Posted on 04 Feb 2012 at 16:12 PM by
Big Man with Football
And so to the big issue surrounding tomorrow night's battle in the Lucas Oil Stadium - who will win? It might seem like a trite and simple question when we've already gone into such detail regarding key issues surrounding the game, however it remains the most crucial of questions - will the it be the Patriots or the Giants who secure their fourth Super Bowl title? The Patriots remain the favourites to take the title by a very narrow margin as the betting for the game sees most bookmakers offering a three point spread, with the Giants a touch of odds on at that price. However the closer we get to kick off, the more it looks like Big Blue for the win, at least in the eyes of this column. We've already discussed the passing game - where Eli Manning, on this season's form, is entitled to consider himself at least the equal of Tom Brady. Brady has seen and done it all in professional football and his numbers for this season are fantastic, but even he would acknowledge that the
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Posted on 04 Feb 2012 at 15:14 PM by
Ruck Driver
With only a couple of hours to go until the kick off at Murrayfield, much has been made of the issue of experience in advance of the 130th meeting between Scotland and England. Certainly the bare numbers do not lie - the Scots bring 499 caps into battle in Edinburgh, while England have less than half that at 233 in total, an average of less than 16 per man. However the question has to be asked - what exactly have the Scots experienced in those 500 odd test matches? Largely, the answer is defeat. It's been a long time since Scotland finished at the top end of the Six Nations table and in a game like this their experience could just as easily act as a shackle or a burden as much as an advantage. England may be somewhat unprepared for the sense of theatre and occasion that is likely to await them at Murrayfield, but they have picked a team capable of expressing themselves, with a management unit that is encouraging them to do so. The problem for England is that before you start worrying
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Posted on 04 Feb 2012 at 09:06 AM by
pjmar
When the Yanks 'supersize' they certainly make sure they do it properly and this year's event will be no different to any other year when Super Bowl XLVI kicks off. Forget all the stats about rushing and passing yards and whether The Giant's Quarterback Eli Manning is better than the Patriots Brady. What we want to know is how many hot dogs our American cousins will shovel into their gut-busting stomachs! In Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 the Tampa stadium's fans scoffed around 55 200 of them, buns and all! Domino's reckon they will sell over 9 million slices of pizza which will be washed down with over 325.5 million gallons of beer. That's about 493 Olympic sized swimming pools guzzled clean of ale! If that's not enough what about the 293,000 miles of potato chips that will be scoffed throughout the game? Or the 100 million lbs of chicken wings hoovered up in garden parties? On average each American watching this year's Super Bowl XLVI will consume over 1200
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Posted on 31 Jan 2012 at 03:22 AM by
Big Man with Football
It shows quite how far the New York Giants have come this season that the debate about which quarterback is the most likely MVP candidate is even taking place this week. When fantasy football drafts were taking place at the start of the year, Tom Brady was a first or second round pick in almost every league. Eli? Eighth or ninth round at best, and that's assuming he was drafted at all. After all, who would have picked him over Brady, Brees, Rivers, Rodgers, Roethlisberger or Vick? And that's before allowing for the other second tier passers like Schaub, Ryan, Romo, Cutler or Fitzpatrick, or big brother Peyton, who only went undrafted due to injury concerns. However after this year, second tier is not an accusation that we'll ever hear about Eli again. Whether or not he picks up his second Super Bowl ring, his achievement in guiding this Giants offense into the biggest annual occasion in world sport is a genuinely impressive one. The bookies are expecting a quite even battle
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Posted on 31 Jan 2012 at 00:28 AM by
Lone Shark
Of all the GAA competitions in the calendar, few have so much quality and talent on display as the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup contests, yet ironically, very few national competitions are so poorly promoted by the GAA marketeers. This week alone some of the best footballers and hurlers in the country will tog out in front of miniscule crowds and play championship matches of great intensity, while this weekend the start of the National Football League will get ten times the amount of newspaper coverage despite operating at a lower level. After all, how many county sides would say with confidence that they could beat UL hurlers or DCU footballers at this time of year? From a betting point of view, the standout football bet looks to be Carlow IT to beat DIT at 7/4 on Wednesday night. DIT have been extremely strong in this competition for the past couple of seasons, but they've lost a lot of key players this time around and don't look to be at the same level at all as they were in 2010
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Posted on 26 Jan 2012 at 18:54 PM by
Ruck Driver
For the rugby purist, World Cups and Heineken Cups are all very well, but there's nothing quite like the rich diet of the Six Nations in Spring to really whet the appetite. Rivalries have formed over decades to the point that the history surrounding each individual occasion is palpable, with on the field, the battles that take place still resonate all across the globe. The unpredictability of the competition always adds to the allure, but this year that factor is even more prominent with England undergoing massive upheaval and every country at the beginning of their four year cycle. Logic would dictate that the final day battle between Wales and France has the look of a title decider about it, and unless either team takes a noticeable step backwards, that probably should be the case. There was little to call between these two sides at the World Cup and Wales' young side, continuing under the guidance of Warren Gatland, should be the more likely to develop, on paper at least. Their
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Posted on 25 Jan 2012 at 16:07 PM by
Match of the Day
No doubt some of our more eagle-eyed readers have noticed the focus for today's piece - the anomaly that when a football game is deemed to be an even match between the two sides, the odds are usually along the lines of 8/5 each team and 23/10 the draw, or something like that depending on the amount of margin written in by the bookmakers offering the betting. However in a game where one team is deemed to be exactly one goal better, usually offered at around 1/2 on the match betting market, the one goal handicap odds will normally be along the lines of 7/5 each team and 11/4 the handicap draw. In both cases, the draw/handicap draw is by far the most likely single discrete outcome in terms of margin, and yet even if the total goals expectancy is similar, the odds are very different. To those who look at the distribution as a perfect poisson curve (don't fret non-stats people, normal service will resume very soon!) this is of course mathematically anomalous. However the explanation
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Posted on 24 Jan 2012 at 13:50 PM by
Big Man with Football
After all the discussion about offense and defense, it turned out to be the special teams players that made the difference last Sunday. The 2012 Conference Finals won't be remembered fondly by either Kyle Williams or Billy Cundiff, as they will forever have to live with the disappointment of making crucial plays that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. But what else did we learn? Here are five key facts that will need to be borne in mind in advance of the Super Bowl, both in terms of analysing the game, and of course putting our betting strategy together in advance of the big occasion (1) The Giants pass rush will test New England immensely Now that they're all healthy and working together, the New York Giants are an utterly devastating force when it comes to rushing the passer. Jason Pierre Paul, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck have all put up great numbers this year and while the New England offensive line has been one of the best in the league this year, doing a wonderful
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Posted on 24 Jan 2012 at 12:36 PM by
Lone Shark
The furore over Sean Johnston's potential switch to Kildare is very interesting at the moment, not least because the team in question appear to have a lot of their ducks in a row at the moment and the decision to recruit a very high profile outsider may not sit well with those footballers already working hard within the county. Of course the O'Byrne Cup is hardly the best way of judging any team, however nobody could argue that right now Kildare are fit, working to a system and playing some very effective football. They cut through Dublin for a shortcut at the weekend and while the Dubs are clearly still working the toxins out of their system after an understandably heavy winter, it was still enlightening to see the way that Kildare overpowered their Leinster rivals in Newbridge. With his team firing on all cylinders like that, the recruitment of Johnston, if it occurs, could upset the very delicate ecosystem in the county. On the face of it, Kildare and Johnston are a match made
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Posted on 20 Jan 2012 at 12:02 PM by
Big Man with Football
In most big games, gridiron fans wait for timeouts and breaks to go to the kitchen and put the kettle on, or to pop some snacks in the microwave. This Sunday evening when the New England Patriots host the Baltimore Ravens, half the match will feel like an opportunity to go into the kitchen. After all, everyone wants to see Tom Brady, Ray Lewis, Rob Gronkowski, Terrell Suggs, Wes Welker and Ed Reed do their thing. When the Patriots have the ball, it will be compelling viewing. But Joe Flacco, Patrick Chung, Ed Dickson and Jerrod Mayo? Not so much. Yet if either of the two "ugly sister" units of this team can step up and deliver a big performance in Foxboro, they will have done their more glamourous counterparts on the other side of the ball a huge service. The New England offense is devastating, but they can't keep going 80 yards down the field and run up a big tally against a turnover-happy defense. Similarly, the Baltimore defense is ferocious against any opposition, but
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