From The Rock

Quarterback Tony Romo had another solid game, and the Dallas Cowboys made short work of the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday afternoon in a 38-17 victory. Romo threw for 256 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and receiver Miles Austin caught a touchdown pass for the third straight game. The Cowboys improved to 5-2 with the win, while the Seahawks dropped to 2-5.

The Cowboys also got on the winning side of the NFL pointspread ledger with the win and cover as -10 home favorites. Dallas is now 4-3 against the spread for the season, while Seattle fell to 2-5 versus the number. The 55 combined points scored went OVER the posted total of 46′. Dallas has gone OVER in 5 of 7 games this season and four in a row. Seattle eclipsed the total for only the third time this season.

Romo has made greater patience in the pocket a priority this season, and it’s paying dividends. Sunday’s game was his third straight without an interception and he’s stayed interception free in five games this season-more than he did all of last year. Romo couldn’t resist a joke at his own expense:

“Shock! I’m seeing things. It’s as simple as that. I’m not throwing and hoping.”

Head coach Wade Phillips expressed his pleasure, but didn’t want his team to start believing their own press clippings:

“I feel good about the progress we’ve made, but we’ve still got a ways to go.”

Team owner Jerry Jones was happy with the performance and already looking ahead to next Sunday’s game at Philadelphia:

“I’m just glad to see as many people really do as well and play as well as they did today. Philadelphia is the kind of game that I think we’re ready for. … Plus, I think we all remember so much — I know I do and so many players on this team remember — how we left Philadelphia last year.”

Seattle quarterback Todd Hasselbeck played well, amassing 249 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions but didn’t get much help from a defense that couldn’t put the necessary pressure on Romo. He sounded frustrated in his postgame comments:

“We put two weeks into this game plan. I felt like we were ready. We just didn’t get it done. …. I feel physically drained, emotionally drained. I’m frustrated. We’re all searching for answers.”

The big game for the Cowboys that Jerry Jones alluded to is next Sunday night as they travel to Philadelphia to face the Eagles. The Cowboys have been installed as +3 underdogs with the total set at 47′. They’ll head to Green Bay to take on the Packers the following Sunday before returning home to play the hated Washington Redskins. Seattle will host the lowly Detroit Lions next Sunday, with the Seahawks a -10 home favorite and the total set at 43.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

The good news for the Kansas City Chiefs as they prepare for the start of the NFL regular season is that their starting quarterback is back at practice. The bad news is that they still don’t know when hell be able to play. Matt Cassel returned to the Chiefs practice field on Monday for the first time since he injured his left knee in a NFL preseason game on August 29th. Still, there’s been no confirmation from either he or the team as to when hell return to action. It would be an ironic twist if Cassel lost significant time due to injury, as it was a knee injury to Tom Brady while in New England that first brought him mainstream attention

Cassel, who saw his stock shoot up precipitously as an NFL QB following his solid play in New England after starter Tom Brady went down to a season ending injury, signed a six year, $28 million contract with the Chiefs in the off season. Although Cassel was in full uniform at Mondays practice, head coach Todd Haley was noncommittal about whether he or Brodie Croyle would start Sundays NFL regular season opener on the road against the Baltimore Ravens:

“I think that as the week goes on, we’ll know a little bit more. We’ll know a little bit more with Matt for sure. But it was good that he was out there. He was able to get through some things. As the week goes on a little further, we’ll know a little more as far as where he’s at.”

“It’s good this is a long week. That will help with anybody who’s nicked up. I would say generally you would need to have a full practice to have a chance to play. Generally, you need to have a full Friday practice to have a chance.”

With or without Cassel, the Chiefs offense sputtered in the preseason scoring only two touchdowns. The lack of productivity cost offensive coordinator Chan Gailey his job and Kansas City stumbled to a 0-4 record in their NFL exhibition contests. Haley has taken over the offensive play calling for the time being, though it made no difference in the Chiefs final preseason game. Neither Croyle nor third stringer Tyler Thigpen was particularly sharp in preseason play, though Croyle got the most work and should get the nod on Sunday if Cassell is unable to play.

The Chiefs face a tough assignment as they get the 2009 NFL regular season underway, pitted against the defensive tenacity of the Baltimore Ravens on the road. The Chiefs will host the Oakland Raiders in week 2 of the NFL season before traveling to Philadelphia on September 27 for a game against the Eagles.

Ross Everett is a experienced freelance writer experienced in travel, casino gambling and NFL football handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, fencing and deep sea diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.

It’s obvious that the San Francisco 49ers are heading in the right direction under Mike Singletary, but you couldn’t tell by watching their game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. The Falcons scored six touchdowns against the Niners, with running back Michael Turner accounting for three of the scores as Atlanta routed San Francisco by a lopsided 45-10 final score. It was the Niners’ worst defeat since a 41-0 loss back in 2006 under former coach Mike Nolan. San Francisco fell to 3-2 with the defeat while the Falcons improved to 3-1.

The NFL betting lines had the game listed as a ‘PICK’, giving the Falcons the ATS win with their easy straight up victory. It was the 49ers first loss against the spread this season, while Atlanta upped their record to 3-1 to the money. The combined 55 points went OVER the posted total of 39′. It was San Francisco’s second OVER of the year in five games, while Atlanta has split their NFL totals with a 2-2 mark.

After the game, the fiery Singletary apologized for cussing out former 49er and current Falcons’ lineman Harvey Dahl:

“I’ll put it this way: I wish I had more coaching etiquette. I don’t. I love my players and when someone responds about my players in a particular way, I may do some things I shouldn’t do. I have to get better at those things as time goes on. Even though the player was talking to me, I should not have said what I said. It wasn’t anything bad, it was just something that shouldn’t have happened.”

Roddy White set a Falcons’ record with 210 receiving yards, and was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on his second touchdown of the day. With his team in full control, Atlanta coach Mike Smith had to be amused:

“He didn’t hit the landing because if he hits the landing it’s not a 15-yard penalty. I told him if he’s going to do it, it needs to be Olga Korbut. And he looked at me like he doesn’t know who Olga Korbut is. Then I told him, ‘Well, maybe Mary Lou Retton.’ And then I figure that’s ’86, he doesn’t know who Mary Lou Retton is. It went right over his head and my head.”

Smith admitted that he hadn’t been in top form so far this season:

“I felt like I haven’t been playing well up to this point in the season. Me and coach Smith had a talk. He was like, ‘You gotta get back to being yourself again. You gotta go out there and be the old Roddy. No pressure. Just go out there and play.’”

The Falcons will return home on Sunday to host the Chicago Bears, with Atlanta a -3 home favorite and the total set at 45′. They’ll play their next two on the road, traveling to Texas for a game against the Dallas Cowboys the following week and to New Orleans to face the Saints on Monday, November 2. The 49ers will have a bye this week before traveling to Houston to play the Texans on October 25.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance sports writer and noted authority on World Cup soccer betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

Tony Romo passed for a NFL career best 353 yards and threw three touchdown passes as the Dallas Cowboys got their 2009 season off to a good start with a 34-21 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raheem Morris went down in defeat in his debut as Bucs head coach, while the Cowboys answered a lot of questions about how their receiving corps would respond to the absence of Terrell Owens, now with the Buffalo Bills.

The Cowboys easily covered the pointspread as -4 road favorites, and improved to 16-12 over the last three years when laying points. Tampa Bay dropped to 17-17 over the same timeframe as an underdog.

After the game Roy Williams couldn’t resist a wisecrack about T.O.:

“Career-high passing yards? Without T.O? “No, it’s good. It’s good for him. It’s good for this team. It was a team effort. Everybody contributed.”

Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said he wasnt surprised at the effort turned in by his wide receivers:

“They are playmakers, and we knew that going in. But until you do it, the naysayers are going to say: ‘Hey. You don’t have this or that.’ But I think we do.”

Romo, meanwhile, preferred to focus on the victory:

“You don’t think about yards. You’re not judged off of yards. You’re judged off of winning and losing at this position.”

Raheem Morris was still upbeat despite going down to defeat in his regular season NFL coaching debut:

“Obviously, we’re disappointed. But there were a lot of good things on offense.”

Perhaps the brightest silver lining in the dark cloud of the loss was the performance of Cadillac Williams. Williams appeared fully recovered from his injuries and rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown.

Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber suggested that the final score masked the fact that the team played well:

“We had our chances. The final score is definitely not indicative of how good we played at times. Those big plays absolutely destroy you football team.

The Cowboys will open their season at their plush new $1 billion plus stadium this Sunday, hosting the New York Giants. Theyll remain at home the following week as they welcome the Carolina Panthers to Texas. The Bucs will head to upstate New York to face T.O and his new team, the Buffalo Bills. Theyll return to Florida the following week to take their turn hosting the New York Giants.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

The New York Jets and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez found a sure fire cure to their recent struggles-a game against the lowly Oakland Raiders. Sanchez passed for–3 yards and a touchdown, plus added a rushing touchdown as New York thumped Oakland 38-0 in the largest regular season shutout win in franchise history. Oakland quarterback JaMarcus Russell continued to struggle, and he passed for just 61 yards with three interceptions before he was benched in favor of Bruce Gradowski.

NFL football betting enthusiasts who took the Jets as -6 road favorites had smooth sailing throughout the game for an easy pointspread cover. The Jets improved to 4-3 against the spread while the Raiders fell to 3-5 against the number. The 38 points scored went OVER the posted total of 34. Oakland failed to score a touchdown for the 15th game in the past four seasons.

It was such an effortless game that the only thing that Sanchez had to apologize for was surreptitiously eating a hot dog near the end of the contest:

“I want to apologize for that. I wasn’t feeling very good and didn’t eat much before the game, so I was feeling a little queasy. Toward the end of the game, I probably should have eaten one of those bars or something, but someone offered a hot dog, so I grabbed it and tried to be discreet about it, but obviously not discreet enough. So I shouldn’t have done that, and it won’t happen again.”

The Jets capitalized on three early Raiders’ turnovers and started two of their first three drives inside the five yardline. Sanchez praised the defense for making his job easy:

“It makes it so easy on the offense when your defense is playing like that. Hats off to them, they had a heck of a game to shut that team out. I don’t care who we’re playing, that’s a big-time accomplishment for our team.”

Jets’ coach Rex Ryan was very pleased with Sanchez’s performance:

“Sanchez was great. He was just smart with the football. I think sometimes he could have put the ball on a receiver, but he was making sure the ball wasn’t intercepted. It was great to see him respond.”

Raiders’ defensive lineman Richard Seymour, who boldly predicted the team would make the playoffs despite their slow start, was singing a different tune after the rout:

“I don’t think we could have beaten an Oakland high school team today.”

Despite Russell’s struggles, Oakland coach Tom Cable remains committed to him as the team’s starter:

“I thought he was really out of sorts early in the game. I just did not feel like at that point he gave us the best chance to have the success we needed to have offensively and made the move. JaMarcus will continue to be our starter. There is no issue there.”

The Raiders will try to bounce back this weekend in a big rivalry game on the road against the San Diego Chargers. Oakland is +16′ road underdogs with the total set at 42′. They’ll then enjoy a bye week before back to back home games against the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals. The Jets host Miami this Sunday, with New York a -3′ home favorite and the total set at 40′.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.