2011 September at LinesMaker

Albert Haynesworth, Patrick Chung Won’t Suit Up Against Bills

Well, we have one expla­na­tion for why Albert Haynesworth was so quiet last week. Haynesworth’s back injury is bad enough to keep him out of this weekend’s game. the Patri­ots down­graded Haynesworth, safety Patrick Chung, and wide receiver Tay­lor Price to out on Saturday. Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe noted early this week that Haynesworth didn’t have a note­wor­thy snap in 22 plays.  Bedard charted the snaps and notes that Charg­ers guard Kris Diel­man han­dled Haynesworth 1-on-1 on 15 of the plays. The Patri­ots are thin in a cou­ple of key areas. They are miss­ing... 

Roy Williams Returns, Marion Barber Expected to Be Out for Bears

The Bears will get a start­ing receiver back into the lineup Sun­day.  And that may not nec­es­sar­ily be good news. Chicago will get Roy Williams back into the lineup against the Pack­ers, accord­ing to Jason La Can­fora of NFL Net­work. That may reduce the snaps for Johnny Knox. In other Bears injury news, Mar­ion Bar­ber is expected to miss his third straight game despite return­ing to prac­tice on Friday. La Can­fora also reports that rookie tackle Gabe Carimi could return much sooner than the orig­i­nal one month esti­mate from his knee injury. Carimi may have a shot to... 

Tarkenton Was His Generation’s Michael Vick

Michael Vick is known for frus­trat­ing defenses with his mobil­ity in and out of the pocket. His speed, agility, and arm strength are a dif­fi­cult com­bi­na­tion to con­tain. But as elu­sive as he is, he’s far from the first to dis­hearten defend­ers with his rare skill set. Before Vick, there were sig­nal callers like Ran­dall Cun­ning­ham, Steve Young, and John Elway who could keep a play alive with their fancy foot­work. Cur­rent Vikings quar­ter­back Dono­van McN­abb is another whose mobil­ity stands out, although he may have lost a step or two over the years. Per­haps... 

Choosing to Stand or Hit at Blackjack Casino Game Site

When play­ing Black­jack at casino game site, you need to under­stand the basic rules of the game thor­oughly. Basi­cally, in Black­jack the player should have a hand that is near­est to a total of 21 than the dealer, that too with­out going over. One of the cru­cial aspects of play­ing Black­jack at casino game web­site is to decide whether to stand or hit, i.e. whether you wish to risk think­ing that the next card will give a total of 21 or you hold out with the total that you already have with the risk of dealer going bust. This dilemma is faced by all Black­jack play­ers at every hand. When... 

Lions Lose Special-Teams Ace

The Detroit Lions have yet to lose a game this sea­son.  But they’ve lost for the rest of the sea­son a key player whose con­tri­bu­tions don’t show up in promi­nent places in the box score. Tim Twen­ty­man of the Detroit News reports that the Lions have placed line­backer Isa­iah Eke­ji­uba on injured reserve.  He suf­fered a shoul­der injury in the first half of Sunday’s over­time win in Minnesota. Eke­ji­uba is regarded as one of the team’s top special-teams con­trib­u­tors.  His ros­ter spot was filled when the Lions signed cor­ner­back Anthony Madison.  

Sports Betting Tips: Wagering Against Squares

Sports­book bet­ting involves lots of research and strate­gies to ensure con­sis­tent wins. The main rea­son behind the fail­ure of most gam­blers is that they always tend to bet under the influ­ence of pub­lic or bases on gen­eral con­sen­sus in sports bet­ting. How­ever, bet­ting against the pub­lic or ‘squares’, as it is said in this indus­try, is a good strat­egy that one should fol­low to get good value from betting. This does not mean that you will win every time when bet­ting against squares, but it will surely prove ben­e­fi­cial in the long run. The best sport... 

Dolphins Land Steve Slaton

At a time when the Dol­phins are real­iz­ing that no amount of willpower can make Reg­gie Bush any­thing other than, well, Reg­gie Bush, the team landed on waivers a guy who has, when given the chance, played bet­ter than Reg­gie Bush ever has. The Dol­phins have been awarded for­mer Tex­ans run­ning back Steve Sla­ton on waivers, the team has announced.  To cre­ate a ros­ter spot for Sla­ton, the Dol­phins waived defen­sive end Ryan Baker. Bush has gained 69 yards on 27 car­ries in three games, for a career-low aver­age of 2.6 yards per carry.  On Sun­day at Cleve­land,... 

Golden Lifts Miami, Navy Pushes Carolina, Badgers Keep Rolling

Penn State’s 14–10 win over Tem­ple wasn’t the biggest story of col­lege football’s Week 3. I mean, it wasn’t even close. But there’s no ques­tion that the Nits’ nar­row victory–a vic­tory that was only made pos­si­ble by some late Tem­ple mistakes–has made clear once and for all that the Penn State pro­gram has reached some­thing of a break­ing point. Because the Joe Paterno sit­u­a­tion, I am afraid, has become untenable. Paterno’s� pro­gram is tread­ing water. It lacks energy. It lacks ath­letes. It lacks buzz. And until Paterno moves on, until he hands... 

Off Track Betting Tips: Types of Kentucky Derby Betting

When it comes to off track bet­ting, Ken­tucky Derby is always on the top of the mind of the horse bet­ting enthu­si­asts. There are sev­eral types of bets that play a cru­cial role in Ken­tucky Derby bet­ting, includ­ing straight wagers.  Basi­cally you will have to place a min­i­mum of 2 dol­lars wager on any horse that you believe will fin­ish first, and you win if that horse wins the race. Then is there is the “Place” as well, wherein you col­lect if the horse that you wagered on fin­ished at first or sec­ond place. How­ever, if your horse wins the race, than you will... 

Thursday Morning One-Liners

Second-year RB C.J. Spiller is “the for­got­ten man” in the Bills’ fast-start offense. The Dol­phins are mak­ing a run at lead­ing the Suck for Luck race. The 2–1 Patri­ots come in third in Don Banks of SI.com’s lat­est power rankings. The Ravens’ Week Four goal is to stop the Jets’ run­ning game. Ravens rookie WR Tor­rey Smith is expected to start against the Jets. Ben­gals coor­di­na­tor Mike Zim­mer is uncon­cerned with his defense’s ranking. The Browns are finally fac­ing a for­mi­da­ble quar­ter­back this week. The Steel­ers have many health con­cerns on...