Raiders shock Broncos with win at Mile High
Football Betting Lines
11/23/2008 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darren McFadden rushed for a pair of scores and Ashley Lelie added a touchdown catch as the Oakland Raiders surprised the Denver Broncos with a 31-10 win at Invesco Field at Mile High.
JaMarcus Russell was effective, completing 10-of-11 passes for 152 yards with one touchdown for the Raiders (3-8), who snapped a four-game losing streak. Justin Fargas rushed for 107 yards on 24 carries, while McFadden had 38 yards on the ground.
McFadden's one-yard touchdown run with 5:26 remaining in the third quarter was Oakland's first offensive score in 15 quarters of play, a span that covered 206 plays from scrimmage. Lelie had four grabs for 92 yards and Johnnie Lee Higgins returned a punt 89 yards for a score.
Jay Cutler struggled, finishing a woeful 16-of-37 for 204 yards with an interception for Denver (6-5), which has dropped four of its last six. Peyton Hillis rushed 17 times for 74 yards and a score for the Broncos.
With the Raiders holding a 10-3 lead after one half, the hosts came out of the locker room and found the end zone after a well-orchestrated 13-play, 85-yard drive. Facing a 4th-and-inches from the Oakland six-yard-line, Hillis took the handoff from Cutler, ran around the left end and in for the score to tie the contest.
In a back-and-forth affair, Russell hooked up for a 51-yard pass play to Lelie moving it to the Denver 19. Six plays later, McFadden took a pitch in for the score from a yard out to put the Raiders ahead by a 17-10 margin.
"To me that was the real drive of the game," said Raiders coach Tom Cable. "The defense had a rough drive, there were a couple of penalties in that drive. They came down and got a touchdown, but we answered right away. I thought that was huge. It's the first time we've really done that all year."
After a sputtering Denver offense went three-and-out on its next series, Russell connected with Lelie for a four-yard TD. The score finished off a 10- play, 74-yard drive, making it a 24-10 game in the early stages in the fourth quarter.
Another McFadden one-yard scoring run with 9:42 left in the contest put the Silver and Black in front by a commanding 21 points. Neither team would add points the rest of the way and Oakland earned the 31-10 victory.
The Raiders got a bit of revenge on the Broncos, who came into Oakland and won the season-opener 41-14 on a Monday night.
"We knew they were going to come in here and play hard," said Cutler. "We kind of embarrassed them the first game on Monday night. They've got a good defense. We knew we had our hands full and they came out to play."
After a scoreless first quarter, Sebastian Janikowski's 26-yard chip shot capped a nine-play, 56-yard drive to give the Raiders the lead with 8:01 left in the half. Behind some accurate passing by Russell and hard running by Fargas, Oakland quickly moved the ball downfield and had a 1st-and-goal on the Denver three-yard-line. However a Broncos' goal-line stand forced the visitors to settle for the three.
Matt Prater's field goal from 44 yards away on the Broncos' ensuing drive tied the contest with 2:58 remaining.
Oakland finally found the end zone with 1:06 remaining in the opening half. Following a three-and-out by Denver, Higgins fielded Brett Kern's punt at the Raiders 11, brushed off a couple of weak Broncos tacklers and tip-toed down the near sideline for the score. Higgins was then flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for doing a celebratory back flip in the end zone.
Prater's 43-yard effort sailed wide left as time expired in the first half and Oakland took a 10-3 advantage into the break.
Game Notes
Denver will visit the New York Jets on November 30, while Oakland hosts Kansas City...The Raiders have not scored a first-quarter touchdown this season and have not scored a first-quarter touchdown on the road since September 30, 2007...The Raiders lead the all-time regular season series with Denver, which dates back to 1960, by a 55-40-2 count...Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan is now 21-7 against the team he coached in 1988 and part of the 1989 season before being fired...Brandon Marshall had four catches for 84 yards for Denver.
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first time as the 16-team field for the NCAA Division I Football Championships
was announced on Sunday evening.
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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined
Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.
"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."
Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)
According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.
As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).
Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.
Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at
17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.
*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007
New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers
By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.
"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."
While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."
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