One of my favorite stories about my betting life is when I called the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs a few years ago and started trying to ask anyone I could about what Gatorade flavor they enjoy on the sidelines. I talked to multiple people in the offices and none of them had, or at least would, share any of the information. Still, it was kind of fun for me to call and hear their responses. I didn't go to that extreme this year. But, I did scour YouTube and research for some novelty props on the game this year. I won't be putting a ton on any of these, but I wanted to take these props and have some fun with them.
Last year at home the Buccaneers poured a bucket of blue Gatorade on coach Bruce Arians. This year, the Rams are at home and they have blue in their colors. I couldn't find any videos that specifically show the color and couldn't find any pictures on the Rams site of any players holding a cup of Gatorade. While this exercise seems like a true degenerate issue, it was fun. I ultimately am coming to this conclusion. For the Rams, I'm playing Blue Gatorade to be the color of choice at +400. I'm basically just choosing colors of the jerseys at this point so I'll also take Orange for the Bengals at +300.
The coin toss is always a fun one to watch. There is one simple rule in life that is always true: Tails never fails. With this simple undeniable truth, we all should race to the window and place our life savings on that side of a coin. Maybe we don't go that far. I am taking tails though, there really isn't any reason why. If you want to take heads, go for it. This is only at -105 so we are even getting lower than the typical 10 cent juice.
The running game will be difficult for the Bengals. Joe Mixon is talented and wears number 28 - that becomes relevant in a minute, just stay with me. Cam Akers probably has a better chance to find the endzone than Mixon, but he wears number 23, so that actually helps us. The receivers for both teams are under 20. The Tight Ends are over 20. DraftKings, where all these odds are from, has a first touchdown scorer prop for the jersey number at over/under 23.5. I'm taking the under and actually putting real money on this one, even at the juiced -140. I think Beckham scores the first touchdown and he is number 3. Simply put, I expect the Rams to score the first touchdown of the game anyway - regardless if it is Beckham or not - that gives me basically all of their starting offense (with the exception of the tight ends) as a way to cash this ticket. Sign me up.
For some Cross Sport Specials I will put a couple plays down. As the NBA capper for BeatinTheBookie, I'd like to think I have a better feel for these than everything above, but it will likely be closer than I think no matter how this shakes out. First one I'm taking is Cooper Kupp +7.5 yards vs. Boston Celtics team total. The Celtics average 108 points at home, but they average only 95 points per game against the Hawks this year. Kupp has been a monster this year. I'll take him to break 100 yards and that should be enough to get us over the Celtics team total which I expect to be around 104.
The only other CSS I like for the game is this: Celtics and Hawks total points over Kupp and Chase receiving yards. I expect 215ish from the Celtics and Hawks. I don't expect Chase to have a great game as I think he will be shadowed by Ramsey. Sure he could sneak off and explode for big gains. I just think it is less likely for these two to combine for 220 yards than it is for the Celtics and Hawks to score 220. It is currently at Hawks/Celtics -135.
- David
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