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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats October 26th

Bad Beats: Tough to recover from Dolphin debacle

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Whether you won or lost, the Saints’ remarkable cover against Miami is the type of game that messes with your mind. It lingers and affects the way you bet for weeks.

If you had the Dolphins plus 6, you’re heartbroken and have lost a lot of confidence. If you had the Saints, you’re probably a little bit over-confident. How you react in coming weeks could be the difference of a winning season and a losing one.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats October 19th

Bad Beats: How do you blow a coverage when you are in basically your Hail Mary defense?

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Ask the Washington Huskies.

With 13 seconds to play in a tie game with Arizona State, the Huskies allowed not one but two Sun Devil receivers to get behind their defensive backs deep. Arizona State quarterback Danny Sullivan simply dropped back and heaved a 50-yard winning touchdown pass to a wide-open Chris McGaha.

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Cappers

Burns’ Week 7 2009 BCS Handicapping Tips

Beyond the BCS: Who’s better — TCU or Boise State?

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Each week Ben Burns and David Payne scour the non-BCS conferences looking for a hidden gem.

Life is tough in the MWC and WAC. Lose one game, and you go from a potential BCS bowl to the Humanitarian Bowl. That’s a mammoth pay cut, and a lot of pressure on the coaches from the non-BCS conferences.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats October 13th

Bad Beats: Ego check for Ray Lewis and Brandon Meriweather

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Maybe we were bullied too much on the playground, but puffed-up egos really piss us off here at Bad Beats Central.

Losing a bet because someone can’t keep their ego in check and feels the need taunt or excessively celebrate is infuriating.

Take Ray Lewis for instance. Does anyone in the NFL not know this guy is a hard-hitting, physical bad ass?

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Cappers

Burns’ 2009 BCS Handicapping Tips

Beyond the BCS: 3 teams in fading patterns

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Each week David Payne and Ben Burns scour the non-BCS conferences, looking for a hidden gem to take advantage of.

This week, they take a look at teams that are set up to fall during the second half of the college football season.

Hawaii: The Warriors laid an egg and lost their quarterback in last week’s 27-6 loss at Louisiana Tech.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats October 6th

Burns’ Bad Beats: Extra points deliver extra bad beats

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

For something worth one point, PAT’s sure do screw things up.

No one knows that more than bettors who played the Kansas State-Iowa State game or the total in Auburn-Tennessee.

Last season, teams converted extra points better than 95 percent of the time. Thirty-five teams did not miss an extra point all season, and only one team, North Texas, converted on less than 85 percent.

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Cappers

Burns’ NCAAF Handicapping Tips

Beyond the BCS: Nothing certain about mid-week games

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

The fall shuffle is on.

Beginning this month, teams from across the country will have their schedules turned upside down with Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday games.

Classes will have to be rescheduled, and practice routines will be disrupted. Players and coaches will be traveling late at night. It’s hectic.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats September 28th

Burns’ Bad Beats

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

If your team never gives you any hope of winning, the loss often won’t sting as bad. You can simply write it off as a bad decision, try to learn from it and move on.

Saturday’s Wake Forest-Boston College game seemed to be one of those types of games for anyone who bet the Demon Deacons.

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Handicapping

Finding Value When Betting On College Football

Beyond the BCS: Scanning the card

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

North Texas quarterback Riley Dodge returns for the Mean Green this week against Middle Tennessee. Dodge sat out last week’s game at Alabama after separating his shoulder in an overtime loss against Ohio. But coach Todd Dodge told reporters that his son and quarterback will be at full strength against the Blue Raiders, who are coming off a win over Maryland.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats September 22nd

Bad Beats: When Bad Quarterbacks Attack

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Here’s the situation: You’re laying two points with a home favorite. Your team just scored a go-ahead touchdown and now leads 10-6 with 2:30 left.

Which opposing NFL quarterback would you most like to be facing in that situation?

Oakland’s JaMarcus Russell, if not the unanimous first choice, has to be in the discussion.

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Cappers

CFB Line Shopping: Small Schools

Value shopping: Is there any left in BYU or Houston?

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Both Cougars have caught the public’s eye by taking care of top-five BCS opponents early in the season.

BYU, of course, knocked out Heisman trophy winner Sam Bradford before knocking Oklahoma off its lofty No. 3 perch.

Houston exposed No. 5 Oklahoma State last week in Stillwater.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats September 14th

Burns’ Bad Beats: Three little Bears blew a game

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

First, Bad Beats would like to offer its sincerest condolences to Chicago Bears fans, who lost linebacker Brian Urlacher for the year during Sunday’s loss to Green Bay.
Now, we would like make fun of Nathan Vasher, Lovie Smith and Jay Cutler. Nice work, guys.

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Cappers

College Football Handicapping: Week 1 Review

Burns’ Small Conference Report

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

Who impressed?

Colorado State: Bettors would be wise to take notice of Rams’ coach Steve Fairchild. He’s a rising star, and it showed against rival Colorado Sunday.

Colorado State’s offense, featuring the most experienced offensive line in the nation, was balanced (208 passing, 168 rushing) and was a step ahead of the Buffalo defense throughout the first half.

The Rams’ defense shut down what is expected to be a good Buffalo rushing attack. Colorado averaged just 1.4 yards per carry and finished with 29 yards rushing.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats September 7th

Bad Beats: Welcome to college football by a straight right

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

College football welcomed back bettors with a LaGarrett Blount right hand instead of a friendly handshake.
The opening week featured backdoor covers, favorites who forgot to score in the second half, a last-minute safety that affected a total and a meaningless touchdown on the game’s final play that hurt.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats August 18th

Bad Beats: BCS style points can kill

Ben Burns
Ben Burns

The BCS has made running up the score a smart move instead of an unsportsmanlike one.

The embattled system forces coaches to emphasize their dominance, because, like it or not, style points matter.

Those style points also can lead to a bad beat.

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Handicapping

Ben Burns: Bad Beats July 20th

Bad Beats: Deeper, trendier than ever

Ben Burns

Ben Burns

Last week ‘s Bad Beats column either spawned the most intellectual conversation ever had in a Sports betting forum or the dumbest, depending how you look at it.

To quickly summarize, some of you believe there is no such thing as a bad beat. A loss is simply and ultimately a bad bet.