Brown's late kick helps Seattle spoil Cutler's debut
Football Betting Lines
12/04/2006 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Brown kicked three field goals in the final 4:08 of the game, including the winning 50-yard boot with five seconds left, as the Seahawks spoiled the NFL debut of Denver quarterback Jay Cutler with a 23-20 victory over the Broncos.
Shaun Alexander ran for a touchdown with 8:13 remaining, and the Seahawks forced five turnovers.
Brown also made kicks from 44 and 23 yards away in the fourth as Seattle (8-4) won for the fourth time in five contests to widen its lead to three games over San Francisco and St. Louis in the NFC West.
Cutler, this year's 11th overall draft pick out of Vanderbilt, led Denver to the tying score, a 71-yard connection to fellow rookie Brandon Marshall with 2:37 left.
However, that was enough time for Matt Hasselbeck to lead Seattle down the field, and Brown split the uprights. It was Brown's fourth game-winning field goal in the final minute this season, tying an NFL record.
"We made it bigger than it was by not executing our plays," Seattle wide receiver Deion Branch said. "We could have made it a whole lot easier on ourselves. Instead we put our backs against the wall. Our defense did a great job of getting us the ball and we had great field position throughout the whole game. Overall, we won the game and that is the only thing that matters."
Hasselbeck connected on 16-of-28 passes for 168 yards, while Alexander ran for 90 yards.
"Our defense and special teams created some turnovers, that was huge for us," Hasselbeck said. "I think [Denver] had a pretty good plan and we didn't execute some of the stuff that we are pretty good at executing. We just hung in there and didn't make big mistakes."
Cutler was just 10-of-21 for 143 yards passing with a pair of TDs and interceptions for the Broncos (7-5), who have lost three in a row to fall into a second-place tie with Kansas City in the AFC West, though three games behind San Diego.
"I knew going into this it wasn't going to be a perfect game, and it wasn't," Cutler said. "I made some mistakes, and we had a lot of mistakes. I kind of blame myself, though, and those turnovers hurt us. The defense played really well."
Tatum Bell rushed for 133 yards in a losing cause.
Denver coach Mike Shanahan decided to go with Cutler under center for the nationally-televised game due to the ineffectiveness of veteran Jake Plummer.
"We were in poor field position at times, but you can't have five turnovers in a football game in the National Football League and expect to win," Shanahan said. "We battled, we fought, but we made too many mistakes."
Two consecutive deep passes by Hasselbeck to Darrell Jackson, totaling 60 yards, moved the ball to the Denver one. Alexander then scored up the middle to complete the three-play drive, giving the Seahawks a 14-13 lead.
Rookie Brian Clark fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Seattle took over at the Broncos 40. A Denver holding penalty on third down moved the ball to the 33 and Brown's 44-yard field goal made it 17-13.
On the play after the ensuing kickoff, Cutler was picked off by Jordan Babineaux, setting up Seattle at the Denver 14. Brown converted that into a 23-yard field goal with 2:58 left.
The quick scoring continued. On Denver's next play from scrimmage, Cutler threw a short pass to the right side to Marshall, and he spun out of three tackles on the way to the end zone.
"That play symbolized what we're going to do the rest of the season," Marshall said. "We still have a chance at the wild card."
Jason Elam, who strained his left hamstring near the end of the opening half, kicked the extra point in pain.
Seattle took over at its own 14 following a holding penalty on the kickoff return. Hasselbeck though converted a big third down on the game-winning drive with a 16-yard pass to Nate Burleson to move the ball to the Seattle 36. A short pass to Branch advanced the ball to near midfield and a 13-yard strike to D.J. Hackett moved it to the 38.
Alexander rumbled eight yards and Hasselbeck spiked the ball to kill the clock to give Brown a shot and he connected.
Elam kicked a 37-yard field goal late in the first quarter, and it became 10-0 with 6:14 left in the second when Cutler threw a seven-yard TD pass to Stephen Alexander.
Darryl Tapp returned an interception 25 yards for a score less than two minutes later to get Seattle on the board.
"I'm disappointed," Cutler added. "I was hoping that we'd get the win. To have a game like this, and have two picks and one get housed, it's tough."
Elam ran for a first down on a fake field goal try in the final seconds of the half, but hurt his hamstring. On the next play, the last one of the half, he kicked a 41-yard field goal for a 13-7 Broncos advantage.
Game Notes
Denver middle linebacker Al Wilson hurt his neck in the fourth quarter. He was carted off the field and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital...Seattle plays at Arizona on Sunday, while Denver's next game is at San Diego...Jackson had six catches for 91 yards...Brown had misses of 40 and 53 yards in the second quarter...This is Denver's first three-game skid since the 2003 season...The loss snapped Denvers 12-game home winning streak in December...Denver now leads the all-time series by a 33-18 count, including a 20-5 edge in Colorado...Broncos running back Cecil Sapp sprained his left ankle...Alexander had his 60th straight game with a run of at least 10 yards, tying the NFL record set by Barry Sanders.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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