Wait Just a Second

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The lure of the ticker and injury news is one of the most dooming errors done by sports bettors across the country. When a profiled player is deemed out for an injury, the assumption is their fill-in is of a junior high caliber talent. Lock it in, and head to the sportsbook because you’ve got yourself an automatic winner. You’re so excited to watch the game and you turn it on and it’s like you’re waiting at the doctor’s office. You wait, you wait, and you wait, but the calls don’t go your way as you sit and remain patient. Two to three hours later you’ve not only wasted your time, but you go suckered in all on one player being moved out of the lineup. I’m never big on huge line movements in professional sports. You either get the buy early or sit it out. There are too many other high profiled games worth your attention. College footballl is starting tomorrow and the last week of preseason football. That’s right the last week of preseason football. There are some teams that are going to have to play their third string quarterbacks selectively. Washington, the NY Jets, and the Buffalo Bills have no choice and will do so. Oddly enough, the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles are four point favorites on the road for week four of the preseason. The only team favored of the three above are the Washington Redskins, and that likely has more to do with their 3-0 start and how pitiful the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have looked offensively in the preseason. The sportsbooks are not stupid. They know there is a good portion of the public that is going to throw their money on the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles. Two teams that preach a fast pace high octane offense. Dangle your money out on those two and you’ll be trying to grab it back like the insurance commercial having a dollar dangling from a fishing pole. Let’s just look at both of the underdogs Thursday a little more intently from a quarterback matchup. It’s well known that the starters won’t play much if at all, as their dress rehearsal was last week. So that is going to live the second and third string starters on the field. For Buffalo, they’ll test Jeff Tuel and Matt Leinart. Tuel is expected to start week one against the Bills if EJ Manuel is not healthy. He is someone that has performed rather well in the preseason with two touchdown throws and completing 21 of 26 pass attempts. Detroit’s quarterback to see the bulk of snaps will be Kellen Moore. The Boise State product that also had a decent preseason. Do not take Detroit’s latest offensive barrage of success against the Patriots out of context. It was a complete preseason cover up by Bill Belichick, as he had a free for all non-existent game plan, while the Lions were in the mode from the start of the game. The Lions had just been whipped 24-6 by the Browns a week earlier, and Coach Schwartz was lived about it. For the Jets they’ll be starting Matt Simms. Not a heralded name that screams preseason success. Heck a year from now he might not even be on a preseason roster. But sports has shown time and time again that a less of a known player can shine even for one game. Simms will likely see Matt Barkley, Dennis Dixon, and G. J. Kinne on the field. One of the hot quarterback battles in preseason was Mike Vick and Nick Foles. Both of them had extended time in the preseason and have had the most reps obviously for practices. Philadelphia is the only team in football with five quarterbacks. Do you think that Barkley, Dixon, and Kinne have had a fair share amount of reps to get acclimated to the Eagles? No, as Kinne has thrown only two passes in preseason and Dixon sixteen. Barkley a rookie has had the most snaps of them all and likely will Thursday as well. He has been rather inconsistent though and that has shown with a poor completion percentage. So in the end is there a true four point value with the Eagles backups over the Jets, or Detroit’s over the Bills? There could be, but why not wait an extra week for the regular starters to be on the field. That’s when you can find a true advantage instead of raffle ticket.