Croakers Bets 2019

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I wait until week 5 before I start handicapping so in the meantime I have 2 bets I will take each week.

Bet 1 - Fish to lose ML starting with 2u and letting it ride until Week 5. If I lose I will start over.

Bet 2 - Parlay Browns to win and Fish to lose with 1u each week.

Fish look like they will be overmatched in skill by every other team except Cardinals who they don't play. I find it hard to see a game where they will start close to even money.

Browns were pretty good last year and with a bit of luck could have gone 11-5 [2 OT loses and an OT tie]. From memory Action Jackson also botched the end of one of the early games. So they definitely weren't horrible and they have significantly improved their roster for 2019.

Week 1 bets

Fish to lose -305 2u
Parlay Browns/Fish [to lose] 1u -123


BOL
 

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croaker...…...BOL with your early action and the season buddy...…….indy
 

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Fish were worse than expected.

Ill give the Browns a mulligan as the zebras appeared to be getting paid by the number of times they threw flags.

Record Week 1 -0.34u

Notes on Browns

Heavily penalized until Titans went up by 2 scores at the start of Q4 [15/158], then the penalty frequency went back to normal.
Many penalties were trivial and had the effect of breaking up any rhythm.
Browns were close at the half even after having a huge penalty differential.
First Titans TD was basically a gift from the zebras.

I'll wait to the end of week 3 before I jump off the Baker bandwagon.

Week 2

Fish opened +11 but went out to 17.5, now +19
ML to lose was -2800, so I adjusted my strategy and took alt line -13.5 at -200

Week 2 bets

Parlay Browns to win x Fish to lose by at least 2TD +161 1u
 

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Fish lost again.

Browns won comfortably as, apart from LVB, the Jets couldn't move the ball.


Record after Week 2

Fish to lose +2.0u
Browns Fish Parlay +0.61u

Total +2.61u


Week 3

Fish travel to Dallas line around 3TD and ML -2200

Bets

I've taken the alt line -16.5 at -225 for 4u

Parlay Browns -2.5 x Fish to lose +175 for 1u


Fish have just traded their first rounder from last year. They are not taking any chances and are determined to get the top pick in 2020 and 2021.

I expect they will trade down from number 1 in 2020 and end up with lots of first round draft picks in 2021. Then dump the current coach and get one of the "Smart" young offensive geniuses to take advantage of Lawrence's skill set.

In 2022 the Fish will have more players from the Tide and and the South Carolina Tigers than players from their current roster.

Sucks for the players, the coach and the fans but it is a good plan, I expect many teams will end up doing the same thing.
 

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Fish lost again. +.88u

Sadly Browns lost. -1u

Browns offense was disappointing, go routes and slants were pretty much all the coaching staff could come up with. Wade Philips didn't even raise a sweat.

I don't think the Kitchens offense would trouble many High School teams, it reminds me of someone buying a Ferrari and dropping in a tractor gearbox.

At the Giants OBJ was usually open but Eli couldn't get him the ball. At the Browns its the opposite with an accurate passer and no plan on how to get him open and not even getting him into 50:50 spots.

Kitchens at the presser said put the loss on me, he should have said, "Those fancy X's and O's from those those skinny nerdy coaches, who gives an F. Putting the ball in the hands of your playmakers is whats its all about. We do innovate and this week we set a record as the first team ever to call a draw play on 4th and 9."

The only chance the Browns have against good teams is for Baker to go full Aaron Rogers and start running the offense from the huddle.

The Browns defense was good even though they had 7 starters out.

Anyway

Record +2.49u


Dolphins now have competition with 6 teams starting 0-3 so a win here could cost them the first pick.

The Chargers will be looking to rebound from a beat down by the Texans. Rivers will pick the Dolphins secondary apart.

This weeks bets

Fish to lose by at least 11.5 at -200 for 5.8u.

Taking the points for the Browns +7 and Fish to lose by 11.5 at +180 for 0.5u.
 

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A good day.

Browns won outright and pretty comfortably in the end. I didn't see the first half but the defense looked good from what I saw of the second half.

The Fish remain locked in first place in the race for Tua. The Fish will get worse as the season progresses, injuries increase, and the supply of NFL ready gas station attendants in Florida depletes.

After Week 4 There are 5 teams with a chance to go 0-16.
Bengals Jets Fish Skins Broncos. The Cards have a tie so have f'd themselves.

I don't think the Jets or Broncos are deliberately tanking and with the Skins its hard to tell, more likely Gruden is trying to get fired so he can go and coach in Los Vegas with his brother.

The Bengals look to be the main opposition for the Fish, as they have Dalton off contract next year and have just extended AJ Green's recovery.

The Tua Bowl will be played between Fish and Bengals just before Xmas with 2 0-14 teams embarrassing the shield with huge injury reports and backups galore.


Record after Week 4

+6.29u, not fantastic but at least positive.

In other news

1. Panthers are now 2-0 without Cam Newton, Ron Rivera remains committed to Kyle Allen until they can find a few of 8 foot tall receivers and tight ends.

2. Tom Coughlin is paying $44m to 2 QB's who are not playing for the Jags this year [including $15m for Blake Bortles to be the backup for Jarod Goff] , and hardballing one of the leagues top defensive players who they are happy to pay $3.6m. After putting Ramsay up for trade they turned down 2 first rounders. Coughlin wanted the trade but the Khan wouldn't approve.

Khan "Why do you want to trade Jalen?"
Coughlin "He's not a team player"
Khan "How many games has he missed"
Coughlin "1"
Khan "The game 2 days after the birth of his daughter and he still showed up on the sideline to support his team mates"
Coughlin "Yes he's a locker room cancer, and he was only 3 minutes early for one of the team meetings"
Khan "By the way Tom when can I stop writing checks for Blake Bortles?"

3. Defensive genius Vic Fangio leaving for Denver, manages to improve the Bears defense and simultaneously worsen both the Bronco's defense and offense. Fangio remains popular with the various talking heads because he is a tough talking defensive football guy and just like them doesn't seem to understand much about the X's and O's.

4. CME related news. Questions are being asked by neuro-scientists after hot taker Emmanuel Occho called Paul Finebaum a racist for not supporting Cam Newton for league MVP, as to how he sustained a serious case of CME while only playing a handfull of NFL snaps.

5. More CME related news. Stephen A. still believes that Gettleman sabotaged the Giants franchise by drafting Jones at 6, instead of Haskins. Scientists are now investigating whether you can get CME simply by watching football.

6. Browns and Baker have dropped off the planet after dismembering the talking head annointed AFC North Champions and MVP candidate Jackson on Sunday. They are only popular with the talking heads when losing.

On to Week 5.
 

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Week 5 Thursday Night Football Rams v Seahawks.

The 3-1 Rams travel to take on the 3-1 Seahawks in Seattle on Thursday.

This one looks too easy.........

Records and efficiency stats are similar and the Rams are coming off a loss to the Buccaneers.

Rams opened -1.5 and have crossed the 0 to now be +2.0.

I really like the Rams in this one.

1. The efficiency stats and narratives around the match don't include this stat.

Number of wins by the 3 teams the Seahawks have beaten = 0
Number of wins by the 3 teams the Rams have beaten = 7

2. Re the loss to the Bucs. The Rams want to win the division and I'm pretty sure that the Buccaneers are in some other division and as they had a game against a division rival on the road in 4 days time [this game] I'm happy to give them a mulligan ie totally ignore it for betting purposes. The efficiency stats from week 4 won't really add much, and they were pretty close after week 3. Main difference is that the Rams stats were generated against much stronger opponents. Much like the Saints Cowboys stats prior to their Week 4 game [ie Cowboys looked unbeatable against the Fish, Skins, and Giants].

Why risk injury and help Carroll with his game plan by putting in the full offense/defense packages in an essentially meaningless game.

3. Narratives that help the Rams price

Whats wrong with Rams?
Goff is overpaid and over rated
Wilson is the best QB ever [after beating 3 winless teams]
Gourley is on load management [maybe true, Rams maybe holding him back for the important games like this one]
Rams have the Superbowl losing hangover

Seattle are a good team but in this spot and this price I like the Rams.

Bet Rams ML 2u @+110


I will also add up to another unit live if the Rams fall behind during the game not for record.
 

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5. More CME related news. Stephen A. still believes that Gettleman sabotaged the Giants franchise by drafting Jones at 6, instead of Haskins. Scientists are now investigating whether you can get CME simply by watching football.

That's great, some of these talking heads, I cant get passed the channel fast enough. BOL on your plays.
 

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5. More CME related news. Stephen A. still believes that Gettleman sabotaged the Giants franchise by drafting Jones at 6, instead of Haskins. Scientists are now investigating whether you can get CME simply by watching football.

That's great, some of these talking heads, I cant get passed the channel fast enough. BOL on your plays.


Thanks

If interested in good info Chris Simms, Legendary Longhorn and son of the great Phil has a good video podcast which breaks down the games into terms that even I can understand.

https://www.nbcsports.com/video/show/chris-simms-unbuttoned he has a good analysis of Goff's performance vs the Bucs based on evidence rather than twitter retweets.
 

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Gurley is not close to 100%, he had elite NFL speed (though his first year he didn't when he was recovering from ACL surgery) and was a top 3 RB in the NFL (Barkely, Elliott) until mid 2018 when he got hurt again... sure, he "looks" like a runner but his quickness is not there, he does NOT have that top notch explosivenees, he is officially mediocre.

Haskins is one of the most overrated QBs ever, sure, he is tall and has a good arm. So do hundreds of others. He started 14 games in college for a middle school level passing offense, they'd run the ball over and over then he would throw long to a future NFL receiver. Good NFL prosepects play for several years in sophisicated passing college offenses. Jones is superior in every way to Haskins.
 

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An expensive missed kick...

Seahawks played well and you can't argue they didn't deserve the W. The Rams outgained them but the game was pretty even. Rams struggled to get TD's which is what cost them the game, close but no cigar.

Record now +4.29u

Sadly the Fish have the week off.

After 4 weeks the stats efficiency stats are still very volatile with teams jumping up and down after each game and uncertainty around the strength of opponent etc. But this means there are some opportunities....

MIN -5 @ NYG

Next up Vikings take on Danny Dimes and the G-Men. They have made the news with general dissatisfaction with the overuse of the 1989 West Coast Offense. Kirk [beta] Cousins bent over for Adam Thielen with his apology. Anyway this is the perfect spot for the Vikes to get back on track against the dismal Giants secondary. Dropping in a couple of more imaginative passing plays and not being one dimensional ie not using Zimmerball running the ball until they go down 2 scores, then passing the ball until the end, should make it tougher for the opposing defense.

Vikings have a real defense so I'm betting Jones will be under pressure for the first time and have a let down game.

Bet MIN -5 2u -110

GB @ DAL -3.5

2 of the best defenses going up against 2 impaired offenses so this will be my first totals bet.

Aaron Rogers under the Matt Lafleur offense without Adams vs Dak without his left tackle against Mike Pettine's offense. I expect a lot of punts an FG's.

Bet u47 -110 2u

Bucs @ Saints -3.5

Look for a regression to the mean for Jameis facing the awesome Saints defense. FG's will probably be enough to win it but their is a good chance Kamara has a big game.

The stats are Bucs efficiency stats are skewed high after the Rams game they jumped from 20 to 7 from week 3 to week 4, and the Saints stats are skewed low after facing 3 decent teams.

Bet Saints - 3 +100 2u

Browns Parlay

Taking Browns as usual this time with the Bears, I expect Kahlil Mack to get plenty of chances to reintroduce himself to his old friend Derek Carr. And Chase Daniel should move the ball better after having a week practice and Nagy can design an NFL game plan for the first time this year.

So more points than expected by Bears and less than expected by the Raiders.

I still can't believe anyone drafted Trubisky after watching his bowl game disaster, let alone in the first round. I'd rather have Luke Falk.

Bet

Taking Browns +4 with Bears -5 @ +264 for 0.5u
 

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A bad week record now +5.69u

Bears were disappointing giving up 400 yards to the Raiders who deserved the win. They could have easily won by more if the zebras had been a little more reasonable with some of the penalties. Bears D didn't make the plane trip and they ended with 0 sacks and 1 QB hit. The game was entertaining but a lot of bad football played. Credit to all the Gruden Grinders on the team, they played tough.

As expected the Vikings abandoned Zimmerball, ran a balanced offense [27-34] and everyone was happy [apart from the Giants]. Jones played well and I wonder how he would be doing if he had a real number 1 receiver, like say OBJ.

Saints game went as expected, Jameis played well but Saints had the edge in offense and defense. The Saints look like an elite team

Dallas Packers game was surprising at least to me. The Dallas D gave up over 150 yards in Q1. They made the Packers run game look unstoppable.

After seeing the randomness of Week 5 results I'm going to ignore the stats and attempt to #winitallbackwithonebet tomorrow with the Browns. OBJ vs Richard Sherman should at least be entertaining.

So my bet is.

1.5u Browns -110
0.5u Browns ML +185
 

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The lines for the Fish/Skins are out.

The Fish to lose opened +6.5 and quickly dropped to +3.5. After the Skins embarrassing loss and coach firing.

I like the Skins in this spot, they are bad, but not historically bad, just normal Skins bad. I jumped on the +3.5 but I'm not loading up and only bet 2u at -110. I expect the line to move out as cooler heads bet the Skins. Could be the first game where fans of both teams wear paper bags.

The Fish haven't come this far to let the Skins beat them out of last place, and from the Skins players point of view, none of them will want to lose to possibly the worst team in NFL history.


The big winner in this was Jay Gruden who actually sounded like he wouldn't have minded getting fired at the end of last season so he could have a year off prior to Vegas. Snyder can use the money he's saving with his pro bowl left tackle holdout to pay the balance of Gruden's salary. Snyder may be the worst owner in sports but he's not the least profitable.

Gruden's replacement Super Coach Callaghan hasn't named Haskins as his starter yet. I'm confident the Callaghan was the cheapest option available at short notice.

Breaking CME News

Mike Tomlin trying to explain how having possession of the football is a bad thing. It's up there with Trippin Tomlin's attempt to tackle a runner from the sideline on national TV.

The reason why the Steelers have under performed despite having stacked teams seems to be clear. No surprise that the Steelers are now 1-4 with an average team, Tomlin as head coach is probably worth -4 in terms of wins per season.


Off Topic

There has been a lot of SEC talk after the Gators/Auburn game. Florida playoff run, Florida are back, awesome Florida defense. My recollection of the game is how bad both teams were compared with the other top 10 teams so fading the Gators against LSU looks value.

This is the same Florida team who were lucky to get the win against the abysmal Miami team in Week 0. Miami went on to lose against UNC and just got destroyed by VT.

Florida are getting 13.5 at LSU and are getting 67% of the tickets....... Another 2 weeks of Florida playoff scenario narratives they should get even more tickets without the line moving.......
 

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The Fish f'd me this week.

Not only did I drop 2u on the spread but I added 0.5u live after I saw Flores -ev play calling.

Eg onside kick when down 7 with 11 minutes to play, around 95% chance of giving the ball to the Skins in good field position.

Next possession Flores punts when 4th a 5 at the 50 when Fitzpatric was hot. With a deep ball from the 50 on 4th down, 2 good things can happen 1) a completion, 2) a defensive pass interference call. The worst that can happen is an incompletion, as even an interception on a deep throw is usually similar to a punt.

Flores is a smart guy and knows the numbers but made calls like this the entire day [aggressive when ev- and not aggressive when ev+], but he didn't count of Fitzpatric turning into Fitzmagic and nearly derailing their draft position.

The Fish players played hard and IMO deserved the W, and with decent play calling may have won the game comfortably. Not sure what this says about the Redskins but not too much positive. WHen time is running down and you only need a first down to ice the game why not throw the ball???? AP was averaging just over 4yards per carry [taking away his 25 yarder]. smh.

So my NFL record is now +1.19u. Theres a fine line between success and failure, ie if one or 2 plays had gone my way it would be around +11, but it is what it is.

Fortunately I didn't have any other NFL bets...... and luckily held off backing the Browns.

I also had a bit of positive variance in College games so my BR is still hanging in there. I was lucky enough to visit Louisiana a few years ago and am happy for Coach O and the Tigers fans after the good win against the Gators.

NFL notes

Coach Zimmer seems to have discovered the secret as to why winning teams run the ball. After they have built a lead through passing offense, they can run the ball to shorten the game to prevent the other team from having enough possessions to make a come back. Kirk Cousins must have played well as I couldn't hear Mike Florio whining about him for 4 hours.

49ers looked really good again.

It took the Seahawks a few series before they cracked the code to Kitchens offense. I can imagine Carroll at halftime after checking the tape "Sh*t, they're actually still running their high school offense."

Falcons were embarrassed again, this time by the Kliff Kingsbury college offense. Matt Ryan wanted to have Matt LeFleur as OC after Kyle Shanahan departed, but Falcons brains trust wanted Sark, the rest is history. With a good OC they were one of the top teams in the league, now not so much.

2018 Cowboys with no Amare Cooper were an average team, fast forward....
2019 Cowboys with no Amare Cooper are an average team.
2020 prediction Dak gets franchized and traded, Jerrah hires Lincoln Riley and trades up to get Jalen Hurts.

Aaron Rogers throws shade on Matt LeFleur again, saying he told LeFleur to put Allen Lazard in the game in Q4.

Thoughts on capping

My capping uses the basic technique of using efficiency stats to project yards, and finally I've got it pretty good at predicting the Vegas lines, and actual yards.

However, yards don't seem to matter that much in the modern NFL, I haven't finished running the numbers [or even 100% sure of what numbers to tun] but I'm looking at a couple of other metrics additional to the efficiency stats. It's doing my head in at the moment, but I'm trying numerize coaching and big play potential [after listening to Coach Myer] and see how they correlate with the lines and the actual outcomes.


This week's early bets

I've taken a parlay KC -3 and Colts -1 at +250 for 1u.
Both divisional rivalry games, Broncos coming off a desperate win and the Colts coming off the bye against the Texans.
And put down 1u on the Saints +3 at +100 and the 49ers -10 at -105
 

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Jalen "Ram"say to the Rams, sounds good.

Rams can now play man coverage with Ramsay on the the opponents number 1 and a variety of schemes on the other players.

The top 4 defences are also the teams with the top 4 pass defenses, the Rams are currently number 5 in rush defense but number 20 in pass.

You don't have be a rocket scientist to see how this will [or at least has the potential] to propel the Rams into one of the top defenses for the remainder of the season.

I'm taking a bit of a punt that Ramsay will play and shut down the Falcons offense this Sunday.

They have a shot of covering at -3 anyway but hopefully Jalen's back is fully recovered enough to go against Julio Jones.

Bet is Rams -3 at -110 for 2u
 

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They did lose the SB...

LOL Its the SB loser bowl.

2016 loser vs 2018 loser.

Anyway

There seems to be a whole new industry in sports since the introduction of legalized betting [outside of Vegas and the reservations]. The talking heads are now not only giving us the latest hot takes and fake news but now making picks on games.

They have all been trained to use the jargon and say, "trap", "sharp", "fishy", "public", and "line movement" at every opportunity and they love teasers.

One of them let something slip when talking about one of his winners "I was so nervous watching the game, I could only have been more nervous if I had actually bet the game".

I heard another one give interesting info about his unit betsizing for one his locks that lost "Lucky I only bet $5".
 

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A lot of recent talk by the talking heads about the NFL wanting to crack down on player movement, following Jalen Ramsay wanting out of Jacksonville.

I'm pretty sure Ramsay wanted to stay in Jacksonville and wanted to sign a contract extension and it was the team that didn't want to extend him.

But there are 2 sides to every trade so I guess half the teams would support a move to keep disgruntled players and the other half would see it as an opportunity to improve their roster.

The good news for Jacksonville is that "locker room cancer" and "bad team mate" Ramsay is gone, and they don't have to pay him $15m to play for the Rams [unlike Blake Bortles who has gone to the Rams but is still being paid $15m by the Jags].

Last rant for the day

Cowboys v Eagles [PSA]

Until you know the injury situation re Cooper and Smith and I don't think you can cap this game, and may end up being at a disadvantage to the insiders [I don't mean ESPN insiders]. Cooper and Smith are still down as injured but as this is an important game for both teams and there is the chance they may play.
 

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The Cowboys have Cooper et al available tonight.

Bet Cowboys -3 at -110 for 1u
 

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