Upset Saturday turns into Upset Weekend
Readers who visited the ViewFromVegas.com home page yesterday were greeted with the line "Sunday's action will be hard-pressed to match Saturday with all the drama and upsets . . ."
Well, it wasn't so hard after all, as the underdogs continued to bark Sunday, going 9-4 against the spread. What was more impressive is that all nine of those dogs won straight up. Of the 13 games played Sunday, eight of the games had a home underdog and those pups went 6-2 both straight-up and against the spread.
For the season, NFL underdogs are now 35-21-5 (62.5 percent) against the spread with the subset of home dogs at 14-6 (70 percent).
The teams who pulled off the upsets at home were certainly not considered in the NFL elite heading into the weekend: Falcons, Browns, Lions, Bills, Cardinals and Giants. But even with those teams turning the trick, the biggest upset of the day was the Chiefs' 30-16 win over the Chargers as 12.5-point underdogs as the Chiefs covered the number themselves.
All of the above stats are heading into Monday night, when the Bengals are a home dog vs. the Patriots of between +7.5 and +8.5 depending on where you shop.
More upsets in the air
Baseball saw its share of upsets this past week as the Mets and other contenders failed to cover big moneyline prices on a consistent basis. On Sunday, the Mets were -210 with Tom Glavine on the mound vs. the Marlins and Glavine couldn't even make it out of the first inning as he gave up seven runs on the way to the Mets losing 8-1 to miss the playoffs after having a seven-game lead in the NL East with 17 games to play. The Padres had a chance to wrap up the NL wild card on Sunday but lost to the Brewers 11-6. The Rockies, who won 13 of their last 14 games to catch the Padres, will host them in a one-game playoff Monday at 4:35 p.m. Vegas time (7:45 p.m. Eastern). The Padres, with ace Jake Peavy on the mound, opened around a -140 favorite when the matchup was finalized, but money has come in on the home underdog Rockies as the Padres have dipped to -138 at the Las Vegas Hilton with the Rockies at +128. The total on the game is 9 runs.
* With all the college football (and baseball) upsets on Saturday, it was only fitting that the middleweight championship fight at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City that night would also go to the underdog. Defending champion Jermain Taylor opened as a -120 favorite vs. challenger Kelly Pavlik and was bet to -180 as money flowed in on the champ. Taylor looked in control early, sending Pavlik to the canvass in the second round. But Taylor wasn't able to finish him off and Pavlik showed more stamina (Taylor later admitted to punching himself out by trying to go for the early KO) and knocked out Taylor in the seventh round to win as a +160 underdog.
* Sunday's Lifelock 400 Nextel Cup race at Kansas Speedway also went to a longshot as Greg Biffle, who is not part of the Chase for the Cup this season, won the race at 28-1 at Station Casinos.
* There was no upset in the President Cup golf competition between the U.S. and the International Team as it was pick-em prior to the event, but the U.S. prevailed 19-5-14.5 to win the Cup for the second straight time but only the first U.S. team victory on foreign soil in 14 years. Well, there was one upset as Canadian Mike Weir defeated Tiger Woods in their individual match Sunday, but it didn't impact the team outcome as the U.S. dominated earlier in the weekend in team matches and coasted home in individual play.
Well, it wasn't so hard after all, as the underdogs continued to bark Sunday, going 9-4 against the spread. What was more impressive is that all nine of those dogs won straight up. Of the 13 games played Sunday, eight of the games had a home underdog and those pups went 6-2 both straight-up and against the spread.
For the season, NFL underdogs are now 35-21-5 (62.5 percent) against the spread with the subset of home dogs at 14-6 (70 percent).
The teams who pulled off the upsets at home were certainly not considered in the NFL elite heading into the weekend: Falcons, Browns, Lions, Bills, Cardinals and Giants. But even with those teams turning the trick, the biggest upset of the day was the Chiefs' 30-16 win over the Chargers as 12.5-point underdogs as the Chiefs covered the number themselves.
All of the above stats are heading into Monday night, when the Bengals are a home dog vs. the Patriots of between +7.5 and +8.5 depending on where you shop.
More upsets in the air
Baseball saw its share of upsets this past week as the Mets and other contenders failed to cover big moneyline prices on a consistent basis. On Sunday, the Mets were -210 with Tom Glavine on the mound vs. the Marlins and Glavine couldn't even make it out of the first inning as he gave up seven runs on the way to the Mets losing 8-1 to miss the playoffs after having a seven-game lead in the NL East with 17 games to play. The Padres had a chance to wrap up the NL wild card on Sunday but lost to the Brewers 11-6. The Rockies, who won 13 of their last 14 games to catch the Padres, will host them in a one-game playoff Monday at 4:35 p.m. Vegas time (7:45 p.m. Eastern). The Padres, with ace Jake Peavy on the mound, opened around a -140 favorite when the matchup was finalized, but money has come in on the home underdog Rockies as the Padres have dipped to -138 at the Las Vegas Hilton with the Rockies at +128. The total on the game is 9 runs.
* With all the college football (and baseball) upsets on Saturday, it was only fitting that the middleweight championship fight at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City that night would also go to the underdog. Defending champion Jermain Taylor opened as a -120 favorite vs. challenger Kelly Pavlik and was bet to -180 as money flowed in on the champ. Taylor looked in control early, sending Pavlik to the canvass in the second round. But Taylor wasn't able to finish him off and Pavlik showed more stamina (Taylor later admitted to punching himself out by trying to go for the early KO) and knocked out Taylor in the seventh round to win as a +160 underdog.
* Sunday's Lifelock 400 Nextel Cup race at Kansas Speedway also went to a longshot as Greg Biffle, who is not part of the Chase for the Cup this season, won the race at 28-1 at Station Casinos.
* There was no upset in the President Cup golf competition between the U.S. and the International Team as it was pick-em prior to the event, but the U.S. prevailed 19-5-14.5 to win the Cup for the second straight time but only the first U.S. team victory on foreign soil in 14 years. Well, there was one upset as Canadian Mike Weir defeated Tiger Woods in their individual match Sunday, but it didn't impact the team outcome as the U.S. dominated earlier in the weekend in team matches and coasted home in individual play.
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