Date | Match Up | Rating | Score | Result | Profit | Lead Time | Analysis |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10-18-23 | Florida International v. Sam Houston State -5 | Top | 33-27 | Loss | -109 | 40 h 29 m | Show |
#308 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Sam Houston State -5 over Florida International, Wednesday at 7 PM ET - Wait a minute. The 0-6 team is favored over the 3-4 team? Not only that, the winless team is favored by more than a FG. Hmmm. We agree SHSU should be favored at home in this one and we’ll side with them here. First these teams are heading in opposite directions right now. FIU had 3 game winning streak back in early to mid September and after that run they have lost 3 straight by a combined score of 99-37. They also failed to cover all 3 of those games by a combined 50 points! The Panthers were in a great spot to pick up a win at home last Thursday facing a bad UTEP team that was down to their 4th string QB. FIU lost that game by 13 points and were outgained by almost 100 yards. Despite their overall record, Sam Houston is 3-2-1 ATS on the season. Their offense was putrid the first 3 games but they faced some tough competition in BYU, Air Force, and Houston. The Bearkats only scored 10 total points in those 3 games. However, over their last 3 games this offense has improved dramatically scoring 57 points and averaging 377 YPG. That improvement should continue here vs an FIU defense that ranks 117th in total defense and 118th in YPP allowed. SHSU has played the much tougher schedule (58th SOS compared to 132nd for FIU) and this is just their 3rd home game of the season. They’ve played quite well in their other 2 home tilts losing to undefeated Air Force 13-3 holding the #1 rushing team in the nation 80 yards and 1.3 YPC below their averaging. In their other home game they lost in OT to Jacksonville State (5-2 record) but the Bearkats were +5 first downs and +40 yards in that game. This team is overdue for a win and they know this is one of the best shots. Look for a great effort and a win and cover from Sam Houston State. | |||||||
10-17-23 | Middle Tennessee State v. Liberty UNDER 57 | Top | 35-42 | Loss | -110 | 17 h 32 m | Show |
#301/302 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 57 Points – Middle Tennessee State vs Liberty, Tuesday at 7 PM ET - MTSU has been facing all out passing teams as of late and that is their weakness defensively. 3 of their last 4 opponents are pass first offenses (CSU, La Tech, and WKY all rank 110th or lower in rush offense) while MTSU’s defense ranks outside the top 110 in pass defense. Now they face a Liberty offense that runs the ball more than pretty much anyone in the country. The Flames are 4th nationally in rush attempts per game and rushing play percentage. First of all that eats clock and secondly MTSU has been very solid vs the run. They are allowing 135 YPG rushing and only 3.9 YPC. Only 1 team has topped 200 yards on the ground vs the Blue Raider defense and that was Alabama in their season opener. They held SEC opponent Missouri to just 2.4 YPC and Jacksonville State (14th nationally in rushing) to only 3.6 YPC. Liberty will have success but we don’t think it will be easy. Offensively MTSU is not great to say the least. They rank 79th in YPP and 108th in scoring averaging only 22 PPG. Those numbers look even worse consider their last 5 opponents have been Murray State (FCS), Colorado State (131st in total defense), Western Kentucky (128th in total defense), Jacksonville St (67th in total defense), and La Tech (64th in total defense). Now they face a Liberty stop unit that ranks 18th nationally in total defense and 24th in YPP allowed. The Flames are giving up only 17 PPG and they’ve allowed just 35 total points their last 3 games. MTSU will struggle on offense in this one. Because they are primarily a running team, Liberty is very slow paced (117th in pace) as they like get ahead and control the tempo. That’s how we see this game playing out. Liberty games are averaging 53 total points per game and MTSU games are averaging 54 total points, both less than this current number. We see this game ending the high 40’s making Under the play. | |||||||
10-16-23 | Cowboys -125 v. Chargers | Top | 20-17 | Win | 100 | 19 h 9 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* Dallas Cowboys -125 @ LA Chargers, Monday 8:15 PM ET - We will back the much better defense and Cowboys who are off an embarrassing loss to the 49ers last week. Dallas comes into this game ranked 8th in DVOA defense and the strength of the unit is their pass D which is the Chargers strength offensively. Dallas allows opposing QB’s to complete just 60.2% of their pass attempts which is 6th best in the league. The Cowboys hold opponents to 169 passing yards per game which is 2nd best in the NFL. The Chargers have the advantage offensively with a unit that is 5th in total yards per game gained and yards per play but this will be the best defense by far that they have faced this season. None of the Chargers opponents rank higher than 19th in the NFL in defensive DVOA so their offensive numbers are a bit misleading. Under Coach McCarthy the Cowboys are 10-1 ATS when coming off a loss and they’ve won those games by an average of +17.4PPG. Back the Boys here. | |||||||
10-15-23 | Lions -3 v. Bucs | Top | 20-6 | Win | 100 | 25 h 41 m | Show |
#267 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Detroit Lions -3 over Tampa Bay Bucs, Sunday at 4:25 PM ET - TB has been a surprise with a 3-1 record to start the season. However a deep dive reveals they are +7 in turnover margin in their 3 wins who have come vs Minnesota, Chicago, and New Orleans who have a combined record of 5-10. Despite their winning record, the Bucs are getting outgained on a YPP basis this season. The one good team they’ve faced was Philadelphia who rolled TB 25-11 and outgained them by 2.1 YPP and that game was in Tampa. The Lions had a lot of publicity coming into the season and we were wary of this team. Mainly on the defensive side of the ball after finishing 30th or lower in YPP allowed in each of the last 3 seasons. They’ve proven us wrong so far this season as this Detroit team looks very good on both sides of the ball. They are one of two teams that currently ranks inside the top 6 in both total offense and total defense. The other is San Francisco. DVOA has Detroit ranked as the 3rd best team in the NFL behind only San Francisco and Buffalo. They are ranked the 4th best offense and 3rd best defense per DVOA. The Lions only loss was in OT vs Seattle and the Lions outgained the Seahawks 6.5 YPP to 5.9 YPP in that game but had 3 turnovers (0 for Seattle). Detroit has one of the best YPP differentials in the NFL at +1.1 and they’ve been a money making juggernaut covering 13 of their last 15 games dating back to last season. Lay the FG here. | |||||||
10-15-23 | Colts +4 v. Jaguars | Top | 20-37 | Loss | -110 | 21 h 50 m | Show |
#263 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Indianapolis Colts +4 over Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday at 1 PM ET - Just a terrible situational spot for Jacksonville. They just played back to back weeks in London so they’ve been overseas for 2 weeks. Coming home to play the next Sunday will be tough as the body clocks will take until mid week to adjust back. Also, being away for 2 weeks and then coming home is a distraction in itself having to get caught up on things back at home, seeing family again, etc… The Jags were 2-0 in their London trip but they were outgained in both games on a YPP basis vs Atlanta and Buffalo. In their win over the Falcons the Jaguars were gifted with 3 Atlanta turnovers, including a 61 yard pick 6, but Jacksonville only averaged 4.7 YPP. Last week vs Buffalo, they caught the Bills in a perfect spot after rolling over Miami a week earlier in a huge AFC East game. Then the Bills waited until Friday to travel to London while Jax had been their for a week plus already. Even with that, the Bills averaged 7.2 YPP while holding the Jags to 5.8. The Jags are 0-2 SU & ATS at home this year where they have very little home field advantage. As a starting QB, Trevor Lawrence is 0-5 ATS as a home favorite winning only 1 of those games outright. Indy is playing well right now. They’ve won 3 of their last 4 games with their only loss coming vs the Rams in OT in a game the Colts ran 20 fewer offensive snaps and still took LA to overtime. These 2 met in the first game of the season and while Jacksonville won 31-21, the Colts were starting rookie QB Richardson in his first every start and Indy led 21-17 with just over 5 minutes remaining in the game. Both teams are 3-2 on the season but the Colts have a better point differential (although very close) and a better YPP differential. We think Indy has a very good shot at the upset and if not, we’re getting some generous points. | |||||||
10-14-23 | Boise State v. Colorado State OVER 60 | Top | 30-31 | Win | 100 | 30 h 38 m | Show |
#183/184 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 60 Points – Boise State vs Colorado State, Saturday at 9:45 PM ET - We were on CSU vs Utah State Over last week and while the Rams offense didn’t perform as we expected, their defense did. CSU allowed the Aggies to roll up 44 points on 639 total yards! That side of the ball will be another huge concern here vs a Boise offense that can be every bit as explosive as Utah State. The Broncos have now topped 30 points in 4 straight games and their QB rotation of Green (dangerous dual threat) and Madsen (solid passer) has been tough to defend the last 2 games alone putting up 67 total points and over 1,000 yards! Boise’s offense has been a thorn in CSU’s side to say the least scoring an average of 42.3 PPG over the last 10 meetings. We see a similar outcome on Saturday. The problem the Broncos have had is on the other side of the ball. Their defense stinks. They rank 132nd (out of 133) allowing opponents to average almost 7.0 YPP. They’re terrible defending the pass ranking 125th nationally which is a big problem here facing a CSU offense that averaged 352 YPG through the air (4th best in the country). Boise is allowing 34 PPG on the season including giving up 31 points on 439 total yards to a bad San Diego State offense that ranks 122nd in scoring and averages 16 PPG. The only team that didn’t reach at least 27 points on this defense was UCF who had 18 points but also ripped off 530 total yards of offense which would normally yield 35 points based on UCF’s yards per point numbers this season. The Rams offense had one of the worst performances last week at USU and the game still almost hit 70 total points. They only ran 52 offensive plays in the game (Utah State ran 84 plays) and turned the ball over 5 times. CSU had 17 points in the first quarter and either turned the ball over on downs or had a turnover on 4 of their final 5 possessions. Prior to last week the Rams has scored at least 30 points in 3 straight games and we expect them to top that again here. Weather looks good in Fort Collins for Saturday night and we expect both teams to get into the 30’s here. Take the Over. | |||||||
10-14-23 | UCLA v. Oregon State UNDER 54.5 | Top | 24-36 | Loss | -110 | 28 h 32 m | Show |
#189/190 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 54.5 Points – UCLA vs Oregon State, Saturday at 8 PM ET - The oddsmakers continue to set UCLA totals too high (4-1 Under this season) as this is not the offensive juggernaut and poor defensive team they’ve been the last few seasons. In fact, the Bruins are now the exact opposite. Defense is absolutely the strength of this team. UCLA’s stop unit ranks in the top 10 nationally in scoring defense, total defense, YPP allowed, rushing YPG allowed, and YPC allowed. They have not given up more than 17 points in any game this season and they’ve allowed a grand total of 5 offensive TD’s in 5 games this season! Last week they held a very potent Washington State, who came into the game averaging 40 PPG on 472 YPG, to just 10 offensive points on 216 total yards. Offensively the Bruins are breaking in a new freshman QB Moore and vs FBS teams this season they are only averaging 23 PPG, more than 2 full TD’s down from last year’s numbers. And this year’s numbers have come against 3 defenses ranked 91st, 92nd, and 117th in total defense. The only good defense UCLA has faced is Utah (ranked 22nd in total defense) and the Utes held them to 7 points. Saturday’s opponent, Oregon State, will be the 2nd best defense UCLA has faced this season at 39th nationally. Oregon State’s offense has had some high scoring outputs but similarly to UCLA, they haven’t played a great slate of defenses. They’ve faced just 1 stop unit ranked in the top 60 in total defense this season and that was Utah once again (ranked 22nd) and that game ended 21-7 in favor of Oregon State. With the spread at -3.5 to -4 in favor of the Beavers, the final projected score in this game is in the 29-25 range. We don’t see either team reaching those totals. Under here. | |||||||
10-14-23 | Wyoming v. Air Force -11 | Top | 27-34 | Loss | -110 | 27 h 55 m | Show |
#182 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Air Force -11 over Wyoming, Saturday at 7 PM ET - There is a reason AF is favored by a full 10 points over a Wyoming team that currently has a 5-1 record. The Cowboys have been as lucky as you can get to reach that record this season. They’ve been outgained by an average of 52 YPG and their offense is one of the worst in college football averaging only 325 YPG (114th). They’ve had a favorable schedule with all home games with the exception of their game @ Texas, a 31-10 Wyoming loss, and in that game they caught the Longhorns the week after they beat Alabama on the road. They have not been on the road in full month and we think they’re running into a buzzsaw here. Air Force is 5-0 on the season and they are coming off a bye week. The Falcons rank #1 nationally averaging 330 YPG on the ground and they are facing a Wyoming defense that ranks 76th defending the run and 78th in YPC allowed. They’ve allowed at least 200 yards on the ground in 2 of their last 3 games and we think they’ll struggle to stop the rested Falcons here. The AF offense is humming scoring at least 39 points in every game but one this season. Defensively they’ve been elite ranking in the top 10 nationally in total defense, YPP allowed, rushing YPG allowed, and passing YPG allowed. Wyoming will have trouble keeping up in this game with a poor offense vs that defense. This is also a revenger for Air Force after losing by 3 points @ Wyoming last year as a -16.5 point favorite. The Cowboys are playing for the 7th consecutive week and are off an upset home win over Fresno State (Wyoming was +6 at home in that game). The Falcons have won every game this season by double digits by an average score of 37-12. They have quietly won 19 of their last 22 games with 15 of those wins coming by at least 10 points. Lay it. | |||||||
10-13-23 | Fresno State v. Utah State OVER 57 | Top | 37-32 | Win | 100 | 53 h 20 m | Show |
#179/180 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 57 Points – Fresno State vs Utah State, Friday at 8 PM ET - We were on the CSU vs Utah State Over last week and cashed nicely. We’re coming right back on the Over with USU at home again this week. The Aggies offense is humming right now to say the least. They put up 44 points last week on 639 total yards and were quite balanced doing it (387 yards passing / 252 yards rushing). In their last 3 games the USU offense has tallied 114 points (39 PPG) on nearly 1,600 total yards. Senior QB Legas, who began the season as the starter, stepped in for an injured Hillestad and has been outstanding with almost 600 yards passing and 7 TD’s in the last 6 quarters! They’re taking on a Fresno defense that’s not nearly as good as their overall numbers in our opinion. They rank in the top 15 in total defense but they’ve faced just an atrocious set of offenses to date. They’ve faced 4 FBS offenses this season that rank outside the top 95 in total offense including 3 that rank 110th or lower. That includes a Kent offense that ranks dead last nationally in many categories including total offense. The best FBS offense they’ve faced this season is Purdue (63rd in total offense) who hit them for 35 points. FCS Eastern Washington also had 30+ points on this defense. We look for USU to be successful putting points on the board. The Aggies will be the highest ranked offense Fresno has faced this season. Fresno’s offense should be successful as well. The Bulldogs had scored at least 27 points in every game this season prior to last week’s 19 point output vs a very good Wyoming defense that struggled with Texas & Texas Tech but has shut everyone else down. The USU defense ranks outside the top 100 allowing 33 PPG and they’ve allowed at least 24 points in every game this year including vs Iowa and UConn who rank 131st and 108th respectively in total offense. Because they are so potent offensively and struggle on defense USU games are averaging 70 total points this season. These teams have combined to play 12 games this season and 9 have gone Over the total and we expect another high scoring game on Friday Night. | |||||||
10-12-23 | Broncos v. Chiefs OVER 47 | Top | 8-19 | Loss | -110 | 29 h 1 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* OVER 47 Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs, 8:20 PM ET - This line opened 51 at some books and was quickly bet down to the current number. We will grab that added value and side with the Bookmakers number in this AFC West rivalry. Let’s start with the Broncos defense that has the worst statistical DVOA numbers in the HISTORY of the NFL. The Bronco give up over 450YPG (32nd), 7.2YPP (32nd), 187RYPG (30th) and 5.9-yards per rush (32nd). They allow opposing QB’s to complete 77.3% of their pass attempts, also last in the NFL, and give up 11.1 yards per competition. Now consider this. Those horrific overall numbers, but specifically passing stats come against four of five bad QB’s in: Sam Howell, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson, Jimmy Garappolo. Now they face Patrick Mahomes who is arguably the best QB in the game and a guy building a Hall of Fame resume. KC owns a top ranked offense in many statistical categories including: Yards Per Game, Yards Per Play, Rushing Yards per attempt etc… The Chiefs are averaging 25.6PPG, while the Broncos are allowing 36.2PPG. The Broncos are allowing 1 point scored per every 12.4 yards gained by opponents. Based on the fact KC averages 381YPG that translates to 30.7 points for the Chiefs. Denver is going to score here too. They average 328YPG but more importantly, 6.1YPP which rates 5th best in the NFL. They average 4.9 Yards per rush (4th) and are 13th in overall passing yards per game. They own the 10th highest scoring offense in the NFL at 24.2PPG and rank 7th best in Yards Per Point at 13.0. Last season these two teams combined for 51 and 64 total points in the two meetings. Bet this number before the line trends back up. | |||||||
10-12-23 | SMU v. East Carolina UNDER 49.5 | Top | 31-10 | Win | 100 | 29 h 7 m | Show |
#117/118 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 49.5 Points – SMU vs East Carolina, Thursday at 7:30 PM ET - ECU’s offense is bad. They have not topped 14 offensive points in any game this season with the exception of their game vs FCS Gardner Webb. The Pirates did have 28 points vs App State, however 14 of those points came from defensive fumble returns for TD’s. Minus their game vs Gardner Webb, the Pirates are averaging just 4.2 YPP which ranks them 129th nationally out of 133 teams. They’ll be facing an SMU defense that has been very good this season allowing opponents to average only 4.9 YPP ranking them in the top 30. The only team that really played well vs SMU offensively was TCU who put up 34 points. Even when they faced Oklahoma, the Mustangs defense held the Sooners to 28 points and 365 total yards which was a season low in yardage for OU. We expect ECU to struggle again on offense. On the other side of the ball, SMU’s offense isn’t nearly as explosive as it was last season. They are averaging just 25 PPG vs FBS opponents after putting up 36 PPG last season. On a YPP basis the Stangs rank just 73rd averaging 5.3 after ranking in the top 35 last year at 5.9 YPP. ECU’s defense has at least been respectable, unlike their offense, ranking 72nd nationally allowing 387 YPG despite playing very good offenses Michigan & App State so far this season. ECU games have topped 50 total points only once in 5 games this season. SMU games have topped 52 points only once in 5 games this season. With SMU tabbed as a 12 point favorite the projected score is right around 31-19 range. We don’t see either team reaching those totals so we’ll go Under in this one. | |||||||
10-11-23 | UTEP v. Florida International -123 | Top | 27-14 | Loss | -123 | 42 h 33 m | Show |
#108 ASA PLAY ON FIU pick-em over UTEP, Wednesday at 7:30 PM ET - UTEP has only 1 win on the season vs Incarnate Word and we don’t expect them to get their 2nd on the road on Wednesday. Too many injury issues including QB where as of this writing on Tuesday, 4th stringer McConnell is expected to get the nod. Starting QB Hardison has an injury to his throwing arm and has not practiced since getting injured on September 23rd. The 2nd and 3rd string QB’s are both in concussion protocol. It also looks like top WR Smith won’t play here due to a leg injury. Even when they were healthy at QB, the Miners 5 losses have come by an average of 17 PPG. Now with McConnell playing in his 2nd career game (he was 4 of 11 for 48 yards passing last week in relief) we don’t think UTEP does enough on offense to win this game on the road. FIU is no great shakes but they do have a 3-3 record with their wins coming vs Maine, UConn, and North Texas. However they are relatively healthy compared to UTEP and freshman QB Jenkins (had an offer from Auburn) has been improving each week. He got his first start vs Maine, FIU is 3-2 with him at QB, and he’s thrown for over 1,200 yards. The Panthers only 2 losses with Jenkins at QB have come vs Liberty (currently 5-0 prior to Tuesday night’s game) and New Mexico State, a game that was tied in the 4th quarter and the yardage was close to even. Neither team has great stats, as to be expected, however FIU has the better YPP differential at -0.3 compared to UTEP’s -1.0. It’s always dangerous laying points (or pick-em) on the road with a program that has not been successful away from home and that fits UTEP here. Since the start of the 2016 season, the Miners have a SU record of 6-39 in road games. We like FIU to win this one at home. | |||||||
10-10-23 | Louisiana Tech v. Middle Tennessee State -145 | Top | 23-31 | Win | 100 | 17 h 7 m | Show |
#104 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Middle Tennessee State -145 over La Tech, Tuesday at 7 PM ET - Interesting the team with the 1-5 record (MTSU) is favored over the team with the 3-4 record (LaTech). Hmmm. We actually have the Blue Raiders as a larger favorite in our power ratings (-4.5) so we feel there is value on the host here. MTSU has played the much tougher schedule already facing 2 SEC teams (Alabama & Mizzou) along with solid opponents Colorado State, Jacksonville State, and Western Kentucky. Despite their record MTSU’s YPG differential is dead even which tells us this team should be right around .500 rather than a 1 win team. They played toe to toe with Missouri on the road losing 23-19 and only getting outgained by 30 yards. The Raiders have outgained 3 of their last 4 opponents and in their most recent game, a home loss vs a 5-1 Jacksonville State team, they led 23-7 at half and outgained the Gamecocks 563 to 401. Four 2nd half turnovers, including a defensive TD for Jacksonville State, killed them in that game. They were actually favored by -3 in that game (same number in tonight’s game) vs a Gamecock team we have rated 3 points better than tonight’s opponent, La Tech. Speaking of the Bulldogs, they have played one of the weakest SOS’s in the country (130th) and their 3 wins have come vs FIU, Northwestern State, and UTEP. That’s an FCS team who has yet to win a game, and 2 FBS teams we have power rated in our bottom 10 teams in the country including one that had to play without their starting QB (UTEP). We were on La Tech at home last week vs an overvalued Western Kentucky team in what we felt was a great spot to grab them as a dog and while they game ended up 35-28, the Bulldogs were down 35-7 at half and allowed almost 7.0 YPP. Interestingly, Louisiana Tech was +6.5 in that game at home and just one week earlier MTSU traveled to Western Kentucky and the line was the same at +6.5. Based on those lines, that tells us this MTSU should be favored by around 6 points vs La Tech on a neutral field and we’re getting them a full FG less than that at home. The Bulldogs are on a short week (played last Thursday) and on the road for the 3rd time in 4 weeks. MTSU has had an extra day to prepare (played last Wednesday) and is at home for the 4th time in 5 weeks including their 2nd of back to back home games. We like the Blue Raiders to win and cover at home. | |||||||
10-09-23 | Packers v. Raiders OVER 45 | Top | 13-17 | Loss | -112 | 16 h 27 m | Show |
#475/476 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 45 Points – Green Bay Packers vs Las Vegas Raiders, Monday at 8:15 PM ET - Jimmy Garoppolo is back under center for the Raiders and we like this to be a higher scoring game. Last week the Raiders were poor offensively averaging only 3.8 YPP vs the Chargers, however Garoppolo sat with a concussion and rookie QB O’Connell was in over his head in his first career action. With Garoppolo at QB the first 3 games the Raiders averaged 5.4 YPP which is a huge upgrade from O’Connell’s performance last week. Las Vegas has struggled to score points at times this season, however much of that is due to turnovers. They have a -9 turnover margin which is worst in the NFL and that has led to them running the 4th fewest offensive snaps in the league this year. That has led directly to their lower scoring numbers. If they can take care of the ball here, they should be successful vs a Packers defense that ranks 20th in the league allowing 24 PPG. That’s despite facing to of the worst 7 offenses in the NFL on a YPP basis (Saints and Falcons). The GB offense is starting to play well under new QB Love. They’ve scored at least 20 points in every game but 1 this season and that was vs the Saints who rank in the top 10 in a number of key defensive categories. The Packers scored 18 in that game. They’ve been very efficient offensively scoring 1 point for every 11 yards gained which is #1 in the NFL. That should continue vs a Las Vegas defense that ranks 20th or lower in total defense, scoring defense, YPP allowed, and 3rd down efficiency. The Raiders have now allowed 20 or more points in 19 of their last 23 games. Perfect scoring conditions on Monday night at Allegiant Stadium we expect this one to go Over the total. | |||||||
10-08-23 | Cowboys +4 v. 49ers | Top | 10-42 | Loss | -120 | 29 h 60 m | Show |
#473 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Dallas Cowboys +4 at San Francisco 49ers, Sunday at 8:20 PM ET - This is a rematch of the playoff meeting between these two teams when the Niners won at home 19-12 as a -3.5-point favorite. That game was relatively close throughout with the 49ers averaging 5.1YPP compared to Dallas and their 4.7YPP. These two teams along with Philadelphia are the best of the NFC and we expect this game to be decided by a field goal or less either way. Dallas is 4th in scoring at 31PPG but have largely failed in Red Zone scoring percentage at 36.8%. They have received some scoring help from their defense but clearly the offense is better than their overall numbers. The Cowboys have kept the chains moving by converting 51.61% of their 3rd downs with the 7th best rushing offense in terms of total yards. QB Dak Prescott also has the 6th best completion percentage in the NFL. Obviously, San Francisco has incredible offensive numbers ranking 3rd in rushing YPG and 9th in passing YPG. Defensively these two teams have plenty of similarities and if you look you’ll see both rate top 5 in most key categories. The one slight advantage the Cowboys have will be in pressuring Niners QB Purdy as Dallas has the 2nd best sack percentage in the league. These are two very even teams and getting more than a field goal with Dallas is the way to play it. | |||||||
10-08-23 | Bengals v. Cardinals +3.5 | Top | 34-20 | Loss | -115 | 25 h 48 m | Show |
#466 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Arizona Cardinals +3.5 over Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday at 4 PM ET - Cincy is living on their past few years because this team isn’t good right now. They rank dead last with a -1.7 yards per play differential. They have 1 win and in that 3 point victory over the Rams they were actually outgained by 1.3 YPP. QB Burrow not close to 100% and that’s obvious. He needs to sit and rest his calf to get healthy but they continue to play him. He’s dead last in the league in QBR and has zero mobility. The Cards were expected by most to be terrible this season. While they only have 1 win, they’ve proven that not to be the case. This team plays hard under new head coach Gannon and believe it or not, offensively Arizona is averaging 1.7 YPP more than the Bengals this season. The last 2 weeks the Cards have played what most consider to be the 2 best teams in the NFC and played well for the most part. The beat the Cowboys here at home by 12 points 2 weeks ago and it was no fluke. Arizona averaged an impressive 7.5 YPP in that game while holding Dallas to just 5.5 YPP. Last week they did lose @ San Francisco by double digits but that was a 5 point game in the 4th quarter. The Bengals are averaging a league low 12 PPG and this is their 2nd straight week on the road after getting roasted @ Tennessee 27-3 last Sunday getting outgained 400 to 211. The Bengals continue to be overvalued on past laurels and have failed to cover the spread in any game this year losing to the number by 53 combined points. We think Zona has a solid shot at the outright win. Take the points. | |||||||
10-07-23 | Colorado State v. Utah State OVER 62 | Top | 24-44 | Win | 100 | 29 h 27 m | Show |
#371/372 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 62 Points – Colorado State vs Utah State, Saturday at 8 PM ET - Two very fast paced teams here so we’ll have plenty of opportunities on offense. USU ranks 6th nationally in seconds per play and CSU ranks 11th in that category. Both average over 70 offensive plays per game and on the other side of the ball both defenses rank in the top 30 in opponent offensive plays per game with USU allowing 73 opponent snaps per game and CSU allowing 84! So we know we’ll be looking at a lot of offensive snaps here and we have no doubt both teams will be very successful on that side of the ball. The Aggies have been very good offensively with the exception of their games vs Air Force & Iowa, 2 of the top defenses in the country. In their other 3 games they’ve scored 78, 38, and 34 points and now they face a Colorado State defense that ranks 125th in total defense allowing 40+ points in 2 of their 4 games. The Aggies did lose their starting QB Hillstead last week but he is a freshman and was not the starter at the beginning of the season. Their backup QB Legas was the starter for the first 2 games this year, is a senior, was last year’s starter, and has thrown for 600 yards this season. He came in last week for an injured Hillstead and threw for over 200 yards and 3 TD’s in less than one half of play. On the flip side, CSU averages 6.6 YPP (top 30 nationally) and they’ve scored 30+ in 3 of their 4 games this season. The Rams are facing a Utah State defense that ranks outside the top 100 in total defense as well. Both teams air it out and neither runs the ball much. CSU ranks 4th nationally in pass attempts per game and 3rd in YPG through the air while averaging only 26 carries per game (128th). USU ranks 19th in pass attempts per game and 35th in YPG passing while only averaging 30 carries per game (111th). On the defensive side the Rams rank 132nd out of 133 teams in pass defense and Utah State ranks 94th in that stat so we don’t look for either offense to change their style here. Offensive strengths playing directly into defensive weaknesses for both teams. Colorado State games are averaging 60 PPG this season and they’ve topped 60 total points in 3 of their 4 games. Utah State games are averaging 71 total points this season and EVERY team they’ve played has been slow paced, all ranked outside the top 90 in seconds per play. These teams have played 9 combined games this season with 7 going Over the total. Both easily get into the 30’s here and we wouldn’t be at all shocked if both push 40 or higher. Weather looks perfect for this game in Logan Utah and we look for LOTS of scoring. | |||||||
10-07-23 | Michigan -17.5 v. Minnesota | Top | 52-10 | Win | 100 | 29 h 56 m | Show |
#401 ASA TOP PLAY ON Michigan -17.5 over Minnesota, Saturday at 7:30 PM ET - We see this game playing out very similar to last week’s Michigan win @ Nebraska 45-7. The Husker are actually a better team than Minnesota this year (according to our power ratings) as they dominated the stat sheet @ Minnesota in week 1 but lost 13-10 due to 4 turnovers. Minnesota struggled here last week vs UL Lafayette but won by 11 despite getting outgained 6.7 YPP to 5.3 YPP. ULL held Minnesota to just 347 total yards and the Gophs were lucky to put up 35 points with those yardage numbers. ULL did rush for 180 yards on the Gopher defense which has taken a big step back this season. That’ll be a problem vs the potent Michigan rushing attack that had 249 yards on the ground last week vs a very good Nebraska defense last Saturday. The Wolves were going through the motions their first 3 games off the season which were all easy wins but non-covers. The last 2 weeks vs Big 10 opponents they scored 76 points and held those teams to 14 points combined. Now with their head coach Harbaugh and OC back on the sidelines after missing games early this season due to suspensions, we look for Michigan to roll. Minnesota has played a relatively easy schedule with the best team they played, North Carolina, rolling over the Gophs 31-13 and outgaining them 519 to 303. Their other opponents are Eastern Michigan (bad MAC team), Nebraska (lower tier Big 10 team), Northwestern (lower tier Big 10 team) and UL Lafayette from the Sun Belt. Despite their strength of schedule (62nd) the Gophers have been outgained on the year on both a YPG and YPP basis. Similar to last week’s Michigan game vs Nebraska – Minnesota can’t pass (120th at 149 YPG passing) and you can’t run on Michigan as they are allowing 85 YPG on the ground. Last week a solid rushing team, Nebraska, had 106 yards on the ground and 74 of those came on one run late in the game – the Huskers only TD. On top of that, Minnesota’s top RB Taylor didn’t play last week and it doesn’t look like he’ll be ready for this one. The Wolverines have won 30 of their last 31 regular season games and 25 of those have come by double digits. Michigan can name the score here and we look for a blowout. | |||||||
10-06-23 | Nebraska +3.5 v. Illinois | Top | 20-7 | Win | 100 | 61 h 43 m | Show |
#317 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Nebraska +3.5 over Illinois, Friday at 8 PM ET - We have Nebraska power rated as the better team in this match up and they are getting just north of the FG. After back to back wins the Huskers were crushed last week at home vs Michigan which wasn’t unexpected as the Wolverines just might be the best team in the country. The Nebraska offense was actually decent averaging 5.9 YPP but only ran 46 offensive snaps to 74 for Michigan. Their defense really impressed us this season but struggled vs one of the top offenses in the country last week. We expect them to bounce back and play very well vs an Illinois offense that ranks 75th nationally in total offense and is averaging just over 21 PPG (105th nationally). After their loss vs Michigan, Cornhusker head coach Matt Rhule held a surprise full pad, full contact practice on Sunday and our word is it was one of their best practices of the season. The Illini were blasted 44-19 @ Purdue last week and that’s a Boiler team that entered that game with only 1 win on the season (by 7 points) vs a bad Va Tech team. Illinois has 2 wins on the season coming by 2 points vs Toledo and by 6 points vs a bad FAU team. We were on the Illini in that game vs FAU and thought it was a perfect spot for them to get back on track vs the Owls who were rolled @ Clemson a week earlier and lost their starting QB in that loss. Illinois was only able to beat FAU 23-17 in a very disappointing performance. Their defense has dropped off drastically this season after losing a number of key players to the NFL. The Illini gave up over 200 yards rushing last week vs Purdue and are giving up 180 YPG on the ground this season (110th). That’s a problem vs a Nebraska offense that is putting up over 200 YPG on the ground (15th nationally) and are continuing with Haaberg at QB who has 255 yards rushing in his 3 starts. Nebraska is much better defensively this season allowing 4.6 YPP (that includes game vs Michigan) compared to the Illini allowing 5.5 YPP. Nebraska really should be 3-2 on the season after completely outplaying Minnesota on the road in week 1 (lost 13-10) with other losses @ Colorado and at home vs Michigan. We give the Huskers a great shot at winning this one outright so we’ll take the points. | |||||||
10-05-23 | Bears v. Commanders OVER 44 | Top | 40-20 | Win | 100 | 31 h 29 m | Show |
#305/306 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 44 Points – Chicago Bears vs Washington Commanders, Thursday at 8:15 PM ET - The Bears defense is among the worst in the NFL and has been for the last few years. They have now allowed 25 or more points in 14 straight games dating back to last season. Chicago ranks 29th in YPP allowed (6.2), 31st in scoring defense (34 PPG), 32nd in Yards Per Completion, 31st in Yards Per Pass Attempt, and 31st in opposing quarterbacks QBR. Washington QB Howell has been improving each week and last Sunday he completed over 70% of his passes for 290 yards vs a very good Philadelphia defense. He should have a field day on Sunday. The Chicago offense broke out last week with 28 points on 6.7 YPP and QB Fields was 28 of 35 for 335 yards and 4 TD’s. They are facing a Washington defense that ranks 29th allowing 30 PPG which is a full TD more than the league average. The Commanders have allowed 30+ in each of their last 3 games. They are especially susceptible vs the run allowing 4.5 Yards Per Rush (26th) and 122.5RYPG (21st). That plays into one of Chicago’s strengths as they rank 5th in Yards Per Rush at 4.7 and 13th in overall rushing YPG. The weather looks perfect in DC on Thursday night with temps in the low 70’s, no precipitation, and very light winds. Both offenses should thrive here and we’ll grab the Over. | |||||||
10-05-23 | Western Kentucky v. Louisiana Tech +6.5 | Top | 35-28 | Loss | -105 | 37 h 48 m | Show |
#310 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Louisiana Tech +6.5 over Western Kentucky, Thursday at 8 PM ET - WKY is overvalued coming into this one and our power ratings have them as just under a 3 point favorite and they opened -7. It has since dropped a bit but still some solid value on the host La Tech. Western Kentucky is coming off a solid 31-10 win over MTSU however the yardage was much closer than than (444 to 373) and the Blue Raiders had 3 turnovers. MTSU left a number of points on the field getting shut out on downs twice inside WKY territory to go along with their turnover problems. It was actually the first time this season the Hilltoppers (3-2 record) have outgained their opponent (minus FCS competition). Western is averaging 382 YPG on the season (76th nationally) while allowing 472 YPG (130th). They rank 106th defensively allowing 6.2 YPP on the season and they have allowed over 500 yards in 3 of their 4 games vs FBS opponents. So we have a team laying nearly a TD on the road despite being poor on defense. Not a great recipe for success. Their offense has also taken a big step back (-130 YPG compared to last year) after losing their OC in the off season to Washington State. La Tech moved to 3-3 on the season after a road win @ UTEP last Saturday. Their offense has been comparable to WKY averaging 376 YPG but the Bulldogs defense is allowing nearly 100 fewer YPG than the Hilltoppers. The host also has the much better rushing attack (153 YPG on the ground to just 98 YPG for WKY) and they are facing a Hilltopper defense that gives up over 200 YPG on the ground. Western is playing their 3rd road game in 4 weeks here and on a short week. We’ll take the points with Louisiana Tech at home. | |||||||
10-02-23 | Seahawks v. Giants +2 | Top | 24-3 | Loss | -110 | 10 h 53 m | Show |
ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* NY GIANTS +2 vs. SEATTLE SEAHAWKS, 8:20 PM ET - This is one of those ‘plug your nose’ bets as the Giants have not looked good this season and currently stand 1-2 SU. Clearly a big reason for that losing record is the schedule they’ve faced with games against the Cowboys, 49ers and a better-than-expected Cardinals team. Dallas and San Francisco are arguably the two of the best defenses in the league along with the Browns. So, when you look at the Giants offensive numbers it’s understandable why they are so disappointing. Seattle on the other hand has faced a soft schedule with the Panthers, Rams and Lions. The win in Detroit is solid but the Lions were off a huge MNF win against the Chiefs and simply overlooked this Seahawks team that lost to the Rams in the opener. The Seahawks are 24th in the league in sacks per game and 29th in sack % defense. They don’t possess a pass rush capable of getting to Giants QB Jones. The Giants can get to Hawks QB Smith as the Seattle offensive line has been hit hard with injuries. The Yards Per Play differential for the Giants is not a pretty number as they are minus -1.1YPP, but again look at who they’ve faced. Seattle also has a negative differential as they average 5.6YPP on offense but allow 5.8YPP. Seattle has been a road favorite just 5 times since 2021 and they shouldn’t be laying points here. | |||||||
10-01-23 | Patriots v. Cowboys UNDER 43.5 | Top | 3-38 | Win | 100 | 31 h 46 m | Show |
#273/274 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 43.5 Points – New England Patriots vs Dallas Cowboys, Sunday at 4:25 PM ET - Defense is the strength of both teams in this one. Dallas was lights out their first 2 games allowing 10 total points but had a letdown last week @ Arizona. After that poor performance we expect them to be very motivated at home in this one. The Boys are allowing only 4.8 YPP on the season and teams are averaging only 25 yards per drive which is 3rd best defensive mark in the NFL. They are facing a pedestrian New England offense that hasn’t scored more than 20 points in any game yet this season. Against a similar high level defense last week, the Pats scored only 13 offensive points (vs Jets). New England is NOT explosive offense with only 1.4% of their offensive snaps gaining 20 yards or more – worst in the league. Defensively New England has been very good. They held the potent Miami attack to just 24 points – Fins scored 36 and 70 in their other 2 games. For the season, including the Miami game, the Patriots are allowing only 4.4 YPP which is 4th best in the NFL. Only 18% of opponents drives have reached the redzone or score prior to that vs New England’s defense. That’s the 2nd best rate in the NFL. Belichick knows defense, no doubt about that. Our projections have this as a low scoring game and we’ll grab the Under here. | |||||||
10-01-23 | Vikings -4.5 v. Panthers | Top | 21-13 | Win | 100 | 27 h 28 m | Show |
#255 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Minnesota Vikings -4.5 over Carolina Panthers, Sunday at 1 PM ET - All 0-3 teams are not created equal. Both teams 0-3 but Vikes could easily be 3-0 with 3 losses by combined 13 points. In their first 2 games of the season Minnesota outgained both TB & Philly by more than +1.0 YPP. Last week’s 4 point home loss to the Chargers also could easily have gone Minnesota’s way as their final 2 drives they were shut out on downs at Chargers 2 yard line and then threw a pick in the end zone. The main problem has been turnovers. The Vikes are minus 7 turnovers worst differential in NFL. Offensively they’ve been really good ranking 2nd in the NFL in YPP and 3rd in total offense (over 400 per game) and 82% of their scoring plays have been TD’s so they can score. That will be a problem for Carolina as we do not envision the Panthers keeping up on the scoreboard in this game. Panther QB Bryce Young comes back on Sunday which is a plus for Minnesota as backup Andy Dalton actually gives them a better chance to win right now. The Panther offense has been bad with Young under center scoring only 2 offensive TD’s this season and averaging just 4.1 YPP. Young makes ver few big plays with Young ranking dead last in yards per pass attempt (a lot of short passes). Despite their winless record, the Vikings have a positive YPP differential (+0.6) while Carolina is getting outgained regularly (-0.6 YPP differential). If Minnesota can straighten out their turnover issues, they should win this game comfortably. | |||||||
09-30-23 | South Carolina v. Tennessee OVER 59.5 | Top | 20-41 | Win | 100 | 19 h 55 m | Show |
#137/138 ASA PLAY ON Over 59.5 Points – South Carolina vs Tennessee, Saturday at 7:30 PM ET - FAST! That’s what this game is going to be like with more than the normal number of possessions for both teams. Tennessee is the 2nd fastest paced team in college football with a play run every 19.8 seconds. South Carolina prefers to play fast also with the 19th fastest paced offense. The Vols run 73 plays per game, SC runs 70.3 which are both more than average in college football. Last year when these two teams met, they produced 101 total points and over 1,100 total yards of offense. The Gamecocks offense with QB Rattler can move the chains as evidenced by their 8th ranked passing offense averaging 340PYPG. He is completing 73.4% of his pass attempts at a 9.8 yards/attempt clip and owns the 15th best QB rating in college football. Tennessee has impressive pass defense statistics, but they haven’t faced a team that ranks higher than 50th in passing yards per game. The Vols are going to put up points in this game against a suspect Gamecocks defense. SoutH Carolina just gave up 30-points to Mississippi State and over 500-total yards of offense to the Bulldogs. The week before they gave up just 24-points to Georgia which was misleading considering the Dawgs had 470-total yards of offense. Tennessee is 24th in YPG, 31st in YPP at 6.6 and average 35PPG. The Vols tend to score more at home as they average 45PPG at home since 2021 and last season they scored 53.7PPG at home. This game has a shootout written all over it. | |||||||
09-30-23 | Coastal Carolina v. Georgia Southern -6.5 | Top | 28-38 | Win | 100 | 18 h 22 m | Show |
#146 ASA TOP PLAY ON Georgia Southern -6.5 over Coastal Carolina, Saturday at 7 PM ET - Georgia Southern has been very impressive this year under HC Clay Helton (former USC head coach) with a 3-1 record. Their only loss on the season was @ Wisconsin and GSU actually outplayed the Badgers in that one (more first downs & total yardage) but had 6 turnovers (0 for Wisconsin) in that setback. They bounced back nicely after that loss trouncing Ball State on the road 40-3 last Saturday. The Eagles offense has been tough to stop ranking 18th nationally in YPG and 7th in yards passing. Tulsa transfer QB Brin has completed 73% of his passes this year for 1,300 yards in just 4 games. If he can avoid the turnover, the GSU team will be very tough to beat. Brin does have 7 interceptions on the season, but again 5 came in one game vs Wisconsin. The defense has improved dramatically over last season allowing 334 YPG so far this season after allowing over 500 YPG a year ago. Coastal has taken a step back as we expected. They had a turnover on the coaching staff with their head coach moving onto Liberty. The Chanticleers are 2-2 on the season coming off a 30-17 home loss vs Georgia State. Their only 2 wins have come vs FCS Duquesne and Jacksonville State. This will be their first road game in almost a month and GSU has been waiting for this one. The Eagles went to Coastal last year and almost pulled the upset losing 34-30. GSU led by 10 in the 4th quarter in that game but allowed CC to score TD’s on each of their final 3 possessions. If we subtract games vs FCS teams this year, GSU still has a +0.6 YPP differential while Coastal is -0.8 YPP. The Eagles could have easily won on the road last year vs Coastal and we have upgraded GSU this year while the Chanticleers have clearly taken a step back. We’ll side with Georgia Southern at home. | |||||||
09-29-23 | Cincinnati v. BYU UNDER 48.5 | Top | 27-35 | Loss | -110 | 45 h 37 m | Show |
#119/120 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 48.5 Points – Cincinnati vs BYU, Friday at 10:15 PM ET - BYU held their first 2 opponents to 16 combined points and it looks like they may have regressed allowing 31 and 38 points in their last 2 games vs Arkansas and Kansas. Not the case in our opinion. A closer look reveals they only gave up 24 offensive points in each of those 2 games vs high level offenses. KU last week scored 2 defensive TD’s and was held to just 351 total yards by this BYU defense. A week earlier Arkansas had an 88 yard punt return in the box score. We expect defensive success here for BYU vs a Cincinnati offense that has scored 30 total points in their last 2 games vs Miami OH & Oklahoma. If we subtract their 66 point effort vs FCS Eastern Kentucky, the Bearcats are averaging just 19 PPG under their new head coach Satterfield and new OC Brendel who came over from Va Tech who finished 118th in scoring last season. So while we feel BYU will have the edge when Cincy has the ball, we feel the Bearcats will have the same advantage when they are on defense. BYU’s offense averages just 4.5 YPP (109th nationally) this season vs their 3 FBS teams they’ve faced. While it looks like their offense has lit it up the last 2 weeks scoring 38 points vs Arkansas and 31 vs Kansas, the fact is they had 280 total yards vs the Razors and 366 vs KU. They were extremely fortunate to score the points they did based on their offensive yardage output. They face a solid Cincy defense that has allowed 21 points or less in 3 of their 4 games including holding Oklahoma to 20 points last Saturday. That’s an Oklahoma offense that averaged 58 PPG in their first 3 games of the season. Neither offense is fast paced (both middle of the pack in seconds per play) both struggle to convert on 3rd downs (both outside the top 90) which makes it difficult to extend drives. We like the Under here on Friday Night. | |||||||
09-28-23 | Lions -1.5 v. Packers | Top | 34-20 | Win | 100 | 19 h 5 m | Show |
ASA Top Play on 10* Detroit Lions -1.5 at Green Bay Packers, Thursday 8:15PM ET - One big advantage the Lions have over the Packers in this game is their offensive line is much better than Green Bay’s. The Packers are without two starters on the O-line here in Bakhtiari and Jenkins who provide valuable protection for QB Love and running lanes for RB Jones. Green Bay will get Aaron Jones and WR Watson back for this game, but it may not matter if Love doesn’t have time to throw the football. Detroit allows just 4.6YPP this season which is 6th best in the NFL. The Lions are giving up just 3.2 yards per rush attempt which is 5th best in the league. In comparison, the Packers allow 4.3 yards per rush (18th) and 5.0YPP overall which is 16th. Offensively, the Lions have an edge here too with one of the better O-lines in the NFL. Detroit is averaging 5.8YPP (7th best) versus Green Bay who averages 5.0YPP (16th). These two teams both faced the Falcons this season. Detroit dominated the Falcons in a 20-6 win with 358 total yards to 183 and a YPP advantage of 7.4YPP to 3.1YPP. Green Bay faced this same Atlanta team the week before (lost 24-25) and gave up 446 total yards to the Birds, 5.7YPP while gaining just 224 total yards themselves at 5.4YPP. Detroit has won and covered 3 of the last four meetings with the Packers and even though Love has played well, we like the veteran QB Goff and the Lions in this one. Detroit is on a 14-6 ATS streak dating back to the start of last season and cash the ticket here. | |||||||
09-28-23 | Jacksonville State v. Sam Houston State UNDER 36.5 | Top | 35-28 | Loss | -109 | 40 h 43 m | Show |
#107/108 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 36.5 Points – Jacksonville State vs Sam Houston State, Thursday at 8 PM ET - We realize this total is very low for a college game but it’s warranted in our opinion. Sam Houston State’s offense is bad and there is no other way around that. They have scored a total of 10 points in 3 games this year and they rank dead last in CFB in total offense averaging just 148 YPG. Yes you read that correctly. The Bearkats have 24 total first downs in 3 games. We don’t look for a turnaround here as they are facing a JSU defense that ranks in the top 20 nationally in YPP allowed and shut out Eastern Michigan 21-0 last week. The Gamecock defense has held 3 of their 4 opponents this year to 14 points or fewer. The Sam Houston State defense did give up 38 points last week to a potent Houston offense, however prior to that they held BYU to 14 points and Air Force to 13 points in their first 2 games. To put those SHSU defensive efforts into perspective, Air Force has scored 49, 45, and 32 in their other 3 games while BYU scored 41, 31, and 27 vs their 3 other opponents. While Jacksonville State’s offense is better than Sam Houston’s not existent offense, the Gamecocks are far from a juggernaut scoring 17, 16, and 21 points in their 3 games vs FBS opponents. Looking even deeper, those 3 opponents currently rank 76th, 96th, and 106th in total defense vs FBS opponent so it’s not as if JSU has played a gauntlet of great defenses. Neither team has a potent passing attack as they rank 129th and 124th in YPG passing and both love to run the ball which eats clock. JSU is 4-0 to the Under this year by an average of almost 19 PPG. SHSU is 2-1 to the Under this year. The projected final score here based on the total and the line (JSU -6.5) is 22-15 and we don’t see either team getting to those numbers. Under is the play. | |||||||
09-24-23 | Cowboys v. Cardinals UNDER 43 | Top | 16-28 | Loss | -109 | 63 h 49 m | Show |
#471/472 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* UNDER 43 Points - Dallas Cowboys at Arizona Cardinals, Sunday at 4:25 PM ET - In Week #1 of the NFL season the Unders were 12-4. In Week #2 the Overs came in with a 13-3 record. The oddsmakers have adjusted their numbers up on this game and we will bet contrarian with an Under wager. The Cowboy’s defense is ‘that’ good! They have given up 10 total points this season and the touchdown allowed was a 68-yard play to the Jets last week. Ask yourself this, would you be surprised if the Cardinals didn’t score here? We wouldn’t. Dallas held the Giants offense to 171-total yards in the opener, then held the Jets to 215 last week with 68 coming on one long TD pass. Take that 1 TD play away last week and the Cowboys allowed just 3.4YPPL. In Week #1 the Cowboys put up 40-points but two scores came by special teams and the defense. Last week against the Jets, the Cowboys (McCarthy) went ultra conservative in the 2nd half with 4 field goals. Dallas has averaged just 4.7YPP which ranks 24th in the league. Arizona is averaging 5.0YPP offensively which is 21st. Both teams average abnormally high Yards Per Points offensively, but we expect a regression in those numbers. Dallas now has two weeks of film on Cards QB Dobbs and will have a gameplan in place to pressure the unproven QB. The pace of play clearly favors a lower scoring contest as the Cardinals are 27th in pace with a play run every 30.1 seconds. Dallas is nearly as slow (25th) at a play run every 29.9 seconds. With the potential of Arizona scoring 10 or less points, and the Cowboys conservative play calling we like Under the total. | |||||||
09-24-23 | Texans v. Jaguars OVER 44 | Top | 37-17 | Win | 100 | 59 h 27 m | Show |
#455/456 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* OVER 44 Points - Houston Texans at Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday at 1 PM ET - The first aspect we like about this game is the fact that both teams prefer to play fast, which leads to more plays/possessions per game and potentially more scoring opportunities. The Jags are 12th in play per second at 27.9, the Texans are 5th at 25.5 seconds p/play. After putting up 31-points in their opener, the Jags managed just 9-points last week against a very good Kansas City defense that had Chris Jones back in the lineup. Jacksonville had three potential TD drives that turned into FG’s when receivers didn’t get their feet down inbounds in the endzone. The Jags were 9th in scoring a year ago at 23.9PPG and 12th in Yards Per Points offensively at 15.0. The low scoring output last week was not a true indicator of this offensive unit, and we are betting they bounce back here, especially against this Texans defense. Houston is giving up 28 PPG and just allowed 31 to a Colts team with a rookie QB making his first start on the road. The Colts averaged 6.3 Yards Per Play against this Texans D after averaging just 4.8YPP a year ago (31st). Houston may have found their QB of the future with CJ Stroud who played extremely well last week against Indianapolis. Stroud was 30/47 for 384 passing yards with 2 TD’s. The Texans converted 9 of 19 3rd downs and managed 24 first downs in the game despite losing. The average total points scored in an NFL game this season is 45.4PPG. This game will not be less than average. | |||||||
09-23-23 | Ohio v. Bowling Green UNDER 44.5 | Top | 38-7 | Loss | -110 | 39 h 40 m | Show |
#377/378 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 44.5 Points – Ohio vs Bowling Green, Saturday at 3:30 PM ET - Ohio’s defense has been lights out this season holding their 4 opponents to a combined 47 total points. If we subtract defensive TD’s, they’ve allowed 40 total points or just 10 PPG. Last week vs Big 12 Iowa State they allowed 7 points on a TD with 4:00 minutes to go in the game and ISU had just 38 yards rushing on 1.7 YPC. They rank to 15 nationally in total defense and top 25 in yards per point allowed. The Ohio offense leaves a lot to be desired. They are slow paced (92nd in plays per second) and if we subtract their 27 point “outburst” vs FCS Long Island, they’ve scored 13, 17, and 10 points. The Bobcats rank 115th in YPP offensive efficiency averaging only 4.3 YPP despite facing defenses that allow 6.4, 5.1 and 4.0 YPP. Bowling Green has an offense that is struggling and they’ve slowed their pace this season. Their offense is dead even with Ohio’s averaging only 4.3 YPP this season and after ranking 84th in plays per second last season they’ve dropped to 126th in that stat this season. Their defense isn’t great but they’ve improved allowing 350 YPG vs FBS opponents this year (Liberty & Michigan) after allowing 418 YPG last season. Last week they held a very good Michigan offense to just 312 total yards. This one shapes up to be a low scoring, grinder. Under is the play. | |||||||
09-23-23 | Florida Atlantic v. Illinois -15 | Top | 17-23 | Loss | -115 | 39 h 36 m | Show |
#360 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Illinois -15 over Florida Atlantic, Saturday at 3:30 PM ET - The Illini are just 1-2 on the season but they’ve played one of the toughest schedules in the country thus far already facing the best team in the MAC (Toledo), one of the better teams in the Big 12 (Kansas), and a top 10 team (Penn State). Now they take a big step down in competition and we think Bret Bielema and company are ready to paste someone. This looks like that spot as they face an FAU team that hasn’t been able to score points and now will be playing without their starting QB. The Owls have scored a grand total of 2 offensive TD’s in their 2 games vs FBS opponents (Ohio & Clemson) and both of those came last week @ Clemson when the Tigers already had a 41-0 lead and were already looking ahead to their game this week vs FSU. The Owls have averaged a ridiculously bad 3.3 YPP vs those 2 FBS teams which ranks them 132nd nationally (out of 133 teams). The Illinois defense was fantastic last season ranking 4th nationally in total defense and we expected a step back after losing some key players. They are still much better than they’ve shown thus far vs 3 high level offenses and now they get a reprieve and we expect the defense to shut down FAU. Last week they showed quite well holding a very good PSU offense to 4 YPC and 5.9 yards per pass attempt. This will be the Illini’s 3rd home game this season and in their first 2 they looked solid. They topped a very good Toledo team in week 1 and were impressive offensively averaging 6.1 YPP while holding the Rockets to 5.3 YPP. Last week they lost 30-13 here vs Penn State but that was a bit deceiving. The overall and YPP yardage was very close to even in that game. Problem was Illinois was -5 in turnovers and 4 of those giveaways led directly to 20 of PSU’s 30 points. Illinois does have their Big 10 opener @ Purdue on deck but coming off 2 losses we don’t expect them to be peaking ahead here. Bielema has never been afraid to win big vs inferior competition and he knows his team needs some confidence going into conference play. Blowout here. | |||||||
09-22-23 | Wisconsin v. Purdue +6 | Top | 38-17 | Loss | -110 | 42 h 20 m | Show |
#308 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Purdue +6 over Wisconsin, Friday at 7 PM ET - We’re not about to lay points on the road with this transitioning Wisconsin team that has struggled with the changes early in the season. Their opening 21 point win over Buffalo is not all that impressive as the Bulls have since lost to FCS Fordham and then were destroyed at home by Liberty. Their lone road game was a 9 point loss @ Washington State and last week they were tied at 7-7 at home vs Georgia Southern at halftime but SIX GSU turnovers allowed Wisconsin to pull away. For the Badgers to be a 20.5 point favorite and only cover by a half point despite being +6 in turnovers is telling. This UW defense is not on par with previous editions. They don’t have any big time playmakers in the front 7 and their pass defense was shredded last weekend vs Georgia Southern for 383 yards through the air. After 3 games this pass defense ranks outside the top 100 in passing YPG allowed and outside the top 90 in opponent completion percentage. Now they face a solid Purdue passing game with Texas transfer QB Card at the helm who has thrown for 825 yards (65.5% completions) in 3 games. Purdue had a deceiving score as well last week due to turnovers but, unlike Wisconsin, they were the team turning the ball over. The Boilers lost to Syracuse but they were -4 in turnover margin while the total yardage was fairly close. We feel we’re getting some line value here as well. We have Syracuse and Wisconsin currently power rated about dead even yet the Badgers are laying 6 points this week and Cuse laid just 2.5 here last Saturday. UW has dominated this series as of late but their defense looks susceptible and the offense is still learning the ropes of their new scheme. We’ll call for this one to go down to the wire so the points should be valuable. | |||||||
09-21-23 | Giants v. 49ers -10 | Top | 12-30 | Win | 100 | 20 h 46 m | Show |
#302 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* San Francisco -10 over NY Giants, Thursday at 8:15 PM ET - Really tough spot here for an NYG team that looks like they’ve regressed from last years playoff team. The Giants were @ Arizona last week and trailed 20-0 at half vs what we consider one of the 3 worst teams in the NFL. That means over their first 6 quarters of play this season, NY went scoreless (lost 40-0 vs Dallas in week 1). They did storm back to win last week 31-28 vs Arizona but San Francisco ain’t Arizona. Now on the west coast for the 2nd straight week (NYG did stay on the west coast after last week’s game but still not an ideal situation) but now facing one of the best defenses in the NFL, if NY gets down here, they won’t be making a huge comeback in our opinion. The Niners look like one of the two best teams in the NFC, along with Dallas, and they’ll be playing their home opener here. We were on SF last week and while they won by a TD (LA Rams kicked FG as time expired) is should really have been worse as the Niners outgained the Rams by +2.0 YPP. QB Purdy missed a few open deep shots that would have blown the game open. The 49ers currently sit 2nd in the NFL averaging 6.3 YPP and we expect them to have plenty of success on Sunday vs a Giant defense that allowed a bad Arizona offense to put up 6.3 YPP. That’s the same Arizona offense that averaged 3.6 YPP in week 1 vs Washington. New York is banged up with 2 starting offensive linemen out along with RB Barkley most likely out and their defense has allowed 68 points in 2 games. San Fran is stronger in the trenches on both sides of the ball and we don’t think NYG can keep up vs this defense. SF should roll here. | |||||||
09-18-23 | Saints -3 v. Panthers | Top | 20-17 | Push | 0 | 17 h 35 m | Show |
ASA top play 10* on #289 New Orleans Saints -3 at Carolina Panthers, Monday 7:15PM ET - The Panthers look like a team that is in for a long season. They’ve been hit hard on their offensive line already this season and start a rookie QB in Young. Young threw 2 INT’s last week and the offense managed just 3.9YPPL against a Falcons D that allowed 5.7YPPL in 2022. It will be tough sledding Monday night against a Saints defense that was 4th in Yards Per Play allowed a year ago at 5.0. The Saints hung on for a win in Week 1 against the Titans and looked much better than the 16-15 final margin. New Orleans put up over 350-total yards and averaged 5.5YPPL. Defensively they held the Titans to 285-total yards and 4.9YPPL. Saints QB Carr looked good in his Saint’s debut going 23/33 for 305YDS, 1 TD, 1 INT. If Young felt pressure last week against the Falcons, just wait until he gets a load of this Saints pass rush. To make this point, the Falcons, ranked 32nd or last in the NFL in sack percentage defense a year ago. In comparison, this Saints defense was 4th best in sack% at 8.22% in 2022. Last season the Panthers defense was around league average in YPPL allowed at 5.5. They were 23rd in opponents’ completion percentage allowed and 14th in Yards Per completion allowed at 10.1. Last week the Panthers D wasn’t tested by a Falcons passing attack that averaged just 6.1 yards per completion. Today Carolina’s secondary will get a stiff test from a Saints offense that wants to push the football down the field. The Saints lost to this Panthers team twice last season but outgained them in both meetings. Historically, the Panthers haven’t been anything special as a home dog but the Saints have been impressive as a road favorite with a 15-9 ATS record their last 24 with a +/- of +9PPG. Lay the points with the double-revenge road chalk. | |||||||
09-17-23 | Dolphins v. Patriots UNDER 46.5 | Top | 24-17 | Win | 100 | 32 h 26 m | Show |
#287/288 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* UNDER 46.5 Points - Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots, Sunday at 8:20 PM ET - Our words of advice for Week #2 in the NFL are to not overreact to Week #1’s results. Miami is coming off a really high scoring game against the Chargers with 70-total points. New England is coming off a 45-point total against the Eagles. Those results have driven the O/U number up for this AFC East rivalry which puts us squarely on the Under. Miami averaged a ridiculous 8.2-Yards Per Play last week against the Chargers after averaging 6.0 YPP last season. That was against a bad Chargers defense that ranked 21st in YPP D a year ago. New England just held a Philadelphia offense to 4.1 YPP after the Eagles averaged 5.8 YPP a season ago. Last season the Fish averaged 23.8 PPG (11th) and allowed 24.1 PPG. (24th). New England scored 21.4 PPG (16th) and gave up 20.4 PPG (11th). Miami scored 30+ points themselves six times last season but four of those games came against the Bears, Lions, Texans and Browns who all ranked 19th or worse in PPG allowed. In games involving the Patriots last season only 6 games (in regulation) finished with more than 46.5 total points. The Pats offense scored more than 26-points just three times. These two rivals have combined for more than this O/U number 1 time in the last six meetings and three times in the last ten. New England coach Belichick just watched L.A. pound out over 230 rushing yards and will take a conservative approach in this game with a run first mentality. | |||||||
09-17-23 | 49ers -7 v. Rams | Top | 30-23 | Push | 0 | 28 h 15 m | Show |
#281 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* San Francisco 49ers -7 over Los Angeles Rams, Sunday 4 PM ET - This line opened -4.5 and was quickly bet through several key numbers including 7 but we don’t feel the move is enough and will back San Francisco. The Rams are coming off a win in Seattle, but they did so with a revamped O-line which the Seahawks couldn’t take advantage of and pressure Stafford. L.A. also were thin at WR without Kupp (on PUP) and yet had two receivers go over 100-yards each. Was the Rams winning an indicator of how good they could be this season, or was it a better indicator of Seattle and what they are this season? The 49ers went into Pittsburgh and destroyed a Steelers team that many experts projected as a surprise team in the AFC this season. The Niners defense held the Steelers to 41-rushing yards after that unit averaged 121 YPG rushing a year ago. San Francisco outgained Pittsburgh 5.9 YPP to just 3.9 YPP in their dominating 30-7 win. The 49ers beat the Rams twice last season and have won 8 of the last nine meetings. In the two games last season the Niners outgained the Rams 6.7 YPP to 3.5 YPP and 7.1 YPP to 4.0 YPP in both games. They won by 17 and 15 points respectively. San Francisco had the second-best average Margin of Victory last season at +8.7 PPG. The Rams had the 28th worst average MOV at minus -4.5 PPG. We won’t be scared off by the move. Lay it! | |||||||
09-16-23 | James Madison v. Troy -2.5 | Top | 16-14 | Loss | -110 | 40 h 30 m | Show |
#182 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Troy -2.5 over James Madison, Saturday at 7 PM ET - Troy is back home after getting waxed @ Kansas State last week which wasn’t a big surprise as the Wildcats are one of the better teams in the country. In that loss we were impressed with Troy’s defense as they held a very good KSU offense to 5.7 YPP and on the ground the Cats averaged less than 4.0 YPC. It was a 2 score game early in the 4th quarter when KSU added a few late TD’s to make this score look worse than in probably should have been at 42-13. The Trojans won their first game big over Stephen F Austin (a decent FCS team) despite turning the ball over 4 times they had 523 yards of offense. Now we get last year’s Sun Belt Champs (Troy), who finished 12-2 last season, back at home with a light number. We haven’t been overly impressed with JMU through their first 2 games. They are 2-0 but wins over FCS Bucknell, who has a 5-21 record their last 26 games, and a come from behind win over a bad Virginia team last week. That was a huge win for James Madison taking down the instate big boy UVA but let’s not forget JMU was nearly a TD favorite on the road in that game and won 36-35 on a TD with under 1:00 minute remaining in the game. The Cavs are one of the worst Power 5 teams in the nation and JMU was outplayed in that 1 point win. UVA led that game by double digits in the 4th quarter, outgained the Dukes on a YPP basis, and the Cavs true freshman QB (back up but playing for injured starter) who stands 5’11 and has zero experience threw for 377 yards on the James Madison defense. They put up 35 points on JMU after scoring 10 points in their opener vs Tennessee. UVA averaged 6.5 YPP vs James Madison last weekend after averaging just 3.0 YPP vs the Vols. Looks like we have a big edge defensively with the host here and the Trojans also have a very experienced QB Watson (4 year starter) has thrown for over 7,000 yards in his career. Dating back to early in the 2021 season, Troy has now won 11 of their last 12 home games and we’re more than comfortable laying this small number with them on Saturday. | |||||||
09-16-23 | LSU -9 v. Mississippi State | Top | 41-14 | Win | 100 | 34 h 37 m | Show |
#131 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* LSU -9.5 over Mississippi State, Saturday at 12 PM ET - LSU got a lot of negative publicity for getting rolled in their season opener vs Florida State but they bounced back last week, in what could have been a flat spot vs Grambling, and won big 72-10. Even a closer look at that FSU game tells us the Tigers played pretty well for about 3 quarters before the wheels fell off against what most now consider a top 5 team in the country. That game vs Florida State was tied at 17-17 late in the 3rd quarter and LSU averaged over 7.0 YPP and the total yardage was pretty close with the Noles having a slight advantage. The 21 point FSU win was a bit deceiving. MSU has been underwhelming under new head coach Zach Arnett who was the Bulldogs DC but took over late last year when Mike Leach passed away. Arnett has never been a head coach prior to this so advantage to veteran Brian Kelly and LSU in that regard. MSU’s new offensive coordinator has tried to get away from the full air raid type offense and run the ball more, although it looks like the personnel that was recruited for the air raid doesn’t necessarily fit the new scheme. So far in 2 games, the Bulldogs have run the ball 78 times while attempting only 46 passes. That’s from an MSU team that AVERAGED 49 pass attempts per game last year leading the nation. And it’s not like they’ve been lighting it up on the ground. Last week the Dogs averaged just 3.7 YPC vs an Arizona defense that allowed 5.5 YPC last year ranking 128th nationally. Mississippi State won that game 31-24 in OT but they were outgained by 125 yards, the Dogs were +4 in turnover margin for the game, and it still took OT for them to win that game at home vs a lower tier Pac 12 team. Now they are facing an LSU team that we still have power rated as one of the top 10 teams in the nation. Last year when these 2 met, it was early in the season, MSU was considered the better team at the time, LSU was still learning Brian Kelly’s systems in his first year as HC, and the Tigers still won by 15 points outgained the Bulldogs 419 to 289. Now the roles are reversed and we see LSU cruising in this game vs an MSU offense that will struggle and a defense that allowed 6.0 YPP to Arizona last week. Lay it. | |||||||
09-15-23 | Army v. UTSA UNDER 45 | Top | 37-29 | Loss | -110 | 65 h 1 m | Show |
#111/112 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 45 Points – Army vs UTSA, Friday at 7 PM ET - Last year UTSA’s offense was the strength of their team, this year it’s definitely been the defense. The offense has struggled with a new offensive coordinator scoring only 37 points combined in their 2 games. Defensively they’ve allowed only 30 points on the season in 2 games and their run defense has been fantastic allowing only 2 YPC which will come in handy vs Army on Thursday. The Cadets also have a new offensive coordinator and while they are trying to throw the ball more often (27 pass attempts in 2 games) the fact is they don’t have the personnel to be very successful through the air and they are still a heavy run team (50 rush attempts per game – 5th nationally). Army continues to be a very slow paced team as well averaging only 1 play every 34 seconds which is the 3rd slowest pace in the nation so far this season. If we throw out last week’s result when they faced a bad FCS team (Delaware State), Army scored only 13 points vs UL Monroe and their only TD in that game was scored by their defense. That was facing a ULM defense that ranked 108th last season in total defense. On the other side of the ball, the Cadets only allowed 17 points in that game vs ULM with both Warhawk TD’s coming in the final 6:00 minutes of the game. UTSA has faced the Army offense 3 of the last 4 seasons, including holding the Cadets to 3.2 YPC last season, so they know how to defend it. Last year was a high scoring game in OT, however the previous 2 totaled 42 and 44 points. We like this one to stay Under the total. | |||||||
09-11-23 | Bills v. Jets UNDER 45.5 | Top | 16-22 | Win | 100 | 54 h 33 m | Show |
#481/482 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under the total – Buffalo vs NY Jets, Monday at 8:15 PM ET - The Jets defense was fantastic last season and they had the Bills number to say the least. Buffalo scored just 37 total points in 2 games vs NY (17 & 20 points) and they scored TD’s on only 4 of their 22 offensive possessions vs New York last season. That’s only an 18% TD rate and to put that into perspective, against everyone else not named the Jets, the Bills scored TD’s on 29% of their offensive possessions. Not surprising as NYJ let the NFL allowing TD’s on only 15% of opponents possessions, let the NFL in YPP allowed and finished 4th in total defense. We expect Buffalo to struggle offensively again in this game. On the other side, the Jets bring over Aaron Rodgers from GB but let’s face it, he had a terrible season in 2022. His worst QBR rating of his career ranking 26th in the NFL. Can he turn it around this season? Maybe but he’ll have to do so behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL which is far from ideal. He's also working with new skill players and played only a few snaps in the preseason so it may take some time to fine tune this offense. He’s facing a very solid Buffalo defense that ranked in the top 10 in total defense, YPP allowed, and they gave up only 19 PPG (4th in the league). Seven of the last eight meetings between these 2 AFC East rivals have ended to total points of less than 45 which is the current number. Six of those games have totaled 37 points or fewer. Another Under on Monday Night. | |||||||
09-10-23 | Cowboys v. Giants +3.5 | Top | 40-0 | Loss | -120 | 30 h 42 m | Show |
#480 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* NY GIANTS + over DALLAS, Sunday at 8:20 PM ET - First off, we love looking at home underdogs vs a division opponent in week 1. That situation has been money in the bank with the host dogs covering 21 of the last 26 in that spot. On top of that, division dogs in general in week 1 are 41-21 ATS over the last decade. Dallas gets all the publicity in this one but let’s not forget the Giants made the playoffs last season and won a game @ 13-4 Minnesota in the Wild Card round. We really like NYG head coach Daboll and now they are in their 2nd year under him so we look for an improved team in 2023. We’re hearing QB Daniel Jones played outstanding in camp and has a great grasp of the offense in his 2nd season under OC Kafka and Daboll. Dallas was 8-1 at home last season but only 4-4 on the road. QB Dak Prescott didn’t play in the pre-season which we feel is a negative for the offense in game 1 and he led the NFL in interceptions last year despite missing 5 games. He also loses his offensive coordinator Moore who is now with the Chargers and HC Mike McCarthy will call plays which we think is a negative. The Giants defensive line is one of the best in the NFL and we look for an improved secondary with some additions through free agency and the draft. Dallas won both games last season but both were tight 1 score games and we really expect NYG to be drastically improved. This line tells us Dallas is 6 points better on a neutral and if this was in Dallas be laying almost 10 – No way – we’re not so sure NYG won’t be the better team this season. Take the points. | |||||||
09-09-23 | Wisconsin v. Washington State OVER 57.5 | Top | 22-31 | Loss | -110 | 18 h 47 m | Show |
#325/326 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 57.5 Points – Wisconsin vs Washington State, Saturday at 7:30 PM ET - These 2 met last year and Wazzou won 17-14 in a lower scoring game but the script flips this weekend in Pullman. Last year the Badgers offense was fairly pedestrian ranking 74th nationally in scoring (25 PPG) and 89th in total offense (357 YPG) yet still put up over 400 yards on this Cougar defense. Multiple mistakes (3 turnover & 11 penalties) kept their scoring output much lower than it should have been. Last week, under new OC Longo who came over for UNC, the Badgers rolled up 38 points (dropped TD pass would have made it 45) and over 500 yards vs a Buffalo team that had a winning record last year and won their bowl game. Wisconsin also is a much more up tempo team this year under Longo and they ran 71 snaps last week. Their defense, as we suspected, looks like they’ve taken a step back. They lost their top 2 pass rushers and they weren’t able to put any pressure on Buffalo QB Snyder with 0 sacks on the day. This week they face a very accomplished passer in Cam Ward (451 yards passing last week) and he is very elusive. If UW couldn’t get any pressure at home vs a MAC team, we doubt they bother Ward much this week. Wazzou has a new OC Arbuckle who came over from Western Kentucky, one of the fastest paced teams in college football last year. They showed last week that’s the way they will play this year as well with 87 offensive snaps, 3rd most of any team last weekend, in a 50-24 win over Colorado State. Defensively Washington State allowed a CSU team, that averaged 13 PPG last season (127th nationally) to put up 24 points last Saturday. Both defenses are facing much tougher situations this week and we’re not sure either will be able to stop the other’s offense. We like Over the total here. | |||||||
09-09-23 | Texas State v. UTSA -13.5 | Top | 13-20 | Loss | -110 | 14 h 50 m | Show |
#342 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* UTSA -13.5 over Texas State, Saturday at 3:30 PM ET - This one sets up very nicely for the home team. Texas State is in prime letdown area coming off a huge upset @ Baylor as 28 point dogs. Baylor outgained Texas State 524 to 441 but also had 9 penalties. Coming into the season Texas State had 71 new players (2nd most in the nation) and a new coach (Kinne) who came over from Incarnate Word (FCS school). They played well last Saturday but also picked up a number of breaks and they are still learning a new system on both sides of the ball. They are taking on a veteran UTSA coming off a 17-14 loss @ Houston as a 2 point road favorite. The Roadrunners drastically outplayed Houston averaging 5.9 YPP to just 4.6 for the Cougars but had 3 turnovers (0 for Houston) which was the difference in the game. UTSA dominated in the trenches with 208 yards rushing on 5.9 YPC while holding Houston to only 101 yards rushing on 2.7 YPC. UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor was not happy after the loss. “We didn’t play winning football,” said Traylor. “Two-thirds of the triangle we did. We held them to 100 yards rushing. We were physical. I’m proud of that. Offensively, we rushed for over 200 yards. You can tell we can impose our will with our three running backs. Our passing game was not very clean. Obviously, three turnovers are hard to overcome.” Now we get a veteran UTSA team with 15 starters back after finishing with an 11-3 record last year, at home after a loss they should have won. Roadrunner Senior QB Harris (4 year starter) has been fabulous with nearly 10,000 yards passing and 76 TD’s and he’s coming off one of his worst games in recent memory (3 interceptions). You can bet he’ll play much better against this Texas State defense that allowed over 500 yards on 7.0 YPP last week. Meanwhile, we don’t anticipate the Texas State offense having anywhere near the amount of success they had last week facing a UTSA defense that held a potent Houston offense to 4.6 YPP last week. Teams coming off an outright win as a dog of 20 or more points have only covered 44% of the time the following week (Texas State). This line is too low in our opinion based on last week’s deceiving results so we’ll lay the points with UTSA. | |||||||
09-07-23 | Lions v. Chiefs UNDER 54 | Top | 21-20 | Win | 100 | 20 h 10 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* under 54 Detroit Lions at Kansas City Chiefs, Thursday 8:20 PM ET - The NFL debuts Thursday night with the Lions taking on the Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium. The Lions surprised many fans and teams last year but won’t sneak up on anyone this year. Detroit made a huge jump offensively last season going from 19.1PPG in 2021 to 26.6PPG in 2022 so expect a regression this year against a tougher schedule. Gone from last year's roster are running backs Jamaal Williams (over 1,000-yds rushing) and D’Andre Swift who accounted for 23 combined rushing TD’s. The Lions gave up 25.1PPG but should be improved defensively with added personnel on the D-line and in the defensive backfield. Detroit was much better defensively in the second half of the season allowing just 20.2PPG in their last ten games. Of course, KC is one of the very best offenses in the NFL and has averaged over 29PPG the past two seasons. In their first twelve games last season they scored 27 or less points seven times. Defensively, the Chiefs were 9th in Yards Per Play defense in 2022 at 5.2 per and gave up 22.2PPG (18th). In watching the betting markets on this Total we see a key sharp Book offering a lower number than most of the public shops. That tells us the heavies are on the Under. | |||||||
09-03-23 | Oregon State -16 v. San Jose State | Top | 42-17 | Win | 100 | 38 h 19 m | Show |
#233 ASA PLAY ON Oregon State (-) over San Jose State, Sunday at 3:30 PM ET - SJSU has one game under their belts getting whipped by USC last week 56-28. The Spartan defense gave up over 500 total yards and forced USC to punt only twice in the game. San Jose did put up a solid 28 points on a USC defense that looks to be weak again this season. Last year the Trojans finished outside the top 100 in total defense which is head coach Lincoln Riley’s MO – great offense, bad defense. This week will be much more difficult as the Spartans face an undervalued Oregon State team that had the top defense in the Pac 12 last year allowing 338 YPG. Offensively, the Beavers should have big time success, similar to what USC did last season. This offense is underrated in our opinion. They averaged 29 PPG last season but we expect that to jump to closer to 40 PPG this season. QB DJ Uiagalelei who was the starter at Clemson the last 2 seasons, will be under center. Word from Corvallis is he has looked fantastic leading up to this one. He’ll operate behind a very experienced offensive line that we rate as one of the best in the country. The rushing attack averaged right around 200 YPG last year and with their 3 headed monster in the backfield (Martinez, Newell, and Fenwick) behind that offensive line we look for this to be one of the top rushing teams in the nation. Many might think that because SJSU played last week they have the advantage. That simply isn’t the case. In fact, it’s the reverse. OSU now has game film to prepare for this game while San Jose does not. Since 2005, teams playing for the first time in a season facing a team that played the previous week are 56-33 ATS (63%). We feel that OSU will be able to move the ball on the Spartans nearly as well as USC did last week, however SJSU won’t have the luxury of facing a bad defense this week. Lay it. | |||||||
08-31-23 | Nebraska +7 v. Minnesota | Top | 10-13 | Win | 100 | 41 h 3 m | Show |
#145 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Nebraska +7 over Minnesota, Thursday at 8 PM ET - The Huskers start a new regime with former Temple, Baylor, and Carolina Panther coach Matt Rhule at the helm. He turned around the Temple and Baylor programs and we have no doubt he’ll get Nebraska headed in the right direction. Unlike his first year stops with the Owls and Bears, he has some solid talent here at Nebraska. It’s not total rebuild as the others were. The offensive line is experienced with 120 career starts which is 2nd only to Michigan in the Big 10. New QB Sims has started for 3 years @ Georgia Tech prior to this season and has 4500 passing yards, 1200 rushing yards, and 41 TD’s to his credit. He has a big experience edge over new Gopher QB Kaliakmanis who started some games last year for an injured Tanner Morgan but completed only 54% of his passes and threw more interceptions than TD’s. Minnesota has relied heavily on their running game but lost the schools all time leading rusher Ibrahim to the NFL and his back up Potts transferred to Penn State. The Minny O Line ranks 108th nationally in returning starts to they have some inexperience up front as well. The Gophs defense was very good last season but lost 7 of their top 11 tacklers and we think that Nebraska can keep them guessing with this new offense Rhule brings. With Scott Frost at the helm, the Huskers found ways to lose games whether it was poor special teams play, turnovers, etc… They were close to being decent to say the least with 13 of their 17 losses the last 2 seasons coming by one score or fewer (8 points or less). This series has seen 3 games in a row decided by 7 exactly points and we think Rhule will clean some things up and they’ll play more efficiently. This is expected to be a low scoring game (43 is the total) and we like it to be a close one. Take the points here. | |||||||
08-26-23 | Hawaii v. Vanderbilt UNDER 56.5 | Top | 28-35 | Loss | -110 | 67 h 13 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* UNDER 56.5 Hawaii @ Vanderbilt – 7:30 PM ET - There will be some contrasting styles of play of display Saturday when the Rainbow Warriors take on the Commodores at Vanderbilt. Hawaii head coach Timmy Chang wants to play fast with his Run and Shoot offense as the Warriors averaged 72.2 plays per game a season ago which was 29th most. Even though the Warriors played fast, it didn’t translate to a lot of scoring. Hawaii was 124th in points per drive, 121st in Yards Per Point Scored at 18.3, 102nd in Red Zone Attempts per game at 2.9 and 103red in offensive TD’s per game. Hawaii also averaged just 4.9 Yards Per Play which ranked 98th in the nation. Hawaii returns 5 starters on that side of the football and even though they want to play fast, it will be tough sledding against a SEC defense. Hawaii had some terrible defense statistics a year ago allowing 34.7PPG but they also faced some top ranked offenses such as Western Kentucky, Michigan and Fresno State. Vanderbilt wants to run the football, dominate possession time, and grind down opponents. The Dores were 119th in pace of play a season ago and also struggled to put up points. Vanderbilt was 120th in points per drive, 79th in Yards Per Point scored at 14.8, 103rd in Red Zone Attempts per game and 86th in offensive TD’s per game at 2.6. Vandy averaged just 5.1 Yards Per Play last season. The Commodores gave up 36PPG last season but take a look at the gauntlet of offenses they faced: Wake Forest, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee who were all some of the highest scoring teams in college football. Last season when these two teams met, they combined for 73 total points. Vandy scored on a 87-yards rushing TD and had two fumble returns for touchdowns. Vanderbilt will again rely on their running game here as they did last season when they gouged the Warriors for over 400-rushing yards. | |||||||
02-12-23 | Chiefs v. Eagles UNDER 51 | Top | 38-35 | Loss | -110 | 245 h 13 m | Show |
ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 51 Points – Philadelphia Eagles vs Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday @ 6:30 ET - Our power ratings have this total set at 49 so, in our opinion, we’re getting a few points of value on the Under. Neither QB is 100% healthy with Mahomes high ankle sprain which should be better but will continue to limit his mobility and Hurts shoulder injury which has really prevented him from being accurate throwing downfield. Both defenses match up very well vs the opposing offenses strengths. The Eagles rank #1 in the NFL in overall pass defense and they had 15 more sacks than any other team in the NFL this season. The pressure will be a problem for Mahomes who won’t have his usual mobility due to his ankle injury. The Philadelphia defense has been stout all season ranking 2nd in total defense while allowing just 20 PPG. On the other side, the Eagles run the ball almost 51% of the time (4th most in the NFL) and KC’s strength on defense is stopping the run. The Chiefs rank 8th in the NFL allowing just 107 YPG rushing and their defense as a whole has improved dramatically over the 2nd half of the season. On October 31st the Chiefs overall defense ranked 26th allowing 370 YPG. They now rank 10th in the NFL giving up just 328 yards per game and have allowed an average of just 304 total yards per game and only 4.8 yards per play since November 1st. Last week they held a potent Cincinnati offense to 309 total yards on 4.8 yards per play. So while Philly’s defense has been a strength all year, KC’s has been one of the best in the NFL the 2nd half of the season. KC has played 19 games this season with just 6 of those topping 51 total points (in regulation). Philadelphia has also played 19 games this season and only 5 of those games have topped 51 total points. Thus, of the 38 combined games these 2 have played, only 11 have topped 51 total points. An interesting underlying situation in this Super Bowl is the officiating. Carl Cheffers team will be officiating this game and they have called more penalties than any other crew in the NFL each of the past 2 seasons. Cheffers has been the head referee for 12 playoff games since 2010 and 11 of those 12 games have stayed Under the Total by an average of 13 PPG. He reffed the Cincinnati vs Buffalo playoff game a few weeks ago which stayed Under the total by 11 points. Historically, there have been 55 Super Bowls and 13 of those have had totals set in the 50’s. 9 of those 13 games have stayed Under the Total. More recently, since 2000, there have been 8 Super Bowls with the total set at 50 points or higher and 7 of those games have stayed Under the Total. The last 4 Super Bowls have stayed Under the total and we’re projecting this one will do the same. | |||||||
01-29-23 | Bengals +2 v. Chiefs | Top | 20-23 | Loss | -110 | 41 h 12 m | Show |
#323 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Cincinnati Bengals +1.5 over Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday at 6:30 PM ET - This line opened low at KC -2 due to the injury to Mahomes. It has since moved to the Bengals as a favorite and now back to KC -1.5 with the anticipation that Mahomes will play. He will, but we can’t imagine he’ll be even close to 100% based on the history of high ankle sprains and time needed to heal. He needs to be at the top of his game for the Chiefs to have a chance here and with his mobility severely limited they just aren’t the same team. Cincinnati has already beaten the Chiefs 3 times in the last 13 months and that was with Mahomes at 100%. Cincy outgained KC by 130 yards combined in those 3 games and QB Burrow has ripped apart this defense in those games with a 72% completion percentage of almost 1,000 yards and 8 TD’s. In their lone meeting this season, the Bengals defense held Mahomes to 16 completions, his lowest of the season. Last week the Bengals dominated both lines of scrimmage vs a team many thought was the best in the NFL. Cincy rolled up 172 yards rushing while holding Buffalo to 63 yards on the ground. Now they face a KC defense that allowed Jacksonville to rush for a whopping 7.6 YPC last weekend. After their 98 yard TD drive right after Mahomes was injured, the Chiefs only gained 153 total yards from that point on with their QB hobbled. Jacksonville gained 260 yards from that point on but had a few key turnovers including a fumble at the KC 3 yard line. The fact it, once Mahomes was far less than 100%, the Jags outplayed the Chiefs and KC was fortunate to win. This week Kansas City plays a better opponent but will almost assuredly be in the same situation offensively with Mahomes hobbled. Cincy, on the other hand, was firing on all cylinders last week offensively and should be able to do the same this week vs a KC defense that is not as good as the Buffalo defense they shredded for 412 yards last weekend. Cincinnati is the 2nd best spread team in the NFL this year with a 13-4-1 ATS mark. KC is the 2nd worst spread team in the league this year with a 5-12-1 ATS record. With both teams at full strength we felt the Bengals had a solid shot at the upset and now with the situation we have, we feel it will be very difficult for Kansas City to win this game. Cincinnati heads back to the Super Bowl. | |||||||
01-29-23 | 49ers v. Eagles -2.5 | Top | 7-31 | Win | 100 | 37 h 22 m | Show |
#322 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Philadelphia Eagles -2.5 over San Francisco, Sunday at 3 PM ET - We weren’t overly impressed with San Fran last week in their 19-12 win over Dallas. We felt the Cowboys absolutely outplayed the host Niners for the first 3 quarters before running out of gas late in the game. That wasn’t surprising as Dallas was playing their 4th straight week on the road and the overall numbers for those teams aren’t good, especially late in the game. That game was tied 9-9 entering the 4th quarter and Dallas had outgained San Francisco 219 to 147 when the Niners when on their long (and only) TD drive. The point is, they were at home last week playing an opponent in a very bad situational spot and struggled. That same opponent, the Cowboys, finished 2 games behind Philly in the NFC East. QB Purdy finally came back to earth a bit last week (219 yards pass and 0 TD’s) has he finally faced a defense with a pulse. In 5 of his 7 starts leading up to last weekend vs Dallas, he had faced defenses ranked 18th or lower. His 2 career road starts were both tight wins @ Seattle (won by 8) and @ Las Vegas (won in OT). Now he takes a HUGE step up in competition traveling to the east coast for his first ever playoff start facing the 2nd best defense in the NFL the Eagles who are also 1st in the league vs the pass. Philly, similar to the Dallas defense last week, is great at pressuring the QB with a league high 70 sacks this season, 15 more than anyone else in the NFL. We expect Purdy to struggle. Philly is 15-3 on the season but 2 of those losses came when QB Hurts was out with an injury. Thus, with him in the lineup, the Eagles are 15-1 and they dominated the Giants last week 38-7 outgaining NY by nearly 200 yards. They are also rested and healthy after having a bye the previous week. At home this year the Eagles have a winning margin of +11 PPG and a yardage margin of +105 YPG. They were 7-2 ATS in home games with Hurts as their starting QB. San Francisco was just 4-4 ATS on the road this season and they played only 1 road game this season vs a team that ended the year with a winning record, Seattle, and they barely made the cut with a 9-8 regular season record. We have these teams rated very close overall, however we like the home field edge and QB advantage here with Hurts, an MVP candidate, vs Purdy making his first road playoff start and first road start vs a high level team. Getting Philly under a FG at home is value in our opinion. | |||||||
01-22-23 | Cowboys v. 49ers OVER 46.5 | Top | 12-19 | Loss | -110 | 42 h 56 m | Show |
#317/318 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 46.5 Points – Dallas vs San Francisco, Sunday at 6:30 PM ET - We were on the Over 45.5 in the Tampa Bay vs Dallas game last week and the game landed on 45 for a very tough loss considering the circumstances. The game should have been much higher scoring with Dallas missing 4 XP’s along with Tampa throwing an interception in the endzone taking points off the board, and Tampa getting down to the Dallas 2 yard line (1st and goal from the 2) in the 2nd half and coming away with 0 points. Needless to say, that game should have gone Over the total. Now we are getting the total at nearly the same number but with a SF offense that has been much better all season when comparing them to the Tampa offense from last week. We like the value on the Over here. Dallas scored only 6 pts in their regular season finale vs Washington but prior to that they had averaged 36 PPG their previous 9 games and scored at least 27 in each of those games. Then last week they scored 31 on a very solid Tampa defense. The Cowboys and their opponents reached at least 48 total points in 7 of those 10 games and as we mentioned really should have been in the 50’s last week. The Dallas defense allowed 15 PPG over their first 7 games of the season and over the final 10 they allowed 24 PPG. They “held” Tampa to 14 points but as we stated the Bucs left a number of opportunities on the field. San Fran should have their way on offense on Sunday. Since Brock Purdy took over at QB back in early December, the Niners have averaged 35 PPG and been held under 30 points only ONCE in those 7 games. They have been held under 6.0 YPP only twice in those 7 games with Purdy under center. SF has gone Over the total in 6 of those 7 games and they’ve reached at least 50 total points in 5 of their last 7 games. The 49er defense has very good overall numbers, but they have allowed at least 20 points in 3 of their last 4 games with Arizona (with Blough & McSorley at QB) being the only team during that stretch that didn’t reach 20. SF has also played the 28th most difficult schedule of opposing offenses and they are now facing a Dallas offense that is playing as well as anyone in the NFL the 2nd half of the season. Both of these teams have the ability to reach the mid to upper 20’s or even push into the 30’s here with the total set in the mid 40’s it’s simply too low. | |||||||
01-21-23 | Jaguars v. Chiefs -8.5 | Top | 20-27 | Loss | -110 | 27 h 53 m | Show |
#302 ASA TOP PLAY ON Kansas City Chiefs -8.5 over Jacksonville Jaguars, Saturday at 4:30 PM ET - This is a tough spot for the Jags on the road after 2 must win, come from behind home wins the last 2 weeks. To end the regular season Jacksonville played a “win and in” game for the AFC South crown vs Tennessee and trailed in the 4th quarter before coming back to win 20-16. On top of that, the Jaguars were outgained by nearly 100 yards in that game vs a Tennessee offense with 3rd string QB Josh Dobbs under center. Last week we all watched them get down 27-0 and make a furious 2nd half comeback to beat the Chargers 31-30. What do they have left in the physical and emotional tank after those 2 dramatic wins? This team probably shouldn’t even be here at this point and now they must play a road game versus a KC team who is coming off a bye and is completely comfortable in this situation (playoff pressure) while Jacksonville is not. We do have one data point to look closely at as these teams met here in KC back in mid November. The Chiefs were favored by 10 in that game and won 27-17. It was actually a much more dominant performance by KC in that game. They outgained Jacksonville by +2.6 yards per play with KC averaging a massive 7.8 YPP while holding the Jags to 5.2 YPP. On top of that, the Chiefs were -3 turnovers in that game and still able to win by double digits. We expect the Kansas City offense to have their way in this game as they did in the first meeting averaging nearly 8 yards per play as we discussed. Jacksonville’s defense ranks 24th in total defense and 28th in pass defense and that’s facing the EASIEST schedule of offenses this season. Now they face the #1 offense in the NFL with 2 weeks to prepare and a QB Mahomes that is playing at the top of his game. Since Mahomes took over as the starting QB for KC, he has a record of 7-2 in home playoff games with those 7 wins coming by an average of 13.6 PPG. The Jags defense faced 7 teams this season which ended the year ranked in the top 15 in total offense. In those games Jacksonville allowed an average of 28 PPG. KC head coach Andy Reid has a remarkable 29-6 record in games with an added week of rest advantage (63% cover rate in those games) and in his 19 playoff wins, 15 have come by double digits. We like Kansas City to win this game by at least 10 points. | |||||||
01-16-23 | Cowboys v. Bucs OVER 45 | Top | 31-14 | Push | 0 | 66 h 2 m | Show |
#151/152 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 45.5 Points – Dallas Cowboys vs Tampa Bay Bucs, Monday at 8:15 PM ET - These are 2 of the fastest paced teams in the NFL with TB rank 1st in seconds per play and Dallas 4th so we should be plenty of offensive snaps in this game. Dallas scored only 6 pts last week vs Washington but prior to that they had averaged 36 PPG their previous 9 games and scored at least 27 in each of those games. The Cowboys and their opponents reached at least 48 total points in 7 of those 9 games. Both of these defenses were regressing as the season wore on. TB’s defense has allowed at least 24 points in 4 of their last 5 and the only team that didn’t reach 24 was Arizona with 3rd string QB McSorely starting. Besides their season opener vs Dallas, TB faced 3 other top 10 offenses this season and they allowed 34, 35, and 41 points in their other 3 vs top 10. In their first game vs Dallas they held the Boys to 3 points, however Dak was injured in that game and it was the first game of the season back in early September so not much can be taken from that in our opinion. Speaking of regression, the Dallas defense allowed 15 PPG over their first 7 games of the season and over the final 10 they allowed 24 PPG. The Tampa offense was hit or miss at times this season, however they played well down the stretch. In Brady’s last 6 quarters as QB they scored 47 points, 30 vs Carolina and then 17 in first half last week before the sat the starters. Weather will be cool in the 40’s but light winds and no precipitation. The projected final score based on the total is around Dallas 24, Tampa 21 and we think both teams will eclipse those numbers. Over is the play on Monday Night. | |||||||
01-15-23 | Giants v. Vikings OVER 48 | Top | 31-24 | Win | 100 | 39 h 32 m | Show |
#147/148 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 48 Points – NY Giants vs Minnesota Vikings, Sunday at 4:40 PM ET - These 2 met a few weeks ago and we were on the Over in that game as well. It cashed with Minnesota winning 27-24 and it took a big 4th quarter to get there. However, watch that game from start to finish, both teams had a number of chances well before that to put points on the board and did not. NY threw 2 interceptions in the endzone in that game and there were 4 punts from right around midfield which usually kill an over but they were still able to top 50 points despite that. Both teams moved the ball well on offense as they combined to average around 6.0 YPP. Minnesota has been an Over machine when playing at home this season. 7 of their 9 home games have gone Over the total. The Vikes average 27 PPG at home this season and that includes their one stinker on offense where they scored 3 points vs Dallas back in November. They put up at least 23 points in every other home game and their average total points scored at home this season was 52.3. The Giants only put up 16 points last week vs Philly (one of the top defenses in the NFL) however they sat pretty much everyone including starting QB Jones. Prior to that they had scored at least 20 points in 6 straight games and they are facing a Minnesota defense ranks 31st in total defense and the Giants averaged 7 YPP in their meeting a few weeks ago. The Giants defense also ranks nearly the bottom of the league at 25th in total defense. We have a feeling both teams will have to keep up offensively here as we don’t see either defense stopping their opponent. Take the Over. | |||||||
01-14-23 | Seahawks v. 49ers UNDER 42 | Top | 23-41 | Loss | -107 | 15 h 32 m | Show |
#141/142 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 42 Points – Seattle Seahawks vs San Francisco 49ers, Saturday at 4:30 PM ET - These 2 already met twice and both games totaled just 34 points. Seattle scored ONE offensive TD in 2 games vs SF this year – the other TD was a block FG returned for a TD. Seattle averaged just 4.8 YPP in the 2 meetings and had less than 500 yards total in the 2 games combined. SF QB Purdy has been successful but the pressure really ramps up now making his first NFL playoff start. The Niners already run the ball 7th most in the NFL (rushing play %) and will lean on that heavily after rushing for 189 and 170 yards in their 2 meetings vs Seattle. If SF gets a lead as we suspect, the rushing attack will eat clock. The Seattle defense has played better down the stretch holding 3 of last 4 opponents to 21 points or less – KC was only one who topped that with just 24 point. We also think the Seahawks defense has a hidden advantage here as well facing QB Purdy for the 2nd time in a month. They will be the only defense that will have seen Purdy more than once. Lastly the weather in San Francisco doesn’t look great on Saturday with rain and winds of 20+ MPG which will benefit the defenses in this game. These two division rivals know each other very well and that leads to a low scoring game on Saturday. | |||||||
01-09-23 | TCU v. Georgia -12.5 | Top | 7-65 | Win | 100 | 18 h 8 m | Show |
#288 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Georgia -12.5 over TCU, Monday at 7:30 PM ET - Georgia has been the best team in the country all season long and we like them to win by at least 2 TD’s in this game. The Bulldogs came from 2 TD’s down last week to beat Ohio State, however UGA dominated the stats outgaining the Buckeyes by almost a full 2.0 YPP. The UGA offense gained 533 yards on just 60 offensive snaps for an average of 8.9 YPP! They were only forced to punt twice in their 12 possessions, missed 2 FG’s, and threw an interception that led to a short OSU TD drive. We don’t see any reason they won’t move up and down the field on a TCU defense that allowed Michigan to gain 7.0 YPP last week and was rated lower than the Buckeyes defense. The Frogs were fortunate in the semi finals to say the least. They barely won a game where they had 2 pick 6’s and the Wolverines were held at the TCU 2 yard line (no points) and fumbled at the TCU 1 yard line (no points). In that situation, the Frogs should have cruised to a win but the game went to the wire. Their success on offense was on the ground averaging over 6 YPC with QB Duggan completing less than 50% of his passes. We don’t think that’ll happen here vs Georgia who ranks #1 in the nation in rush defense allowing 77 YPG on only 3.0 YPC. UGA has a big edge defensively allowing almost 100 YPG fewer than TCU and their offense just put up nearly 9 YPP on a team that has a better defense than the Frogs as we discussed above. Surprisingly, 5 of the 8 National Championship games have been decided by double digits. The last 4 were all blowouts with an average margin of 22 points. We see another potential lopsided score here and we’ll lay it as long as it’s under 2 TD’s. | |||||||
01-08-23 | Lions v. Packers UNDER 49 | Top | 20-16 | Win | 100 | 29 h 39 m | Show |
ASA Top Play on 10* UNDER 49.5 Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers, 8:15 PM ET - It’s been a while since these two division rivals played a meaningful game this late in the season. Basically, both teams need to win to get in. The Lions could potentially be eliminated if Seattle wins earlier in the day, but the Lions have stated this will be an important game for them either way. These two teams are nearly mirror images when it comes to basic offensive and defensive statistics. They both will want to establish the running game as the Lions rank 11th in the league in RYPG at 129.7, the Packers are 13th at 125.6RYPG. Both defenses really struggle to stop the run with the Lions giving up 149YPG (29th worst), while the Packers are not much better at 26th allowing 141YPG. Both defenses allow over 5.0 yards per carry which is significantly more than the league average of 4.5-yards per rush. The Lions have put up some big scores in 3 of their last four games but the Bears, Panthers and Vikings rank 32nd, 22nd and 31st in points allowed per game. Green Bay gives up on average 21.9PPG. The Packers put up 41-points last week against the Vikings but 14-points came via a 100-yards kickoff return and a 75-yards interception. During their 4-game winning streak the Packers have not put up huge offensive numbers averaging 328YPG which is well below league average. Green Bay is the slowest paced team in the NFL as they run 1 play per every 30.12 seconds. Detroit is fast paced but with both teams focused on running the football the possessions will be down for both. | |||||||
01-08-23 | Patriots +7.5 v. Bills | Top | 23-35 | Loss | -110 | 21 h 22 m | Show |
#477 ASA PLAY ON 10* New England Patriots +7.5 over Buffalo Bills, Sunday at 1 PM ET - We are writing this up on Friday and the line is +7 at most places. We would suggest you play this one now as we wouldn’t be surprised if this line dips below a TD on Sunday depending on what happens on Saturday. With the cancellation of the Buffalo – Cincinnati game, if KC wins here they have the #1 seed. In that case, the Bills may actually rest some players to get ready for the playoffs which would send this line down. New England needs to win to make the playoffs. Win and they’re in. Preparation wise, the Patriots have a big advantage here. They’ve been getting ready for this game with one of the best prep coaches of all time, Bill Belichick, while Buffalo’s week has been thrown into chaos after the Damar Hamlin incident on Monday night. The Bills have been doing walk throughs only this week and some of their players stayed in Cincinnati this week to be with Hamlin which is completely understandable. The Bills are already in the playoffs obviously and we can’t imagine what their mind set might be for this game. The road team in this AFC East rivalry has been money with a 20-7-2 ATS record the last 29 meetings. We’re not enamored with the way the Pats are playing right now, but getting a TD in this situation with one of the better defenses in the NFL (allowing 5 YPP – 4th in the NFL) is the way we’ll go. | |||||||
01-07-23 | Chiefs v. Raiders +9.5 | Top | 31-13 | Loss | -114 | 27 h 58 m | Show |
#466 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Las Vegas Raiders +9.5 over Kansas City Chiefs, Saturday at 4:30 PM ET - While the Chiefs are winning, they are vastly underperforming when it comes to the point spread. They are 4-11-1 ATS on the season and over their last 9 games KC is 1-7-1 ATS. They are tied with Tampa for the worst ATS record in the NFL this season. If we throw out their week one domination of what we have found out is a bad Arizona team, KC has a PPG margin of just +5.7 over their last 15 games. Over their last 10 games when they were fighting for the AFC West crown and pushing for the #1 seed, they haven’t been all that impressive even vs lower tier teams. During that stretch they won @ Houston in OT, beat Denver by 6 & 3 points, and beat a floundering Tennessee team by 3 in OT. The Raiders are still playing hard and playing fairly well winning 4 of their last 7 games. Their losses during that stretch have come by 1, 3, and 3 points. They’ve only lost 1 game this season by double digits and nearly knocked off KC on the road this season losing 30-29 and outgained the Chiefs by 10 yards. Las Vegas was +7.5 in that game @ KC and now we’re getting a higher number with them at home because KC is in a perceived “must win” spot which we talk about below. Last week QB Stidham played outstanding and the Raiders offense outgained the red hot 49ers while averaging 7.6 YPP on the best defense in the league despite their 3 point loss in OT. Chiefs need to win to keep pushing for the potential #1 seed, however they’ve been in that spot for awhile now and struggled with teams far worse than Las Vegas as we mentioned. The Raiders would like nothing better than to knock off the big boy in the AFC West to end their season. We expect a great effort from LV in what should be a very tight game. Take the points. | |||||||
01-02-23 | Utah v. Penn State OVER 53 | Top | 21-35 | Win | 100 | 15 h 9 m | Show |
#283/284 ASA TOP PLAY ON Over 53 Points – Penn State vs Utah, Monday at 5 PM ET - Both of these offenses are capable of putting up big points. Utah averages 40 PPG while PSU averages 35 PPG on the season. The Utes put up at least 30 points in 10 of their 13 games this season and PSU scored at least 30 in 10 of their 12 games. Both defenses had very good overall seasonal numbers, however those were bolstered by facing a number of weak offenses. Utah was involved in 6 games this season vs top 35 offenses. In those games the Utes defense allowed an average of 30 PPG in those games. PSU has faced 2 offenses ranked in the top 35 (OSU & Michigan) and they allowed 44 & 41 points in those 2 games. Both offenses are ranked in the top 35 nationally for comparison’s sake. Both are also very balanced and tough to defend as neither are one dimensional. Two of the top cover corners in CFB will be missing in this game with Porter opting out for PSU and Phillips for Utah. That should absolutely help both passing attacks in this one. We have 2 experienced, high level QB’s competing and both dual threat which will make it tough on the opposing defenses. Utah’s QB Rising has thrown for 5,500 yards & 45 TD’s while rushing for 900 yards in his career. PSU’s Clifford has thrown for over 10,000 yards in his career with 84 TD’s while rushing for more than 1,000 yards. The weather was originally looking slightly rainy but the new forecast as of Sunday says light winds (less than 5 MPH) with rain holding off until late in the game if it rains at all. 53 total points is too low and we’ll take the Over. | |||||||
01-01-23 | Colts v. Giants -5.5 | Top | 10-38 | Win | 100 | 11 h 28 m | Show |
#122 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* NY Giants -5.5 vs Indianapolis Colts, Sunday at 1 PM ET - Hindsight is 20/20 of course but one team we looked long and hard at playing against last week was the Colts. They have a lame duck head coach in Jeff Saturday, they have a revolving door at quarterback and were so desperate they played Nick Foles last week against the Chargers. Foles was 17/29 for 143 yards and 3 INT’s. There is a very good chance this team has tanked it for the season in an effort to nab a QB early in the draft next season. The Colts have lost 5 straight games and have THE worst road differential in the NFL at minus -10.8PPG. The Giants on the other hand are fighting for their playoff lives and need to win this home game. New York has faced a tough gauntlet of games in recent weeks and steps way down in talent here. The Colts weakness defensively is their rush D which allows 122.2 rushing yards per game which is 20th in the NFL. The Giants average 144.9 rushing yards per game which is 6th best. This Colts offense ranks near the bottom of the league in nearly every key statistical category including total yards per game gained and scoring as they average just 16.5PPG. New York will bounce back here off that disappointing loss to the Vikings in which they outgained the Vikings by +92 yards but ended up losing late. Indianapolis lays down here in an ugly loss. | |||||||
01-01-23 | Bears v. Lions -6 | Top | 10-41 | Win | 100 | 11 h 15 m | Show |
#116 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Detroit Lions -6 over Chicago Bears, Sunday at 1 PM ET - The Lions are fighting for a playoff spot and we expect them to play well at home on Sunday. They are coming off an embarrassing effort last week getting trounced @ Carolina in their 2nd consecutive road game after winning @ NYJ a week earlier. This Detroit offense has been fantastic at home averaging 32 PPG and should have their way vs a Chicago defense that has allowed an average of 33 PPG over their last 8. The Lions have averaged 3.15 points per possession at home which is the best rate in the NFL. The Bears offense hit their stride from late October to late November but they’ve hit a wall over the last month. They have not topped 20 points in any of their last 4 games and they are averaging just 15 PPG during that stretch. They’re going to have to do a lot better than that here to stay in this game. Chicago has been outscored by 84 points since week 8 which is the worst point differential in the NFL over that time span. Chicago has nothing to play for and they’ve lost 8 straight so it looks like they’ve thrown in the towel. Especially over the last 4 weeks when their offense has gone in the tank. Detroit defense prior to last week’s loss @ Carolina had really started to play well holding 5 straight opponents below their scoring average. We like the Lions to win this one by at least a TD. We don’t think Chicago will be able to keep up. | |||||||
12-31-22 | TCU v. Michigan -7.5 | Top | 51-45 | Loss | -110 | 14 h 16 m | Show |
#276 ASA TOP PLAY ON Michigan -7.5 over TCU, Saturday at 4 PM ET - Michigan was in the College FB Playoff last year and got thumped 34-11 by UGA & they were down 27-3 at half. The players admitted last year they had a bit of a “just happy to be here” mentality as the Wolverines weren’t expected to be that good coming off a losing season the year prior. This year they are saying all the right things and completely focused on atoning for that loss and comfortable being where they are as they expected it. TCU is potentially this year’s Michigan so to speak. Their odds were 200 to 1 to win the National Championship prior to the season and the Frogs had a brand new coaching staff. No way they expected to be here and none of their coaches or players have ever been in this situation. Advantage Michigan in that regard. On top of that, TCU was a team that was behind or tied at half 5 times this season and trailed 5 times in the 4th quarter and had to make comebacks. They needed a number of breaks just to get here. Michigan, on the other hand, only trailed once in the 4th quarter this year (by 4 points early in the 4th vs Illinois) and they have the #1 PPG differential in college football with an average final score of 40-13. They are also in the top 4 in YPP and YPG differential and TCU ranks 13th and 24th in those 2 stats. The Wolverines 3rd ranked defense will be the best the Frogs have faced. In fact, TCU faced SEVEN defenses ranked outside the top 95 this season and the average ranking of the defenses they faced this year was 88th. On the other side, TCU’s defense is ranked 74th nationally and they are facing a balanced Michigan offense that runs and passes for 200+ yards and averages 40 PPG. We like Michigan’s experience here not to mention they are the better team. Lay it. | |||||||
12-30-22 | Pittsburgh v. UCLA -7.5 | Top | 37-35 | Loss | -105 | 24 h 38 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* UCLA -7.5 vs Pittsburgh, Friday 2 PM ET - Pittsburgh closed the season on a nice 4-0 SU streak, but it came against some weak competition. In fact, the Panther are 8-4 on the season but only 2 of those wins came against teams with above .500 records. Excluding Rhode Island, the teams Pitt beat this season have a combined 36-45 SU record. The Panthers have some solid defensive numbers, but again a soft ACC schedule has a lot to do with that. Pitt has not faced an offense like UCLA’s (3rd YPG) this season. In fact, the closest offense they faced this year would be North Carolina (17th total YPG) and they lost that game by 18-points. UCLA ranked 3rd in college football this season in yards per game gained at 510, 38th in passing YPG, 4th in rushing as they pounded 246RYPG to average 39.6PPG (10th). The Bruins offense put up a gaudy 6.8 yards per play which was 7th best in the nation. At first glance, it seems the Bruins defense struggled this season but let’s not forget the Pac 12 had 5 offenses that ranked 18th or higher in total YPG gained. The big player news for both teams clearly favors the Bruins as QB Thompson-Robinson, RB Charbonnet (4th in the nation in rushing yards) and WR Allen are all expected to play. Pittsburgh will be without QB Slovis, RB Abanikanda and defensive tackle Kancey, all three key players to this Panther roster. UCLA is looking to win 10-games for the first time since 2013 and should get a convincing win here against an overrated Pitt team. | |||||||
12-29-22 | Oklahoma v. Florida State -9.5 | Top | 32-35 | Loss | -110 | 18 h 32 m | Show |
#256 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Florida State -9.5 over Oklahoma, Thursday at 5:30 PM ET - We know FSU is extremely happy to be in this bowl game having not played in the post-season since the 2019 season and not won a bowl game since the 2017 season. This game is in Orlando as well which will give FSU a solid home field (crowd) advantage. The Noles have some serious momentum winning 5 straight to end the season and their star QB Travis has stated he will be back next season. FSU was among the best teams in the country this season and their +2.2 YPP differential and +170 YPG differential was very impressive. It could be argued they are better than their 9-3 record as they outplayed 2 of their opponents in tight losses outgaining Clemson by 90 yards (lost by 6) and NC State by 80 yards (lost by 2). The Noles haven’t lost a game since mid October. Oklahoma had a very disappointing season. They were expected to be the top team in the Big 12 and contend for a spot in the Final 4. None of that came close to happening and they finished the regular season with a 6-6 record. While FSU is motivated in this game, we’re not so sure the Sooners will bring their “A” game here. This program is used to being in much bigger bowl games and this is a big step down for them. They will have to play this game without their All American RB Gray (1400 yards rushing) and both starting OT’s have left the program. When they faced a bowl team this year, OU was 1-4-1 ATS and outgained by 40 YPG. When they played against the top 3 teams in the Big 12 (only 3 teams rated in final playoff rankings), they lost all 3 by an average score of 48-19 and they were outgained by a combined 660 yards in those losses. We like FSU by double digits. | |||||||
12-28-22 | Kansas +3 v. Arkansas | Top | 53-55 | Win | 100 | 90 h 24 m | Show |
#247 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Kansas +3 over Arkansas, Wednesday at 5:30 PM ET - Love this spot for KU. First of all, they are thrilled to be here in the Liberty Bowl having not played in a bowl game since 2008. Arkansas we’re not so sure. We take that back, we’re actually pretty positive they aren’t overly excited about this bowl game. That’s because they finished 9-4 last year, won their January 1st bowl vs Penn State, and had very high aspirations coming into this season. A 6-6 season and a bid to the Liberty Bowl is not what they expected. The Razors have had as many defections as any team in college football which speaks to their probable lack of excitement for this game. All together, players who started a combined 95 games — 50 on offense and 45 on defense — for the Razorbacks will not play against Kansas. That is more than one-third of their total starts on both sides of the ball. The Razorbacks who won’t play against Kansas accounted for 3,410 offensive snaps (34.3% of all snaps), 2,583 defensive snaps (26.0%) and 787 special teams snaps (19.3%) according to Pro Football Focus. Not only is the motivation factor heavily in favor of the Jayhawks, their stats for the season were simply better as well. KU had a +1.2 YPP differential while Arkansas was -0.2 and believe it or not, according to the Sagarin ratings, Kansas actually played the tougher strength of schedule (4th vs 23rd). Jayhawk starting QB Daniels missed 5 games this season and they were 1-4 in those games. In the games where he started and played to the end, KU was 5-2. He’s back and healthy for this one which should be a big boost to the offense and they are facing an Arkansas defense that finished the season ranked 123rd nationally. Kansas had their struggles on defense as well, however with Arkansas missing a multitude of weapons, including 3 starting WR’s and TE, we’re not sure they can take complete advantage in this one. Jayhawk HC Leipold was an absolute fantastic post-season coach at the D3 level leading UW Whitewater to a ridiculous 6 National Championships. When he took over a downtrodden Buffalo program, he led them to 3 bowls (2-1 record) winning his last 2 by a combined score of 48-19. He’ll have this team more than ready to go on Wednesday. We like Kansas to win this game outright and getting +3 is a bonus cushion. | |||||||
12-27-22 | Oklahoma State v. Wisconsin UNDER 43 | Top | 17-24 | Win | 100 | 72 h 36 m | Show |
#243/244 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 43 Points – Oklahoma State vs Wisconsin, Tuesday at 10:15 PM ET - Lots of uncertainty in this game with tons of opt outs and transfer portal situations for each team. We do know this, neither starting QB will take the field and their back ups aren’t great. Wisconsin will most likely split time between senior Chase Wolf who has thrown 31 career passes and freshman Myles Burkett who played briefly in 2 games this season attempting 5 total passes. The Badgers will rely heavily on their running game, as per usual, and their top RB Allen is still banged up. Oklahoma State will go with either Gunnar Gundy or Garret Rangel who combined to complete barely 50% of their passes with more interceptions than TD’s this season when in relief of starter Spencer Sanders who is out here. When Gundy was in the game vs Big 12 opponents OSU ran 54 total plays for 177 yards (3.2 YPP) and scored 10 points. Rangel started and finished 2 Big 12 games and OSU averaged 17.5 PPG (both losses) in those 2 games vs Kansas & WVU who both rank outside the top 100 in total defense. Now they are facing a Wisconsin team that is always good defensively and will be playing with a little extra motivation as their DC Jim Leonhard will be coaching his final game for the Badgers. OSU scored 19 points or less in 4 of their last 5 games and will struggle vs a Wisconsin defense ranked 13th nationally. The Badgers put up 16 points or fewer in each of their last 3 games and that was with starting QB Mertz in the line up. The Cowboy defense struggled early but played better down the stretch leading to 5 straight unders to close out the regular season. Their overall numbers aren’t great defensively, however they were facing high powered Big 12 attacks week in and week out and this Wisconsin team is nowhere near that especially at the QB position. We expect both offenses to struggle and we’ll take the Under. | |||||||
12-26-22 | Chargers -4 v. Colts | Top | 20-3 | Win | 100 | 46 h 35 m | Show |
#481 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* LA Chargers -4 over Indianapolis Colts, Monday at 8:15 PM ET - Indianapolis has to be mentally shot coming into this game. After blowing their 33 point lead last week @ Minnesota (Led 33-0 at half and LOST) they are officially out of the playoff race. They also lost RB Taylor for the season in that game and will not now be starting Nick Foles at QB, their 3rd different starter this season. He has not taken a snap in a game this season. Not much to play for here and we wouldn’t expect a high level effort here from a team that has massively underachieved this season. Since beating Las Vegas in interim head coach Jeff Saturday’s debut, the Colts have lost 4 straight getting outgained in each game. Their defense has allowed 117 points in the last 3 games (39 PPG) and the Indy offense had been held under 20 points in 6 of their last 8 games. Even their offensive “breakout” last week vs the worst defense in the NFL (Minnesota) was aided by 2 non offensive TD’s so the offense really only scored 17 points. The Colts have scored a touchdown on 12.7% of their drives, tied with the Broncos for the lowest rate in the league. The Chargers are starting to play well winning 3 of their last 4 games. They are on the verge of clinching a playoff spot and a win here, plus a few other things that need to happen, could take care of that. The last 2 weeks LA has topped Miami & Tennessee outgaining those 2 by a combined 400 yards. The Chargers are getting healthy on both sides of the ball and we have a HUGE edge at QB here with Herbert vs Foles. Lay it. | |||||||
12-25-22 | Broncos -2.5 v. Rams | Top | 14-51 | Loss | -120 | 18 h 5 m | Show |
#477 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Denver Broncos -3 over LA Rams, Sunday at 4 PM ET - Denver has started playing much better in recent weeks covering 3 straight. Their offense has scored 52 points the last 2 weeks combined which is more than they put up the previous 4 weeks combined. In their last 3 games they led the entire way @ Baltimore before a Raven’s FG with under 1 minute remaining gave them a 1 point win, they lost by 6 at home vs KC and had the ball in Chiefs territory late with a chance to win, and then last week they beat Arizona 24-15. Since week 10, this Denver offense has scored TD’s on 80% of their red zone drives which is 1st in the NFL. Their defense remains very good ranking 4th in both total defense and YPP allowed. While the Bronco’s offense is starting to peak, LA’s offense continues to stink. They rank dead last in the NFL in total offense, YPP, and 31st in scoring at 16 PPG. Last week vs Green Bay the Rams tallied 156 TOTAL yards on 3.6 YPP and put up 12 points. QB Baker Mayfield was terrible completing just 12 total pass for barely 100 yards. A week earlier LA had 3 points vs a bad Raider defense with less than 4:00 minutes remaining in the game before scoring 2 late TD’s for 17 total points. Now they face one of the top defenses in the NFL and we just don’t see much offense for LA. Mayfield has been bad all year completing under 60% of his passes and ranking right at the bottom of the league in QBR. LA has very little to NO home field advantage and with this game being on Christmas Day we suspect that it will be even less. Russell Wilson is back under center and while he’s had a disappointing season, his 2 highest QBR ratings were his last 2 games so he’s trending up along with the Denver offense. We like Denver to win this game by more than a FG. | |||||||
12-24-22 | Commanders v. 49ers UNDER 37.5 | Top | 20-37 | Loss | -110 | 20 h 16 m | Show |
#469/470 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 37.5 Points – Washington Commanders vs San Francisco 49ers, Saturday at 4 PM ET - Defenses should control this one with 2 of the top stop units in the NFL facing off. San Francisco ranks #1 in total defense while Washington ranks 3rd in that category. They are both in the top 10 in YPP allowed and PPG allowed. These 2 defenses have been even more proficient as of late with SF ranking 1st in the NFL since week 11 allowing opponents just 0.87 points per drive and Washington ranking 2nd in that stat allowing only 1.27 points per drive. The Commanders have not allowed more than 21 points in any of their last 10 games and SF has held 7 straight opponents to 17 points or fewer. Offensively Washington struggles to say the least. The rank 26th in YPP gained and 25th in scoring at 18.9 PPG. That’s despite playing the 30th toughest defensive schedule this season. In 5 of their last 6 games the Commanders have faced defenses ranked 26th, 27th (twice), 31st, and 32nd and in those 5 games they’ve averaged 18 PPG. Now they face the best defense in the NFL and we expect very little offensive. SF clinched the NFC West with their win last week but only scored 21 points vs a Seattle defense that ranks 29th overall. Washington now has 3 weeks of film on rookie QB Purdy who had only 217 yards passing last week. Niner head coach Shanahan also hinted at possibly giving some of his offensive skill players a rest at some point to make sure they are ready for the playoffs. We know Deebo Samuel is out for this one. Lastly we have 2 slow paced teams in this game with Washington 25th in adjusted tempo and San Fran 31st. We’re on the Under in this game. | |||||||
12-24-22 | Lions v. Panthers +2.5 | Top | 23-37 | Win | 100 | 17 h 28 m | Show |
#458 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Carolina Panthers +2.5 over Detroit Lions, Saturday at 1 PM ET - Detroit is a bit overvalued right now after winning 6 of the last 7 and covering 7 straight. Now they are favored on the road vs a team that, like them, is still battling for a playoff spot. In fact, if Carolina wins out, they are in the playoffs so still a ton to play for. Detroit hasn’t been a road favorite yet this season and in their last 20 road games they’ve been favored once and lost that game outright. Last week they won by 3 vs the Jets but that took a late 51 yard TD. Historically this Detroit team has been horrendous as a road favorite with a spread record of 22-40 ATS in that role since 1980. Since firing HC Matt Rhule, Carolina has actually played quite well. Prior to last week’s loss they had won 3 of their previous 4 games. The Panthers are coming off a loss as a home favorite vs Pittsburgh while Detroit is coming off a road dog upset win over NY Jets which sets this up very nicely for the home team. Carolina is a bit undervalued right now getting points at home despite covering 6 of their last 8 games. This line looks to easy to take the Lions as we expect many will. We’ll take the home dog as teams getting points at home are 49-37 ATS on the year with underdogs in general covering almost 55% of the time in 2022. Tough spot for Detroit in their 2nd straight on the road after an upset win last week. | |||||||
12-23-22 | Wake Forest v. Missouri OVER 58.5 | Top | 27-17 | Loss | -110 | 46 h 45 m | Show |
#231/232 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 58.5 Points – Wake Forest vs Missouri, Friday at 6:30 PM ET - This game is being played in Tampa and the weather looks decent with temps in the low 50’s at kickoff and light winds. Wake’s offense is easily the strength of their team. The average 37 PPG and they’ve been held under 30 points only twice this season vs NC State & Louisville. Those are 2 top 35 defenses and Wake moved the ball well on both (400+ yards in both games) but had a ridiculous 11 turnovers in those 2 games alone which took away MANY scoring chances. Even with that the Deacs still scored 21 points in both of those games. They are facing a solid Mizzou defense that ranks near those 2 stop units, however the Tigers will be depleted on that side of the ball. Both starting DE’s who lead the team in sacks will not play in this game and they are very thin at safety with a few not playing. The Tigers had solid defensive numbers but when they played high potent teams they struggled at times and the teams they slowed down were the lower tier offensive teams in the SEC (Vandy, Auburn, Kentucky). Wake’s defense was not good. They rank 94th overall, 95th in scoring defense, and 116th vs the pass. They’ve allowed at least 30 points in 5 straight games and 7 of their 11 games vs FBS opponents this season. Missouri’s QB Cook is a duel threat (2500 yards passing and 550 rushing) and WF has struggled with those type of signal callers. Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, Liberty, and UNC all have duel threat QB’s and they torched WF for an average of 41 PPG. The Deacons had only 3 totals all season set below 60 and 2 of those went well Over the total and the one that went under was close (under by 3 points) and should have gone Over based on the total yardage. We confident that WF will score in this game and Mizzou will be able to keep up vs a poor defense. Over. | |||||||
12-22-22 | Air Force v. Baylor OVER 43 | Top | 30-15 | Win | 100 | 23 h 1 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* - #227/228 OVER 43 Air Force vs. Baylor, Thursday 7:30 PM ET - We are betting Over on this game and expect both teams to get into the 20’s. The number itself stood out to us immediately when we looked at past results for both teams and the lines that were posted on those contests. For instance, Air Force played San Diego State the last game of the season and the O/U was set at 43. San Diego State isn’t on the same planet offensively as Baylor as the Aztecs were 109th in scoring (21PPG), 116th in total YPG and 119th in passing. AF also played Colorado State at the end of the season, who is worse than SDST offensively and that O/U was also 43. The Bears averaged just under 34PPG with an offense that ranked 37th in YPG gained, 61st in passing and 33rd in rushing. Baylor played in one game this season that had a Total below 52 and that was against Iowa State. ISU’s defense is significantly better than an overrated Falcons defense. Air Force is 1st in the nation defensively in YPG allowed 1st against the pass, 8th versus the run and allowed just 13.3PPG. BUT the vast majority of the teams they’ve faced have been horrible on offense making the Falcons defensive statistics very misleading. Baylor wasn't as good defensively this season (recently fired D-coordinator) after allowing 26.6PPG on the season and being near average in most defensive categories. The Bears allowed 29 plus points in the last four games of the season. | |||||||
12-21-22 | South Alabama v. Western Kentucky OVER 57 | Top | 23-44 | Win | 100 | 24 h 9 m | Show |
#225/226 ASA TOP PLAY ON Over 57 Points – Western Kentucky vs South Alabama, Wed at 9 PM ET - This game is being played in the Louisiana Super Dome so we’re getting perfect conditions for scoring. WKU has one of the most prolific offenses in the nation ranking 10th in total offense and 2nd in passing offense while averaging 36 PPG. QB Austin Reed entered the transfer portal but after only a few days decided to come back to the Hilltoppers so he will play in this game. He’s thrown for over 4,000 yards with 36 TD’s this season. USA’s defense is rated very highly (11th nationally) but they’ve played an extremely easy slate of offenses this season. The average ranking of the offenses they faced this season was 82nd and they faced 5 offense ranked outside the top 100. The 2 top tier offenses South Alabama faced were UCLA and Georgia Southern who scored 32 and 31 points respectively. As far as pass offenses go, the Jags only faced 1 ranked inside the top 30 and now they take on the 2nd best passing offense in the nation. South Alabama doesn’t get much pub for their offense but they were very good. They averaged 32 PPG on the season and they scored at least 27 points in every game but 2 this year. They only defense that really slowed them down was Troy who was ranked as a top 10 stop unit. WKU ranks 70th in total defense and 5 of their last 9 opponents scored at least 30 points vs this defense. South Alabama is very balanced on offense and should have plenty of success in this game. Both teams are more than capable of getting to 30+ points here and we’ll grab the Over. | |||||||
12-20-22 | Eastern Michigan +4 v. San Jose State | Top | 41-27 | Win | 100 | 33 h 17 m | Show |
#221 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Eastern Michigan +4 over San Jose State, Tuesday at 3:30 PM ET - Our power ratings have SJSU as a 1 point favorite on a neutral site so we feel the value is with EMU in this game. The Spartans have been trending down and overvalued for over a month now. They’ve lost 6 straight ATS by an average of more than 10 PPG. They were outgained by 4 of their last 6 opponents winning the stat sheet vs Nevada (2-10 record) and Hawaii (3-10 record) only. Their only wins since early September were vs Hawaii, Colorado St, and Nevada three teams who have a combined 8-29 record. EMU, on the other hand, is playing their best ball of the season right now winning 6 of their last 8 games with a spread record of 5-1-1 their last 7. The offense hit their stride down the stretch scoring 30+ points in three crucial games to end the season. This is also a team that beat Arizona State on the road earlier in the year and outgained the Sun Devils by 116 yards, prompting ASU officials to fire head coach Herm Edwards immediately after the game. EMU head coach Chris Creighton has been fantastic as an underdog going 3-1 ATS in bowl games and 35-10 ATS his last 45 getting points. The Eagles are the much more balanced offense rushing for 144 YPG and passing for 218 YPG. SJSU can’t run the ball averaging only 92 YPG (125th nationally) so they can be one dimensional on offense not great when your offensive line ranks 114th in sacks allowed per game. EMU is making this out to be a huge game for their program. They are looking to win their first bowl game since 1987. This game is being played in Boise which is in the same conference as San Jose State so we can’t imagine this is a rewarding bowl for that program. Take the points in this one. | |||||||
12-19-22 | Rams +7 v. Packers | Top | 12-24 | Loss | -100 | 14 h 34 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* LA Rams +7 vs Green Bay Packers, 8:20 PM ET - These two teams had much higher aspirations this season and both have clearly fallen short. There isn’t a big difference between these two teams so we have to side with the Dog and the points here. The Rams are higher rated than the Packers when it comes to defensive DVOA rankings #14 whereas the Packers are 23rd. Green Bay holds the advantage offensively ranking 11th in DVOA while the Rams are 26th. The Rams have a negative differential of minus -6PPG which is one of the worst numbers in the NBA but the Packers aren’t much better at minus -3PPG which is 25th in the league. Green Bay has historically dominated in Lambeau but this season they have a negative differential of minus -0.8PPG. The Packers have already lost to the Titans and Jets at home and narrowly beat the Patriots. The Rams have two bad road losses on their resume to the 49ers and Chiefs and the Packers aren’t on that level. The other road games for the Rams are a 7-point loss at New Orleans, lost by 3 at Tampa and beat the Cardinals. Baker Mayfield had a week to learn more of the Rams system and should be better prepared for this road contest. Grab the points. | |||||||
12-18-22 | Bengals v. Bucs UNDER 45 | Top | 34-23 | Loss | -110 | 43 h 1 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* UNDER 45 Cincinnati Bengals at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 4:25 PM ET - The Cris opener on this game was 41.5 which was quickly bet up to the current number of 45. We will grab the added value and play Under here. NFL games this season have averaged 44 total points per game and we can’t see this game being ‘average’. The Bucs offense has been dreadful to say the least this season averaging just 5.4 Yards Per Play and 17.2PPG (28th). On average it takes the Bucks 19.7 yards gained to score 1-points and that’s barely better than the Colts and Broncos. It won’t get any easier today against a Bengals defense allowing just 5.5 Yards Per Play, 16.2 Yards Per Point (11th) and 5.4 Yards Per Play. Cincinnati is slightly over-rated offensively as a result of playing some soft defenses. In 8 of their last ten games, they have faced defenses ranked 15th or worse in the league in overall defensive DVOA. The one comparable defense to Tampa’s the Bengals has faced this season is the Ravens and they managed just 17 points in that game. The Bucs own the 11th best DVOA defense, give up just 320YPG, are 6th versus the pass and 9th in points allowed per game. Tampa will want to play fast, but the Bengals prefer to play slow. The Bengals are 13-4-1 Under in their last 18 games overall. Tampa Bay is on an 11-2 Under streak when coming off a loss. | |||||||
12-17-22 | Boise State -10.5 v. North Texas | Top | 35-32 | Loss | -108 | 25 h 56 m | Show |
#217 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Boise State -10.5 over North Texas, Saturday at 9:15 PM ET - This game is in Frisco, TX giving UNT a slight home field advantage but we still like Boise to roll. The North Texas program is in a bit of chaos after firing their head coach Littrell despite making the CUSA Championship game. That spot was just filled by an assistant coach from Washington State just a few days ago leaving the current coaching staff in limbo. The Mean Green were trending downward to close the season failing to cover their last 3 games and getting blown out in 2 of those games. They were 1-5 SU this year vs teams with winning records and in their 5 losses they were beaten by a combined score of 212 to 119 or an average final score of 42.5 to 23.8. They were outgained by over 600 yards in those 5 losses. Boise turned their season around once they switched QB’s and went with Green under center and hired longtime NFL coach Dirk Koetter to call plays. Once they settled on Green as the starter, the Broncos went 6-2 from that point on with their only losses coming vs BYU and Fresno in the MWC Championship game. They already had a great defense and with Green as the starter they averaged 32 PPG making them very tough to beat. The BSU defense has a HUGE advantage in this game ranking 6th nationally in total defense and 11th in scoring defense allowing 18 PPG compared to the UNT stop unit that ranks outside the top 100 in total defense, pass defense, rush defense, and scoring defense allowing 31.5 PPG. Boise rolls in this one. | |||||||
12-17-22 | Dolphins v. Bills -7 | Top | 29-32 | Loss | -110 | 23 h 18 m | Show |
#310 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Buffalo Bills -7 vs Miami Dolphins, Saturday 8:15pm ET - At first look this may seem to be a lot of points to lay in a divisional showdown, but in reality, it’s not. Consider the Bills were minus -4-points in Miami earlier this season which should have them as double-digit favorite in this game. Buffalo lost the first encounter this season despite outplaying the Phins by a wide margin. Buffalo had 497 total yards in the game to Miami’s 212 yards. The Bills had twice as many first downs (31-15), nearly 3 times the rushing yards (115-41) and 382 passing yards to the Dolphins 171, yet still lost. The Bills blew numerous red zone chances and essentially handed Miami the win. Things will be different this time around as the Bills are at home, in a cold, windy and wet environment. This Miami team that has played four straight games in warm weather are also playing their 3rd road game in as many weeks. After putting up some gaudy offensive numbers against four weak defenses in a row, the Phins were brought back to Earth against the 49ers and Chargers the past two weeks. Today they get a Bills defense that is nearly as good as the 49ers in terms of efficiency. The Bills offense is 2nd in yards per game gained, 6th in passing, 8th in rushing and score the 4th most points in the NFL. Miami is 20th in YPG allowed, 23rd vs. the pass and give up 24PPG which ranks them 23rd. Buffalo has covered 7 of the last ten meetings at home and have the best home point differential in the NFL at +16.8PPG on their home field. In this payback setting we like the Bills big. | |||||||
12-17-22 | Rice v. Southern Miss UNDER 45.5 | Top | 24-38 | Loss | -110 | 21 h 19 m | Show |
#213/214 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 45.5 Points – Rice vs Southern Miss, Saturday at 5:45 PM ET - We do like USM to win this game but we’re very wary of laying nearly a TD with a team that simply doesn’t score many points so the Under is our play in this one. Southern Miss ranks 94th in points scored and outside the top 100 in total offense. If we throw out their game vs FCS Northwestern State where they put up 64 points, the Eagles topped 27 points just once all season and over their last 8 games they only topped 23 points one time. Defensively they are solid holding teams to an average of 23 PPG on the season. They should be able to control this Rice offense that scored just 34 total points over their last 3 games and those games were vs defenses ranked 124th, 90th, and 70th, all well below this USM stop unit. That offensive ineptness coincided with their starting QB McMahon getting injured and the Owls having to use an inexperienced QB. It looks like freshman Padgett will get the start at QB in this game and he has attempted only 40 passes this year completing just 50% of those throws. Neither of these teams play up tempo ranking 69th and 118th in plays per second so we look for a slow paced game without many possessions. The weather in Mobile on Saturday could be rainy and we expect a low scoring game here. Take the Under. | |||||||
12-16-22 | Troy v. UTSA OVER 55.5 | Top | 18-12 | Loss | -110 | 32 h 3 m | Show |
#203/204 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 55.5 Points – Troy vs UTSA, Friday at 3 PM ET - Troy has fantastic overall defensive numbers but they’ve faced an easy slate of offensive opponents. The last 8 opponents they’ve played rank 49th, 120th, 112th, 89th, 86th, 40th, 115th, and 109th in total offense. That means the teams they’ve faced since October 1st have an average rank of 90th in total offense. Now they face a UTSA team that ranks 9th in total offense and has scored at least 30 points in every game but 1 this season. The Roadrunners have scored 40+ points in over half their games this season (7). UTSA has a veteran QB Harris that is one of the better “unknown” QB’s in the nation. They rank 12th nationally in passing YPG and Troy hasn’t faced a proficient passing offense since October 1st when WKY put up over 400 yards through the air on the Trojans. We expect UTSA to be successful offensively in this game. Same goes for Troy. They struggled offensively at times this year but found their rhythm at the end of the year scoring 45, 48, and 34 points over their last 3 games. The Trojans will be facing a UTSA defense that ranks 90th in total defense and 101st vs the pass where Troy has been proficient averaging 253 YPG through the air. Weather looks great in Orlando on Friday afternoon and we expect a lot of offense. OVER is the play in the Cure Bowl on Friday. | |||||||
12-15-22 | 49ers v. Seahawks +3 | Top | 21-13 | Loss | -100 | 26 h 55 m | Show |
#302 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Seattle Seahawks +3 over San Francisco 49ers, Thursday at 8:15 PM ET - Rookie QB Purdy has been very successful in his first 2 appearances in the NFL coming in relief 2 weeks ago to beat a faltering Miami team and then topping TB last week. Both of those games were at home. Now, if he plays, he’ll be making his first road start which is a whole different scenario. Not only that, he is not 100% with an oblique injury and there is a chance he won’t be able to go on a short week. If he can’t, it’s journeyman Josh Johnson who was just added to the roster last week. San Fran has had a very favorable schedule as of late with a grand total of ONE road game since November 1st before traveling to Seattle for this one. The Seahawks are in must win mode if they want to stay in the playoff hunt. They’ve dropped 3 of their last 4 and they’ve been competitive with 5 of their 6 losses coming by one possession. Seattle has been a house of horrors for the Niners with the Seahawks winning 12 of the last 14 both SU & ATS at home. We’re getting QB Geno Smith who is still 5th in the NFL in QBR vs either a rookie or a 4th stringer. The Niners are becoming a bit overvalued after winning 6 straight games now laying over a FG on the road with a rookie QB making his first road start, if he can even go. We’ll take the points. | |||||||
12-11-22 | Bucs v. 49ers UNDER 37.5 | Top | 7-35 | Loss | -110 | 44 h 5 m | Show |
#123/124 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 37.5 Points – Tampa Bay Bucs vs San Francisco 49ers, Sunday at 4:25 PM ET - TB can’t score (18 PPG rank 27th) and now they are playing the best defense they’ve seen, the #1 defense in the NFL. TB games have reached 40 total points (in regulation) just once in their last 8 games and on the road this season the offense has been terrible. Away from home the Bucs have scored 5 TD’s in 58 possessions (8%) worst in the NFL. Brady struggles when pressured and will get plenty of it here vs a SF defense that ranks in the top 5 in sack% and sacks per game. With no running game, Tampa dead last in rushing at 73 YPG, this offense is in trouble on Sunday. Brock Purdy will get his first career start at QB for SF. He played decently in relief of an injured Garoppolo last week, but now TB has film on him. He may also be without (or not 100%) two of his top offensive weapons as both McCaffrey and Samuel are banged up and questionable. The Niners offense has played only 2 top 12 defenses this season, Denver & New Orleans, and scored 10 points & 13 in those games WITH Garoppolo at QB. Both defenses are the strengths of their teams in this one. Both rank in top 6 in YPP allowed and in the top 5 in points allowed (1st and 5th). SF allows points on just 25% of their opponents possessions (1st in NFL) and TB allows points on 29% of opponents possessions (2nd best in NFL). These two teams have combined to play 24 games this year and 17 have gone Under the total. TB games average 36 PPG & SF games average 39 PPG and that was with Garoppolo at QB. Rain & wind in the forecast for SF on Sunday afternoon and we expect a low scoring game here. | |||||||
12-11-22 | Chiefs v. Broncos UNDER 44 | Top | 34-28 | Loss | -108 | 44 h 54 m | Show |
ASA top play on 10* UNDER 44 Kansas City Chiefs @ Denver Broncos, 4:25 PM ET - The Denver Broncos have been an Under machine this season with 11 of their twelve games staying below the posted Total. That includes three games that went into overtime. In fact, if you eliminate the points scored in OT, those 11 Unders have all finished with 33 or less points. Kansas City is one of the best offensive teams in the NFL, yet they have stayed Under the number in 4 of their last five games. Three of those five games finished with less than 44 points. Two weeks ago, the Chiefs faced a Rams team that is similar to this Broncos team and the O/U in that game was 41.5. The Broncos have a much better defense than the Rams do, and the offenses are both pathetic. Despite being on the field a lot, the Broncos are 3rd in defensive yards per game allowed 3rd versus the pass, 19th against the run and allow the 2nd fewest points per game in the league. Offensively the Broncos are 27th in YPG, 21st in passing O, 24th in rushing and last in the league in PPG scored at 13.8. We expect the Chiefs to get in front early on and take a passive approach in the second half. Denver is averaging just 5.3PPG in the second half of games and doesn't pose a threat to come from behind. The Under is 5-2-1 the last eight meetings. Bet Under. | |||||||
12-08-22 | Raiders v. Rams OVER 43.5 | Top | 16-17 | Loss | -105 | 25 h 39 m | Show |
#101/102 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 43.5 Points – Las Vegas Raiders vs LA Rams, Thursday at 8:15 PM ET - The Rams defense is rated 17th in YPP allowed and 14th in total defense. However they haven’t been very good over the last month or so. Over their last 4 games they’ve allowed 26, 27, 27, and 27 points. They are facing a Raider offense that ranks 5th in YPP and they rank 3rd in the NFL scoring points on 45% of their offensive possessions this season behind only KC & Buffalo. And over the last month, the Las Vegas offense has really taken a nice step up averaging 6.5 YPP over their last 4 games which is 2nd in the NFL during that stretch behind only KC. The Raiders will have success offensively in this game. We don’t trust them to cover the 6 points as most of their games are close and their defense is not good. That’s why we’re on the Over here. Last week the Rams were able to muster up some offense and score 23 points vs Seattle. That means in 2 of their last 3 games they’ve gotten to at least 20 points. LA starter at QB will be either Wolford or Perkins and both have started a finished a game this season. There is also a chance newly acquired Baker Mayfield might be available. They should be able to have some success vs a Vegas defense that has allowed at least 20 points in every game this year but one and ranks 31st defensive DVOA per Football Outsiders. Vegas games have averaged 48 total points this season and Rams home games have averaged 44 total points as we get perfect conditions for scoring at SoFi Stadium. Over is the play on Thursday Night | |||||||
12-05-22 | Saints +3.5 v. Bucs | Top | 16-17 | Win | 100 | 20 h 19 m | Show |
#477 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* New Orleans Saints +3.5 over Tampa Bay Bucs, Monday at 8:15 PM ET - NFL teams off shutout losses have long been a very strong play the following week. Since 2015 teams that get shutout one week have a spread record of 26-12-3 ATS the following week. As an underdog off a shutout loss, those teams are 71-55-2 ATS the last 128 games that fall into that situation. New Orleans lost @ San Francisco 13-0 last week and we like them to cover here. Despite the 13-0 final, the Saints played a very good San Fran team pretty even. They each averaged 4.9 YPP but the Niners rank 14 more offensive snaps due to 2 New Orleans turnovers. On top of that, the Saints missed a FG, fumbled at the SF 6-yard line and were shut out on downs at the SF 4-yard line so they definitely had their chances. New Orleans is much better than their 4-8 record with a YPP differential of +0.5 which ranks 8th the league. Tampa is 14th in that category at +0.09. The Bucs are off an loss in OT vs a below average Cleveland team and since starting the season 2-0, in their last 9 games Tampa is 3-6 SU and 1-7-1 ATS. Their 3 wins during that stretch have come by 3, 5, and 6 points vs teams that have a combined record of 14-19. They have failed to cover the spread by a combined 76 points or 8.4 PPG as they continue to be overvalued. In the first game this season, TB won 20-10 but they were outgained 4.7 YPP to 4.0 YPP and gifted 5 turnovers by the Saints including a 68 yard pick 6. Prior to that New Orleans had won 7 of the previous 8 match ups. Tampa is 0-4 ATS as a favorite of 3 or less this year and we like the Saints to get this cover on Monday night. | |||||||
12-04-22 | Jets +3 v. Vikings | Top | 22-27 | Loss | -114 | 22 h 49 m | Show |
#451 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* NY Jets +3 over Minnesota, Sunday at 1 PM ET - Line value with Jets here in our opinion. This number basically says these 2 are even on a neutral field which we disagree with. Minnesota has the better record at 9-2 but they remain vastly overrated. They have a negative YPP differential and their point differential is just +5 on the season despite their 9 wins. There are 12 teams in the NFL that have better point differential than Minnesota and 29 teams that have a better YPP differential. That’s right, the Vikings rank 30th in YPP differential at -0.84 and the Jets rank 9th at +0.35 and NY has played the more difficult schedule. In their last 2 games, Minnesota was rolled at home by Dallas 40-3 and then “bounced back” to beat New England 33-26 but the Vikes were outgained by a whopping 2.0 YPP in that win. They allowed 26 points and 7.4 YPP to a Patriots offense that had 10 points on just 4.7 YPP on Thursday vs Buffalo. HUGE edge defensive here for the Jets as they allowed 5.1 YPP (5th) while Minnesota gives up 6.3 YPP (31st). New NY QB White is an upgrade over a struggling Wilson and while we don’t expect the huge numbers he had last week vs Chicago, he’ll do enough vs a Minnesota defense allowing 7.2 yards per pass attempt (31st) to get the Jets a win here. We’ll take the points with the Jets on Sunday | |||||||
12-04-22 | Broncos v. Ravens UNDER 39.5 | Top | 9-10 | Win | 100 | 21 h 27 m | Show |
#453/454 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 39.5 Points – Denver Broncos vs Baltimore Ravens, Sunday at 1 PM ET - Denver hasn’t reached 17 points in 9 of their 11 games and they’ve gone Under the total in 10 of their 11 games this season. Their games have stayed Under the total by 111 total points this season! They rank last in scoring offense and 4th in scoring defense and Denver games are averaging just 32 total points this season. Only 22.7% of their offensive possessions have either reached the red zone or scored prior which is lowest in the league. The Broncos have also punted on almost 51% of their possessions which is the highest rate in the NFL. The Baltimore defense has been solid allowing just 20.8 PPG and they rank 9th defensive DVOA (per Football Outsiders) so we don’t see Denver’s offense having much success. Some on the other side. The Ravens offense is not overly explosive through the air with just 24 completions of 20 or more yards which is 3rd worst in the NFL. They are facing a Denver defense that has allowed more than 23 points only once all season and Baltimore loves to run the ball (6th highest run percentage in the league) which eats clock. Last week Baltimore was in a high scoring 28-27 loss @ Jacksonville (24th in total defense) but that game was 12-10 in the 4th quarter before the offenses went crazy. Denver games has reached 40 points ONCE this season and these teams have combined to go 17-5 to the UNDER this season. Another low scoring game here. | |||||||
12-03-22 | Clemson -7.5 v. North Carolina | Top | 39-10 | Win | 100 | 31 h 55 m | Show |
#321/322 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Clemson -7.5 over UNC, Saturday at 8 PM ET - We like this spot for Clemson off a 1 point loss to a surging South Carolina team as a double digit favorite. It wasn’t a terrible loss by any means vs a surging Gamecocks team who had won 3 of their last 4 games including a 63-38 win over a top 5 Tennessee team. The Tigers blew a 9 point second half lead in that game and head coach Dabo Swinney made all of his coaches put in extra film time after that loss in preparation for the ACC Championship game. Clemson is very well coached and we feel they’ll play outstanding in this game after last week’s result. UNC is trending downward for sure. They have lost back to back games vs teams using back up QB’s. The Heels lost at home to a bad Georgia Tech team 21-17 on November 19th and the Jackets were without their starting QB Sims in that game and lost their back up during the game. UNC followed that loss up by getting beat again at home last Saturday by NC State who played their 3rd string QB Finley and he had only appeared in one other game this season. The offense, particularly, QB Maye looks like they are running out of gas. They struggled to put up yardage each of the last 2 weeks (350 and 365 total yards) and now they face one of the better defensive fronts in college football. Maye’s numbers have dropped off drastically the last 2 weeks as he has completed just 57% of his passes for 215 YPG through the air. Clemson with a huge edge defensively here (24th in total D to 117th for North Carolina) and they have a solid coaching advantage. Clemson is used to playing in big games like this and we like them to win by double digits. | |||||||
12-02-22 | Akron +12 v. Buffalo | Top | 22-23 | Win | 100 | 23 h 58 m | Show |
#327 ASA TOP PLAY ON Akron +12 over Buffalo, Friday at 1 PM ET - The Bulls were playing for a spot in the MAC Championship game last weekend and with a win over Kent they would have been in. They blew a 14 point lead with under 3:00 minutes to go in the game and then lost in OT. This is a really tough bounce back spot for them even if they need this one to get to 6 wins on the season. It was a meaningless road game for Kent as they were already out of bowl contention and their starting QB Schlee came into that game injured. He only took a few snaps and the Golden FlashThe Flashes played 3 separate QB’s in that game, one of which hadn’t played a snap this season. Even with that, Kent still was able to win the game and outgain Buffalo in the process. The Bulls are catching an Akron team that is playing their best football of the season. Last week the Zips went into Northern Illinois as a 9 point dog and won the game outright 44-12! It wasn’t a fluke as they outgained the Huskies by 250 yards. They have now outgained their last 4 opponents and they’ve shown zero quit as the season comes to an end. Last week the Zips were without their starting QB Irons but their back up Undercuffler, who threw for over 6,000 career yards as a starter at Albany prior to transferring, looked great last week passing for 312 yards and 3 TD’s. Despite their records (Akron 2-9 / Buffalo 5-6) the Zips have very similar overall stats (-1.0 YPP differential to Buffalo’s -1.2 YPP differential / Akron -38 YPG and Buffalo -15 YPG) and we’re getting double digits. Buffalo hasn’t won a game in over a month (October 23 was their last win) and Akron continues to fight with their win last week and 5 of their last 7 losses coming by single digits. Take the points on Friday afternoon. | |||||||
12-01-22 | Bills v. Patriots OVER 43.5 | Top | 24-10 | Loss | -110 | 29 h 48 m | Show |
#301/302 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Over 43.5 Points – Buffalo Bills vs New England Patriots, Thursday at 8:15 PM ET - This is the lowest total set on a Buffalo game this season and they only other one that was close was when they faced Pittsburgh in early October and the total was 44.5. The average total set in Buffalo games this season is 49.8 and this one has gotten too low in our opinion. The Bills are 2nd in the NFL averaging 28 PPG and since throwing up a dud vs the Jets a month ago (Bills score 17), Buffalo has put up 89 points over their last 3 games. New England’s defense had a very solid 3 game stretch leading into last week’s game vs Minnesota where they allowed the Vikings to pile up 33 points. However, those 3 games were vs poor offenses with the NY Jets (twice) and Indianapolis. The Bills we be the best offense the Patriots have faced this season and in their 3 meetings last year (one in the playoffs), Buffalo averaged 30 PPG. Defensively Buffalo was great early in the season giving up just 12 PPG over their first 5 contests. However, they’ve been trending down allowing 23 PPG over their last 6 games including 78 points over their last 3 (26 PPG). They will be without their top pass rusher Von Miller in this game. New England has scored at least 22 points in 7 of their last 9 games. As we mentioned, these 2 teams met 3 times last season and the average points scored in those games was 47.5 and that includes a 14-10 game late in the season with terrible wet and windy weather. It’s going to be cold in Boston on Thursday night but no precipitation. With Buffalo favored by 4 here, the projected final score is around 24-20 and we expect both teams to top those totals. Over is the play. | |||||||
11-27-22 | Packers v. Eagles UNDER 46.5 | Top | 33-40 | Loss | -110 | 29 h 24 m | Show |
#273/274 ASA TOP PLAY ON Under 46.5 Points – Green Bay Packers vs Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday at 8:15 PM ET - Unders have been cash money in the NFL this year hitting at 57% with an average total points scored sitting at 43.8 points. This one is nearly 3 full points above that number and we just don’t see it. Green Bay has struggled offensively all season long. They rank 26th in points scored per game at 18.4 and their games are averaging 40 total points per game. The Pack have scored on just 29% of their offensive possessions this season which is the 2nd worst mark in the NFL behind only Denver. They are facing a Philly defense that has given up 17 points or fewer in 7 of their 10 games this season. On the other side of the ball, the Eagles offense has been trending downward. They have scored just 38 total points in their last 2 games while averaging just 289 YPG (vs Washington & Indy). Both teams will be looking to run often here as the defensive weakness of each team is stopping the run. Philly runs the ball 51% of the time (5th most in the NFL) and GB is not very good at stopping the run. The Packers have leaned on the running game more as of late rolling up over 200 yards rushing in 2 of their last 4 games. Running the ball will eat clock and shorten this game. Green Bay is one of the slowest paced teams in the NFL (29th) and the Eagles are middle of the pack in that category. The extended forecast calls for rain in Philly on Sunday and we like this one to land Under the total. | |||||||
11-27-22 | Falcons +4 v. Commanders | Top | 13-19 | Loss | -110 | 22 h 25 m | Show |
ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Atlanta Falcons +4 vs. Washington Commanders, 1 PM ET - It’s interesting to note that despite Washington having a winning record and the Falcons a losing one, their +/- point differential is nearly the same. In fact, Atlanta ranks higher than Washington in overall DVOA rankings. Three of the Falcons 6 losses this season have come by 4 or less points, four of six have come by 6-points or less. Washington is coming off a 13-point win over Houston after a huge upset in Philadelphia the week before. On the season the Commanders have six wins but 4 of those have come by 6-points or less. In terms of yards per play, the Falcons average 5.6YPP offensively and give up 6.0YPP. Washington averages just 5.5YPP on offense and gives up 5.1YPP. The Falcons ball control offense that features a rushing attack averaging 159.3RYPG should be able to keep this game close throughout. Washington is 6-4-1 ATS their last eleven when coming off a win but their average Margin of Victory in those games is -2.4PPG. Atlanta is 9-6 ATS their last 15 when coming off a loss with a negative differential of -1.1PPG. This one shapes up to be a field goal game for either team so we’ll grab the points. | |||||||
11-26-22 | Oregon v. Oregon State +3 | Top | 34-38 | Win | 100 | 14 h 50 m | Show |
#126 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Oregon State +3 over Oregon, Saturday at 3:30 PM ET - This seems like a line most would grab Oregon based on the situation. The Ducks are playing for a spot in the Pac 12 Championship game yet only favored by a FG vs OSU. We actually think it’s a tough spot for Oregon as they’ve come off back to back emotional, down to the wire games the last 2 weeks. They were upended by Washington 37-34 when the Huskies scored 2 TDs in the final 3:10 to get the win. Last week Oregon played host to Utah and picked up a tight 20-17 win but the Utes had plenty of chances to get the W but had 3 turnovers, a missed FG, and they were shut out on downs 3 times in Oregon territory. Three huge games in a row can be really tough on a team and we have a feeling the Ducks struggle here. Their QB Nix is really banged up right now and didn’t look even close to 100% last week. OSU is flying under the radar right now. Despite getting very little publicity, this team is 8-3 and they’ve won 5 of their last 6. The Beavers had one bad game this year vs Utah in which they outgained the Utes but turned the ball over 4 times including a pick 6. Other than that, their other 2 losses were by 3 points vs USC and by 3 points @ Washington. They run the ball very well (194 YPG) and their defense is sneaky good ranking 25th nationally. OSU has beaten the Ducks 2 of the last 3 times in Corvallis and they’d like nothing better than to ruin Oregon’s Pac 12 title hopes. We like OSU + the points and think they have a great shot at the upset. | |||||||
11-25-22 | Nebraska v. Iowa -10.5 | Top | 24-17 | Loss | -107 | 25 h 23 m | Show |
#132 ASA 10* TOP PLAY ON Iowa -10.5 over Nebraska, Friday at 4 PM ET - A win here sends Iowa to the Big 10 Championship game representing the West division. We can’t imagine Nebraska will be hyped to play this game. They are out of bowl consideration and put everything into last week’s home finale vs Wisconsin and lost 15-14 when the Badgers scored a TD with 30 seconds remaining. It’s not as if the Huskers dominated the game and blew it at the end. They were very fortunate to be in it as they gained only 171 total yards and were outgained by 147 yards. The Nebraska offense has been shut down over the last month scoring 9, 13, 3, and 14 points their last 4 games. The last 2 weeks they were held under 175 total yards vs both Wisconsin and Michigan. Now they face an Iowa defense that is every bit as good as those 2 stop units so we expect very little, if anything, out of the Nebraska offense. So we’re laying double digits with an Iowa offense that has struggled most of the year. Can they do enough to get this cover? We think so. Taking a close look at their schedule, Iowa’s offense has played one of the tougher slates of opposing defenses this season. 6 of the 11 defenses they’ve faced are ranked in the top 15 nationally. All but 2 of the defenses the Hawkeyes have faced rank inside the top 35. The 2 defenses they’ve played that were not good were Northwestern (72nd ranked defense) and Nevada (96th ranked defense) and they put up 33 and 27 points in those 2 contests. On Friday they face a Nebraska defense that ranks 108th which is the worst Iowa has played this season. Iowa’s offense has looked much better down the stretch averaging 24 PPG over their last 4 vs defenses much better than Nebraska’s. If they get to that here, we think the cover. Big disparity on defense and in “want to” here in favor of Iowa so we’ll lay it. | |||||||
11-25-22 | Arkansas v. Missouri +4 | Top | 27-29 | Win | 100 | 26 h 4 m | Show |
#120 ASA 10* TOP PLAY ON Missouri +4 over Arkansas, Friday at 3:30 PM ET - We were on Arkansas last weekend in what was a huge game for them. They were home dogs and needed to beat Ole Miss to clinch bowl eligibility. They did just that and now they are on the road in a potential letdown spot. Despite the win last week, the Razors defense has some serious deficiencies. The offense played great but the defense allowed 700 yards to the Rebs. They currently rank 121st in total defense and on the road they are 2-2 on the season allowing 32 PPG. They haven’t played a very tough road slate despite their 2-2 record beating Auburn & BYU while losing @ Mississippi State and @ Texas A&M, whose season has been a disaster. In fact, A&M’s only conference win this year was at home vs Arkansas. Mizzou is in a similar situation to the Razors last week. They are 5-6 and have to win this game to get to a bowl. Their defense, unlike Arkansas, has been very good ranking 30th nationally so we’re getting a desperate home underdog with the much better defense. The Tigers are 4-2 at home this year with tight 4 point losses to Georgia & Kentucky. No other team has played to within 10 points of UGA this year. While Arkansas was putting all of their time and energy into beating LSU to reach 6 wins last week, Missouri had a “semi” bye beating New Mexico State bad and you can bet they were also preparing for this game in the week leading up to that. These 2 teams have played similar strength of schedules and their stats are pretty close with Mizzou +0.1 YPP and +25 YPG while Arkansas is -0.1 YPP and +16 YPG. The host has covered 9 of the last 10 in this series and this one is much more important for the Tigers. | |||||||
11-24-22 | Patriots v. Vikings -2.5 | Top | 26-33 | Win | 100 | 18 h 28 m | Show |
#109/110 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Minnesota Vikings -2.5 over New England Patriots, Thursday at 8:15 PM ET - Patriots 6-3 SU their last nine games but only 2 of those wins have come against a team with a winning record and that’s the Jets. The other 4 wins in that stretch come against teams with a combined 14-26 SU record. That ties into the fact the Pats have played the 21st easiest schedule according to our rankings. In contrast, the Vikings are 8-2 SU on the year, yet have faced the 9th toughest schedule to date. We can bang on the Vikings all we want but the fact of the matter is they’ve found ways to win. 3 of their last four wins have been quality W’s with victories over 7-3 Dolphins, 7-3 Bills and the 6-5 Redskins. New England is 4th in the league in YPG allowed and 6th in yards per play allowed at 4.9. But again, how much of that is a byproduct of playing the Steelers, Jets twice, Colts who rank 26th or worse in yards per play gained. Minnesota doesn’t have impressive overall statistics with an offense that averages 5.3 yards per play and 338YPG but they’ve also faced some of the leagues better defenses. Home/road numbers support the Vikings. Minnesota has a net +0.3 yards per play differential at home, the Pats are negative at minus -0.4. Minnesota had won 3 straight at home prior to an embarrassing home loss to the Cowboys last week so expect a rebound here. | |||||||
11-20-22 | Cowboys -120 v. Vikings | Top | 40-3 | Win | 100 | 27 h 7 m | Show |
#471 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Dallas Cowboys PK -120 over Minnesota Vikings, Sunday at 4:25 PM ET - The oddsmakers and market are telling us something here. Dallas is favored @ Minnesota despite losing @ Green Bay last week, while the Vikings were upsetting Buffalo on the road. The Vikings have just 1 loss on the season and are undefeated at home yet Dallas is favored and the line has moved very little. We like the Cowboys to win this one. They will be motivated after losing in OT last week and this is a huge game for them as they sit in 3rd place in the NFC East behind Philly and NY Giants. Meanwhile Minnesota has a huge lead in the NFC North with Green Bay and their 7 losses sitting in 2nd place. The Vikings simply aren’t as good as their record might indicate. They’ve been fortunate going 7-0 SU in one score games and they are #2 in the NFL in turnover margin. In they key YPP margin metric they rank 23rd and Minny is getting outgained both on a YPP and YPG basis despite their 8-1 record. They are undefeated at home but those wins have come vs Arizona, Chicago, Green Bay, and Detroit who have a combined 14-26 record. Dallas should be fresh as they had a bye leading into their GB game and despite their loss last Sunday, they’ve covered 13 of the last 18 times they’ve been tabbed a favorite. The Boys have a big edge defensively (allowing 0.8 YPP less than Minnesota) and should be edgy on that side of the ball after a poor performance last weekend. We like Dallas to get the win and cover on Sunday. |
Service | Profit |
---|---|
William Burns | $846 |
Ross Benjamin | $790 |
Dan Kaiser | $545 |
Joey Tron | $511 |
Sean Murphy | $430 |
Sean Higgs | $352 |
Ricky Tran | $301 |
Ray Monohan | $263 |
Matt Fargo | $220 |
Kyle Hunter | $71 |