Alouettes tangle with Tiger-Cats in home opener

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07/20/2010 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ranked fifth in the most recent power rankings in the CFL, the Montreal Alouettes hope to move up as they contend against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in their 2010 home opener at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium this Thursday evening.

After getting off to a rough start in the season opener, a meeting with Saskatchewan that resulted in a 54-51 overtime setback, the Als appear to be back on the right track after putting up consecutive wins against Edmonton (33-23) and British Columbia (16-12). At 2-1, Montreal matches the surprising Toronto Argonauts at the top of the Eastern Division standings.

Quarterback Anthony Calvillo, who is making a run at many of the all-time passing records in Montreal history, completed 30-of-47 for 297 yards against the Lions in a close call last time out. Calvillo failed to throw a touchdown pass in the contest and in fact, it was kicker Damon Duval who saved the day for the Als with four field goals and a couple of singles, accounting for the majority of the team's point production.

As for the Tiger-Cats, they dropped their first two outings of the regular season against Winnipeg and Calgary before hitting the win column with a convincing 28-7 romp over the Blue Bombers in week three of the campaign. In that meeting, Kevin Glenn hit on 29-of-36 passing for 340 yards and three touchdowns, with Maurice Mann turning half of his four catches into scores. Running back DeAndra' Cobb began the meeting with a two-yard touchdown catch and finished it with a six-yard run into the end zone as well.

From a defensive standpoint, Hamilton limited the Blue Bombers to less than 24 minutes of possession and 290 yards of offense overall, while knocking starting quarterback Buck Pierce out of action in the third quarter with a right knee injury.

As well as the defense played for the Cats last week, there has to be some concern with the squad's inability to stop opponents on the ground, given that they are second-to-last in the league with an average of 146 ypg given up to opposing runners. Even though he is far off the pace he set a season ago, Montreal running back Avon Cobourne might use this opportunity to get well and improve upon his mere 4.8 yards per carry thus far.

As a unit Montreal, which is second in the league in scoring at 33.3 ppg, has just two rushing touchdowns thus far and has sputtered since the loss in the opener when the offense erupted for significant gains. Calvillo ranks second in the league with his 902 yards through the air, leading to six touchdowns and just two interceptions, yet it still feels as though he is not nearly as precise as he was last season.

On the other hand, Glenn currently ranks third in the CFL with his 889 yards passing and has completed a league-best 70 percent of his attempts. Add to that his five TDs and just a single INT and it is easy to see why he ranks second in efficiency rating with a mark of 110.0 after three games.

With an average of just 79 yards rushing per game the Tiger-Cats are the least likely club to take advantage of the Montreal defense, but don't tell that to Cobb, who ranked fifth last year in rushing with 1,217 yards. However, even though Cobb put up three more yards overall than Cobourne, it was the latter who led the CFL in rushing touchdowns with 13, while Cobb was credited with only five rushing scores in 2009.

Last year the Als made a clean sweep of Hamilton, taking all three contests, which means Montreal now owns an 83-74-7 regular-season mark versus the Tiger- Cats going back to 1946.

The teams are set to meet two more times this season, with both of those contests being played on Hamilton's home field on September 11 and October 22.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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