting to their 2004 losing ways, and one is left to wonder how much patience owner Al Davis has left for second-year man Norv Turner. - Football NFL -

"Everyone wants to get into those conversations," Turner says of critical examinations of the team's start, "but the biggest thing for our team is to keep competing and fighting the way we have. ... What we need to do, obviously, is to go win a football game."

The future also could become cloudy for the Green Bay Packers' Mike Sherman, who, after receiving a contract extension in training camp, has watched his team drop its first three games. Sherman, stripped of his role as general manager before the season, has his team off to the storied franchise's worst start in 17 years. - Football NFL -

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden finds himself on the other side of the fence. He acknowledged in training camp that a third consecutive losing season could well spell his doom, but they are 3-0.

Copyright © 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Saints' hometown relishes return of football - and a little normalcy
By Gary Eswick

Knight Ridder Newspapers

NEW ORLEANS - This city deserved a break.

And it got one Sunday afternoon, as New Orleanians who have endured Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters for two weeks enjoyed a small taste of normalcy: NFL football.

With the once-proud Superdome in ruins and their team opening the season on the road, New Orleans Saints fans found dry spots in the flooded city and gathered around radios and televisions powered by generators or batteries. They cheered on a team that has broken their hearts so many times, but on Sunday came up with a last-second victory to mend them.

"It's a good relief," said Larry Hirst, a bartender at Johnny White's Bar & Grill in the French Quarter, which has been an enduring watering hole and refuge, staying open round the clock since the hurricane. - Football Gambling -

Donning a black and gold Saints cap, the 60-year-old rode to the bar Sunday morning on a matching black and gold mountain bike. About 15 minutes before game time, regulars and plenty of newcomers found their way to the snug bar that still had no electricity - 13 days after Katrina struck. They depended instead on a small, gray radio with a slightly bent antenna. Paul Prino, a bartender-bouncer, positioned an even smaller battery-powered television, trying to pick up a signal. - Football Gambling -

Prino, who fashions himself as a thrifty shopper, bought the 5-inch television for $5. Maybe that's why he could only get a clear picture for the Chiefs-Jets. So instead, they listened.

Some stopped by for Saints football, others for the frolics. Everybody came for the beer, which was a bit warm - until an Army unit from Texas dropped off 40 pounds of ice.

"Free beer for the Army!" customer Steve Bartley yelled.

With grins on their faces, the soldiers politely declined, leaving more for Bartley, 54, who had the best seat in the place, sandwiched between the radio and the television.

Sunday was how a city recovers, Saints fans said, surrounded by so much uncertainty.

Chris Love, 28, needed the emotional break. He was born in Uptown New Orleans, which is still flooded. Until two weeks ago, he lived in Eastern New Orleans, also still flooded, but has moved in with a friend in the French Quarter, which survived the worst of Katrina.

"It's the start of football season, and I'm a football fan," said Love, as he finished a bologna sandwich and orange juice at Molly's at the Market, another French Quarter bar. "It takes my mind off it a little bit." - Football Gambling -

But not completely.

Love and other residents still have yet to contact all of their family members and friends. They have yet to learn the full damage to their property.

"Knowing you have a chance to lose something of value, like a house, it's mind-boggling what's going on," he said.

From a sports perspective, things might get worse.

The Louisiana Superdome suffered major damage while housing tens of thousands of hurricane evacuees. Ramps that once led more than 65,000 fans into the Superdome are now bare, except for the Army's 82nd Airborne. - Football Gambling -

The Superdome has hosted six Super Bowls, and is also home to college football's Sugar Bowl and other sporting events.

It's not clear yet where the Saints will play their home games, although the team is considering Baton Rouge and San Antonio, Texas, its home since the storm.

The Saints' home opener against the New York Giants, which was scheduled for next Sunday, has already been moved to Giants Stadium on Monday night.

There is fear in this city that Saints owner Tom Benson might relocate the team, a major threat to a city hoping to regroup is tourism industry. - Football Gambling -

"I think that would hurt the city," Love said.

Across the river in the Jefferson Parish town of Westwego, Korie Folse sat on his front porch with his mother listening to the game.

"We can't see them playing in the dome anymore and we can't watch them on television," he said, "but at least we can support them on the radio."

Right then, Saints cornerback Jason Kraft intercepted a pass, and Folse's mother Glenda sprung up clapping.

"With everything New Orleans has had to go through in the last few weeks, I'll take a playoff victory," Korie Folse said. "We deserve it." - Football Gambling -

In Baton Rouge, displaced New Orleans residents helped fill the Hooters restaurant on College Avenue for the Saints game.

Drew Moisant, a Jefferson Parish firefighter, said he was on his way from the parish firehouse, where he had spent the previous 72 hours, to Marshall, Texas, where his family is in a shelter.

The Saints season-ticket holder said continuing to follow the beloved, if long-suffering team means a lot in a time of crisis. - Football Gambling -

"It's normalcy, part of life, definitely," he said. "It's one of the things I truly enjoy."

When the Saints pulled out the victory, Moisant joined the cheering but resisted the temptation to make it more than another step in making the region feel whole again.

"Day to day, baby," he said, before continuing his journey. "We have to be positive."

Nuggets of tradition

College fans hang onto special moments like precious jewels.

Spartans fans can detail every play of every victory over the rival Wolverines. We remember Central Michigan's twice-as-nice victories over Michigan State, Bo vs. Woody, national title runs in Ann Arbor and East Lansing, and the 60-minute-and-one-second game that sparked new hostility between U-M and MSU fans in 2001. - Football Gambling -

New traditions began Thursday and continue tonight when Indiana becomes the first Big Ten team to venture into Kelley-Shorts Stadium, capping three days of celebration by Central Michigan fans.

This weekend, nearly 250,000 fans will pack campuses across the state to root for their favorite teams and become part of the pageantry of collegefootball. - Football Gambling -

Nationwide, an estimated 33 million fans will attend games.

Football fans never lose ties with their schools.

Despite working 36 years at Michigan, Schembechler still attends events at Miami (Ohio), where he got his start.

Central Michigan athletic director Herb Deromedi, who is retiring, still bleeds maize and blue despite spending five decades at CMU asfootball coach and athletic director.

"I bet you will see Herb at a lot more live Michigan games now," Schembechler said.

How many times have you stepped into someone's office and seen the distinctive Notre Dame gold or Texas burnt orange plastered on the walls? - Football Gambling -

How about Gary Prudian, who moved from Warren to Los Angeles to attend law school at Southern California? He can get tickets to any home game at USC, which is going for a third straight national title. Yet, every Saturday he slips on his No. 12 Ricky Powers uniform and mingles with other Michigan fans at the Gotham City bar to watch the Wolverines.

What would it take for a fan to stop rooting for his chosen team?

"Ahhhhhhhhh, it would probably take them dropping football," said Nitz, who lives outside Grand Rapids. "Even if they hire a coach I do not like, I would never stop being a fan."

Putting faith in team is a lot of fun, but football isn't religion

RAY WADDLE

Opinion

I was 11 when I distinctly heard 36,000 people telling me, in unison, to go to the infernal pit of everlasting fire.

It was alarming. I was a churchgoing kid. I didn't know so many people could say "hell" in public and avoid arrest. But this was in a stadium — a big college football game, my first.

Kickoff was still minutes away when precisely half the stadium, 36,000 people, chanted bluntly at the opposite 36,000 to proceed directly to, uh, hell. This was the Oklahoma-Texas game in Dallas, the annual Armageddon in the sunburnt Southwest. - Football Gambling -

The South has its own bitterly exuberant versions: Tennessee-Florida, Auburn-Alabama, Georgia-Florida and others.

"Go to hell O-U, go to hell!" the Texans intoned. The compliment was returned by the Oklahoma side. I didn't know pigskin passions could be so theological. I was hooked. And have followedfootball ever since. - Football Gambling -

Recently, though, I've heard fretful observers complain that sports in America are so big now, so consuming, that they amount to a full-blown religion — a Sabbath-breaking rival to the worship of God, generating their own transcendent ecstasies.

Since the 1990s, scholars appalled and fascinated at the soaring growth of spectator sports (symbolized by the Super Bowl) have tried to make sense of their appeal. One argument says sports today have sacred power in our lives. Stadiums function like cathedrals, star players pose as deities. The Super Bowl trophy is the Holy Grail, every hall of fame is a shrine for pilgrims. Face painting is a tribal ritual, retail jerseys become holy relics. Coaches are high priests. Sports scribes are keepers of the flame. - Football Gambling -

"In America, quite simply, sports constitute a form of popular religion," writes Joseph Price in From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion.

No doubt sports and religion use, even abuse, each other. Football has Hail Mary passes and end-zone prayers of gratitude. Many a minister praises pro sports for their discipline, sportsmanship and all-stars who become spiritual role models.

But fondness for "Touchdown Jesus" is not the same as devotion to the Son of the Living God. Sunday football is habitual but not holy. - Football Gambling -

A Tennessee author who has long mused on the issue — Robert J. Higgs, retired professor at East Tennessee State University — rejects any such talk that sports and religion are synonymous.

He worries about something else — not the religion of sports, but the ethics.

Sports are a healthy way for society to let off steam and sublimate violence, he says, but today's winning-is-everything attitude is poison. Love of sports has turned childishly obsessive, taking up too much adult time.

"Victory is not the same as virtue," Higgs said this week from Johnson City. "It's destructive to society to say 'winning is the only thing' and feel only disdain for losers. It's a distortion of life, yet it gets unbelievable play in today's media. 'Fire the coach!' 'Win at any cost!' The ethos surges nationwide. I think it's a sign of decline in a civilization." - Football Gambling -

Higgs wrote the book God in the Stadium: Sports and Religion in America (1995) and co-authored An Unholy Alliance: The Sacred and Modern Sports (2004). He grew up in Lewisburg and played freshman football at Vanderbilt in 1950, before transferring to the Naval Academy.

"I can't imagine my life without sports," he says.

"Sports and play reflect something we need as much as food and drink — drama. They offer a place for imitating heroes. It's a thing of beauty when it's done right. Like literature, theater and, unfortunately, war, sports meet our need for heroism and distinction. But sports are not holy. The holy inspires humility, mystery, even self-effacing humor. Those things don't merge happily with sports." - Football Gambling -

The excesses of sports — the big money, drugs and violence, the gambling climate — don't look much like religion to me.

Instead, sports offer temporary relief from politics.

They reinforce communal identity and state pride — and the pleasure of seeing conflict harmlessly resolved on a grass field with a scoreboard. They give permission to "hate thy enemy" in a benign way. - Football Gambling -

Even Super Bowl Sunday has more to do with ceaseless promotion, glittery celebrity and the attractions of a dazzling festival in the dead of winter than it does with holy transcendence.

Nevertheless, the sports-and-religion question never dies. On Thursday, Vanderbilt launches another gridiron season by playing the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The annual hope for an elusive winning record on West End Avenue is a matter of local pride. And an act of faith.

Copyright © 2005, tennessean.com. All rights reserved.

A-B has designs on NFL teams

Blitzing beer-thirsty football fans, Anheuser-Busch Cos. will increase its TV advertising during professional games this season and for the first time use team emblems on cases of Budweiser and Bud Light. To kick off the National Football League season, which officially begins Sept. 8, Anheuser-Busch on Monday rolls out Budweiser and Bud Light, packaged in cardboard cases embossed with the emblem of participating NFL teams. Each design will be sold only in the team's home market. The nation's largest brewer is looking to leverage its team sponsorships ahead of Labor Day, the summer's last major beer-selling weekend. The NFL and game broadcasts remain the premier marketing assets for a beer company that wants to reach a large, diverse base of customers, said Tony Ponturo, vice president of global media and sports marketing at A-B's domestic brewing unit. - Football Gambling -"In this day and age of distractions, lots of programming choices and technology developments, there is still something about a Sunday afternoon or Monday night telecast where the consumer is there," he said. A-B won't increase the number of advertising spots on "Monday Night Football," but it is looking to expand its presence during other game broadcasts. Ponturo declined to disclose how much A-B spends on these media buys, but the dollar amount this season should be about 10 percent to 15 percent higher than last year. Anheuser-Busch also hopes to build a tighter connection between its brands and local teams through team-specific packaging. Molson Coors Brewing Co. remains the official sponsor of the National Football League in a deal signed three years ago. - Football Gambling -
That deal allows Molson Coors to use the symbols of all 32 NFL teams as long as the emblems are displayed together. However, A-B is the official beer sponsor for 28 of the NFL's 32 teams. Under these deals, it aggressively has used team emblems for ad banners, signs and other material displayed on retailers' shelves. This year, Anheuser-Busch is adding a new element by packaging Budweiser and Bud Light in cardboard cases that bear the emblems of 27 of its 28 sponsored football teams. The sponsorship deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers didn't allow the use of its emblem on packages. - Football Gambling -
Retailers in the St. Louis area will offer cases of beer bearing the Rams emblem. The special packaging will be available through September. This type of packaging helps create a connection between the fan and the brand, said Richard Irwin, director of the Bureau of Sport and Leisure Commerce at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tenn. He's also president of the Sport Marketing Association. "What really intrigues the consumer is that this products aligns with something that he considers to be important," Irwin said. "That is the emotional attachment that every corporate sponsor of a sports entity is really trying to tap into." In the future, A-B could extend the life of that connection by using the emblems on the cans themselves, yielding a memento that could be collected and saved on a shelf, Irwin added. Though the customized packaging poses a logistics challenge, the brewer said it's worth the effort. "The local teams and the local market is really where the emotion is," Ponturo said. "The fans are really following their team." Connecting to consumers and what they are passionate about gives A-B a competitive advantage, he said. - Football Gambling -
Irwin has no doubt that this is a good investment for Anheuser-Busch. "People in those NFL markets are going to favorably respond to that type of branding and packaging," he said. Anheuser-Busch has increased its total marketing efforts this year as it seeks to drive up sales in a sluggish beer market. Although A-B is facing increased competition from Miller Brewing Co., a unit of SABMiller PLC, it sees a bigger threat coming from distilled spirits, which are growing in popularity among younger adult drinkers. - Football Gambling -

Gregory Cancelada Post-Dispatch