Referees, Strange Winds Have Huge Impact in Football….

by: Kendall Holiday

So close, yet so far away….In the world of Sports Handicapping, everything gets noticed, as was the case for us this past weekend in what was nearly a huge winning one for Kendall Holiday Sports. Times like these can be frustrating, but it is interesting to look at how many minute details, and how many people have their hands in an outcome of a football game.

We start with the Utah / BYU game on Saturday where Utah had a 10-9 lead with 1:28 remaining, and BYU facing a 3rd down and 18 on their own twelve yard line. This game looked over, unless BYU could do something it had not done all day, and that was move the football. QB Max Hall was playing with a sprained right shoulder, and it showed. His passes lacked zip, and his long ball settled in at roughly 40 yards. He drifted back to pass on third down and threw a ball down the middle of the field, the ball was tipped by the BYU wideout, and fluttered in the air, seemingly waiting for Utah to claim the Mountain West Conference Championship with a pick. Two separate Utah defenders had the tipped ball go through their hands before it fell to the ground to bring up a fourth down. Utah had been bringing the pressure on Hall all day, and it picked up in the fourth quarter. Fourth and eighteen was no different, as Hall dropped back to pass, it looked like he was sacked, but he escaped and drifted to his right, where Austin Collie was running a go route. The Utah defender had stopped running, assuming that Hall had been sacked. He had not, and threw a duck into the air headed to a wide open Collie. Collie made the catch, the ball landing just before a Utah safety could get over the top help to his teammate, and BYU was in business. BYU went on to score a touchdown with 30 seconds left, and secure a 17-10 win. One loss grasped from the hands of victory in strange circumstances.

Moving on to the strangest of all games which took place at Soldier Field in Chicago yesterday. Denver inexplicably kept kicking the ball to Devin Hester who took two to the house, before they decided they had better stop doing that. Even with the sickening display of Special, Special Teams, Chicago found itself down 34-20 with eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter as Denver got the ball back. Denver could do nothing with it, and set up to punt. This time, Todd Sauerbraun would kick away from Hester down the right side of the field. The snap came and Tillman came through untouched to the right of Sauerbraun who was directionally kicking it that way. He kept his head down and kicked the ball directly into the charging Manning who easily blocked the kick. This lead to Chicago’s touchdown which made it a seven point game. Denver got the ball back and punted once again, this time pinning the Bears offense at their own 20 yard with just under four minutes to play. Chicago could do nothing and found itself in a fourth down and twelve situation, and Grossman had that deer in headlights look he is so famous for. He dropped back to pass and threw another ill advised pass towards Muhsin Muhammed, who was blanketed by Dre Bly. The pass fell incomplete and it looked like Denver had the game in the bag. Not so fast as there was a yellow hankie laying on the field. Replays showed one of the more ridiculous penalties that have been called in a crucial situation this season. Bly stuck out his hand and hit Muhammed about ten yards down field. The contact did not break Muhammed’s stride nor change it whatsoever. The contact and the call did change the outcome of the game, as Chicago went down the field and tied the score, won the coin toss in overtime, and kicked the winning field goal. This is why we do what we do. This is what makes it exciting to be a fan of the game, and a handicapper, but it also shows that the best handicappers in the world, will never be correct every time. There are so many elements at move over the course of sporting event. How those elements mesh, and the really the timing in which they mesh is what determines the outcome of a game. Statistics do not always tell the whole story. Take it from us, after a frustrating weekend in which seven units of picks were lost in the manner explained above. We cannot wait for the next questionable call, or the next cornerback to drop a sure fire interception. This is what it is all about. Until next weekend…..

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