Cool Brees leads Saints to NFL title
The City of New Orleans has been the gracious host of several Super Bowls, rolling out the red carpet for eventual NFL champions. Now the Big Easy has its own champ after Drew Brees and the Saints rolled past Peyton manning and the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV. A season of big plays came down to a gutsy onside kick to open the second half and ignited a party on Bourbon Street that may never end.
Not everything went according to plan for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night. Same goes for handicappers, including Yours Truly. But that’s what the props market is for.
The New Orleans Saints beat the Colts 31-17 to win their first-ever Super Bowl, cashing in at betting odds of anywhere between +4 and +6, depending on where you were shopping. The Colts had control of this game in the first quarter, jumping out to a 10-0 lead and stifling the Saints offense. Then things went kablooey.
Colts DE Dwight Freeney’s sprained ankle started acting up, the Saints offense started rolling, and in the end, QB Peyton Manning threw an interception instead of a Super Bowl-winning touchdown.
You may recall from my Super Bowl preview that I had the Colts on the moneyline at -200. Well, such is life. But enough good things happened aside from the pointspread to make this a good day in the Harper household. Here are the results from the other picks I made in that article, and in my earlier Super Bowl props preview.
Winners
'Under' 57 points
Saints 'over' 25½ points (-160)
Brees 'under' 300.5 yards (+130)
Brees 'over' 68.5 percent completion rate (+110)
Carrie Underwood 'over' 1:42 to sing the National Anthem (-140)
Losers
Will there be a safety in the game? (YES +750)
Brees 'over' 0.5 interceptions (-175)
Nice to come out ahead on the bottom line, but I’m still not all that happy about the final outcome. The single-game wager (pointspread or moneyline) is the king of all football bets, and the Colts kind of let this one get away.
Head coach Sean Payton made a gutsy decision to start the second half with an onside kick, and the prolate spheroid bounced in his direction. Plus, Garrett Hartley deserves more than just a pat on the back for nailing three out of three field goals from well outside 40 yards.
All told, the Saints were as excellent on this day as they were when they started the season at 6-0 SU and ATS. They finished at 10-9 ATS, and the Colts wrapped things up at a much more profitable 12-6-1 ATS, but the biggest moneymakers of the year (so to speak) were the Atlanta Falcons at a sumptuous 11-5 ATS. Atlanta covered its last four games in a row after going through a 2-5 SU and 3-4 ATS midseason slump.
There were some amazingly awful football teams in 2009, but the worst of the worst for the second year in a row: your Detroit Lions. Much better things were expected from a team that failed to win a single game last year; lo and behold, those expectations proved to be a little overblown.
Rookie QB Matthew Stafford, the first overall pick in the draft, had some major growing pains (13 TD, 20 INT, 61.0 passer rating), and the Lions stumbled to a 2-14 SU record at a depressing 4-10-2 ATS. Depressing if you didn’t fade them, that is.
Looking at the league trends for the entire season, this was a profitable year for the away teams:
Away: 137-121-9 ATS (53.1 percent)
Away Favorites: 48-43 ATS (52.8 percent)
Away Underdogs: 89-78-9 ATS (53.3 percent)
And with all the hoopla about the NFL becoming a haven for quarterbacks (an even dozen finished with passer ratings above 90.0), the 'under' came within the nose of the football of making a profit at 137-125 (52.3 percent). It takes 52.4 percent to pay for the chalk on the standard -110.
Before we tie a ribbon on the 2009 NFL season, I personally want to thank you for reading along with us, and remind you that there is life after football. If you’re a sharp sports fan, you’ll find the softer basketball and hockey lines to be quite accommodating.
And believe it or not, pitchers and catchers report for MLB training camp next week. The sweet sound of the crack of the bat is the sound of money.
The City of New Orleans has been the gracious host of several Super Bowls, rolling out the red carpet for eventual NFL champions. Now the Big Easy has its own champ after Drew Brees and the Saints rolled past Peyton manning and the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV. A season of big plays came down to a gutsy onside kick to open the second half and ignited a party on Bourbon Street that may never end.
Not everything went according to plan for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night. Same goes for handicappers, including Yours Truly. But that’s what the props market is for.
The New Orleans Saints beat the Colts 31-17 to win their first-ever Super Bowl, cashing in at betting odds of anywhere between +4 and +6, depending on where you were shopping. The Colts had control of this game in the first quarter, jumping out to a 10-0 lead and stifling the Saints offense. Then things went kablooey.
Colts DE Dwight Freeney’s sprained ankle started acting up, the Saints offense started rolling, and in the end, QB Peyton Manning threw an interception instead of a Super Bowl-winning touchdown.
You may recall from my Super Bowl preview that I had the Colts on the moneyline at -200. Well, such is life. But enough good things happened aside from the pointspread to make this a good day in the Harper household. Here are the results from the other picks I made in that article, and in my earlier Super Bowl props preview.
Winners
'Under' 57 points
Saints 'over' 25½ points (-160)
Brees 'under' 300.5 yards (+130)
Brees 'over' 68.5 percent completion rate (+110)
Carrie Underwood 'over' 1:42 to sing the National Anthem (-140)
Losers
Will there be a safety in the game? (YES +750)
Brees 'over' 0.5 interceptions (-175)
Nice to come out ahead on the bottom line, but I’m still not all that happy about the final outcome. The single-game wager (pointspread or moneyline) is the king of all football bets, and the Colts kind of let this one get away.
Head coach Sean Payton made a gutsy decision to start the second half with an onside kick, and the prolate spheroid bounced in his direction. Plus, Garrett Hartley deserves more than just a pat on the back for nailing three out of three field goals from well outside 40 yards.
All told, the Saints were as excellent on this day as they were when they started the season at 6-0 SU and ATS. They finished at 10-9 ATS, and the Colts wrapped things up at a much more profitable 12-6-1 ATS, but the biggest moneymakers of the year (so to speak) were the Atlanta Falcons at a sumptuous 11-5 ATS. Atlanta covered its last four games in a row after going through a 2-5 SU and 3-4 ATS midseason slump.
There were some amazingly awful football teams in 2009, but the worst of the worst for the second year in a row: your Detroit Lions. Much better things were expected from a team that failed to win a single game last year; lo and behold, those expectations proved to be a little overblown.
Rookie QB Matthew Stafford, the first overall pick in the draft, had some major growing pains (13 TD, 20 INT, 61.0 passer rating), and the Lions stumbled to a 2-14 SU record at a depressing 4-10-2 ATS. Depressing if you didn’t fade them, that is.
Looking at the league trends for the entire season, this was a profitable year for the away teams:
Away: 137-121-9 ATS (53.1 percent)
Away Favorites: 48-43 ATS (52.8 percent)
Away Underdogs: 89-78-9 ATS (53.3 percent)
And with all the hoopla about the NFL becoming a haven for quarterbacks (an even dozen finished with passer ratings above 90.0), the 'under' came within the nose of the football of making a profit at 137-125 (52.3 percent). It takes 52.4 percent to pay for the chalk on the standard -110.
Before we tie a ribbon on the 2009 NFL season, I personally want to thank you for reading along with us, and remind you that there is life after football. If you’re a sharp sports fan, you’ll find the softer basketball and hockey lines to be quite accommodating.
And believe it or not, pitchers and catchers report for MLB training camp next week. The sweet sound of the crack of the bat is the sound of money.
