Friday was another great sports day with playoff baseball both during the day and into the night, plus some college football and hockey thrown in for good measure.
We also spent part of our day editing/posting stories to our VSiN.com website, which continues to have the most sports betting content you’ll find anywhere. Of course, if you’re a VSiN subscriber, you already know that. If you’re new to VSiN or on a trial basis, we encourage you to continue to check out everything VSiN has to offer. As for our Best Bets on Friday, we hope we helped our followers pay for their VSiN subscriptions as we won on Navy + 12.5 at SMU as the Midshipmen lost 40-34 but got us the cash. Navy ran for 372 yards as I expected, though we didn’t count on the passing game coming through to help get the back-door cover. But a win’s a win. We also won our MLB top play with the Padres 1st 5 + 110 at the Dodgers as they led 2-1 after 5 innings and went on to also win by the same 2-1 score and take a 2-1 series lead. All in all, a pretty awesome day. Let’s recap Friday’s (full-game) betting action, and then look for more plays on Saturday. In addition, as we’ve started doing this season, we’ll rerun that Wednesday column where I give my “takes” on every NFL game this weekend. %?ttingNews%% Friday’s RecapsMLB: Padres (+ 110) beat Dodgers late Friday to take 2-1 lead in their NLDS (the game stayed Under the betting total of 7.5 runs). Earlier, the Phillies (+ 105) beat the Braves 9-1 to take 2-1 lead in the other NLDS (went Over 6.5) and the Guardians (+ 140) beat the Yankees 4-2 in 10 innings to even their ALDS at 1-1 (the game pushed on the total of 6 runs).
More MLB: Underdogs swept 3-0 on Friday, tied with faves at 5-5 in the League Division Series round and lead 10-8 overall in the playoffs with 1 pick-'em. Home teams went 2-1 on Friday, lead 7-3 this round and 10-9 overall. Over/Unders 1-1-1 on Friday, Overs lead 5-4-1 this round and tied 9-9-1 overall.
CFB: SMU (-12.5) beat Navy 40-34 Friday night but Navy passing attack got the back-door cover (flew Over 59 points); in the only other #FBS game on the betting board, Texas-San Antonio (-33.5) beat Florida International 30-10 but also didn't cover (way Under 64).
NHL: Favorites went 4-0 on Friday and now lead 16-8 on the season. Home/road teams split 2-2 on Friday, home teams lead 14-8 overall (of course, not counting the 2 neutral-site games in Prague). Unders went 3-1 on Friday and took 13-11 lead overall.
NFL (ICYMI): After the Commanders’ home/fave/Under result in their 12-7 win at the Bears on Thursday night, faves lead 47-31-1 SU with 2 pick-’ems (WAS-DET in Week 2, TEN-WAS in Week 5) but dogs still lead 45-31-3 ATS (59.2%). Home teams dip to 41-37-1 SU with 2 neutral games while road teams improved to 41-35-3 ATS (53.9%). Unders lead 47-33-1 (58.8%), primetime Unders 12-5 (70.6%).
Saturday’s Takes
North Carolina State + 3 at Syracuse: The Orange is undefeated, but we don’t have Syracuse rated that highly and believe NC State pulls off the outright upset here (and that’s the basic reason for this and the plays below). If you prefer taking the points, try to shop around for the + 3.5s that are still out there as of early Saturday.
Memphis + 6 at East Carolina
Washington State + 3 at Oregon State Oklahoma State + 4 at TCUMariners 1st 5 -105 vs. Astros: My series bet doesn’t look so good on the Mariners as they trail 2-0 in this best-of-5 series. However, we’ve made plenty of money already as the Mariners have won our 1st 5 bets in both games so far, so let’s try again in Saturday’s Game 3. We’ll count on George Kirby (8-5, 1.21 WHIP) as his stats are comparable to Houston’s Lance McCullers (4-2, 1.24 WHIP). I actually think all 4 home dogs are live on Saturday, but the one I like second-most for our purposes here is the Guardians 1st 5 + 105 vs. the Yankees with Triston McKenzie (11-11, 0.94 WHIP) followed by Cleveland’s bullpen (though I’m assuming we won’t need to rely on the bullpen in the first 5 innings).
Welcome to our weekly Wednesday column where we give our “takes” on the full NFL schedule. You’re looking live at the ViewFromAnaheim as I’m on a little family trip with my wife and son, Maddux, for Oogie Boogie’s Halloween Bash at Disney California Adventure, but a sports betting reporter/handicapper’s job never takes a true vacation, especially during football season. Besides, this trip has been paid for with our winnings this NFL season as our beloved underdogs are hitting at 60% so far at 45-30-3 ATS with 2 pick-’ems as graded vs. the consensus closing lines in Vegas after going 10-5 ATS in Week 5. Personally, we went 5-2 ATS with our Best Bets that we listed in the Sunday version of this column with wins on the Giants + 8.5 vs. Packers, Texans + 7 at Jaguars, Falcons + 10 at Buccaneers, Cowboys + 5.5 at Rams and Bengals + 3.5 -120 at Ravens (and 6-2 ATS if including the Browns + 3 vs. the Chargers from earlier in the week for those who jumped in early before the line moved). The losses were on the Steelers + 14 at Bills and Lions + 3.5 at Patriots. We also went 4-1 with our plays in our big Vegas football contests, including one entry in Circa Sports Million that is 17-8 (68%), though my other entries are mostly playing for Quarter prizes unless we can string together some more 4-1 or 5-0 weeks. But that’s the goal, so let’s get to our comprehensive look at the NFL Week 6 card. Loyal readers know us as a “dog-or-pass” bettor, though I have plenty of followers that bet a lot more chalk than I do that still read my breakdowns as they feel that if I can’t made a case for the dog that they see it as a “buy” sign on the chalk. Per usual, even if I don’t have a Best Bet on a game, I give my “pool play” recommendations for those in contests where you have to pick every game. Chicago Bears at Washington Commanders (-1)Last Thursday’s 12-9 win by the Colts over the Broncos was said to set back offensive football by 50 years, and the conventional wisdom out there is that this Thursday’s game could do the same, especially as primetime Unders are off to an 11-5 start this season. However, in addition to being a “dog-or-pass” bettor, we’re usually an “Under-or-pass” bettor, but above all that we’re a contrarian bettor. If the whole world is saying one thing, we tend to fade the masses, so the Over 37.5 (the lowest total of Week 6) appeals to us. I don’t have much to offer in the way of stats as the Bears have the No. 31 offense at a mere 274 yards per game while the Commanders are No. 17 at 341.6 ypg and both teams are 3-2 with the Under, but QBs Justin Fields and Carson Wentz have shown some signs of competency from time to time. Besides, the Washington and Chicago defense are No. 17 and No. 22 in total defense and allow 23.6 and 21.2 points per game (and that adds up to closer to 44 points), so that gives hope to both teams to help put up enough points to get Over this depressed (and depressing) number.
Best Bet: Over 37.5 (pool play: Bears in all of my rare contests that use Thursday night games).
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-8.5) at Pittsburgh Steelers
I already had a 2-team, 6-point teaser from the Chiefs -1 to this game at Buccaneers -2.5, but the Chiefs’ 30-29 win over the Raiders on Monday night makes that a refund. However, this is a good time to start fresh with my recommended teaser plays for Sunday as we have several “advantage teasers” (or “Wong teasers” for the old-school bettors out there) that capture the key numbers of 3 and 7. We’ve also already gone on record with the Seahawks vs. the Cardinals, so our top teaser for Week 6 is Buccaneers -2.5/Seahawks + 8.5, but we’ll also be doing other combinations with the following plays: Saints + 8 vs. the Bengals, Jaguars + 8.5, Patriots + 8.5 and Chiefs + 8.5 vs. the Bills.
Best Bet: Bucs -2.5/Seahawks + 8.5 in 2-team, 6-point teaser, plus other teasers (pool play: Buccaneers 55/45 in ATS contests, but closer to 90/10 in SU pools).
Cincinnati Bengals (-2) at New Orleans Saints