Sports Betting Blog

They say that in real state it’s all about location. Well, when it comes to negotiating your quarterback contract with an NFL team, it’s all about timing. Joe Flacco played last season knowing quite well that he was on his last year of his freshman contract with the Baltimore Ravens. It was clear to him that the longer he could keep his team alive in the postseason, the more leverage he could have when it came time to negotiate his next big deal. Well, he kept on winning down the stretch and when the road games came, he proved that he could deliver and that perhaps all he needed was a championship ring to make it into the elite group that includes the likes of active quarterbacks such as Eli Manning, Andrew Brees, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. These last two quarterbacks, elite players who Flacco managed to defeat in his way to the Super Bowl game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Once he walked out of that matchup holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy and the Super Bowl MVP honors, Joe Flacco had moved to a whole different category. He not only had the leverage to get a great deal when negotiating his new contract, he was now in one of those rare situations where he could name his own prize, and it would go his way. That´s why, earlier this weekend, sources close to the negotiation spread the word that both Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens had reached an agreement. The details of the contract are still to be disclosed, but for what we can make, Flacco would agree to a six-year, $120.6 million contract that will make the quarterback the highest-paid player in NFL history. The Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome has been quoted saying that both sides have settled on the parameters of the deal and that the fine print and the legal language should be defined over the weekend.

Now, that’s a huge contract. Just to put this into the right perspective, let’s go ahead and consider this few facts. This last season, when Flacco guided his team to the Super Bowl, he was playing the end of his rookie contract that went for $6.76 million. Now, based on the $120.6 million deal, he will make an average of $168,908 each day of the regular season for the next six years. How’s that for a salary change? Sure enough Flacco completed 22 of 33 passes for 287 yards and three first-half touchdowns in his Super Bowl debut, guiding the Ravens to a 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

Truth be said, his regular season performances where nothing out of this world. The 28-year-old Flacco threw for 22 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions in the regular season. But his numbers in the postseason where like nothing we had ever seen from a 5^th-year-pro and that could had made all the difference when negotiating his pass. So far, Flacco has thrown for 17,633 yards, 102 touchdowns and 52 interceptions in 80 career games with the Baltimore Ravens. Let’s only wait and see what the next six years may bring his way.

At 2-2 for the season, either the Denver Broncos or the New England Patriots are really living it up to their expectations. On the one hand, we have to cut some slack and give Peyton Manning a little more time to get used to his new teammates and work out his game strategy with head coach John Fox. After all, we are talking about a guy who spent 14 years in Indianapolis and that missed the whole last season as he was recovering from his 5^th neck surgery. So considering everything Manning has been through, 2-2 is really not that bad.

Now, for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, well, that’s a whole different story. Sure enough the Patriots have been quite dominant behind Brady for over a decade now, but things this season have been a bit sloppy. Fortunately for us, this means that Brady is going to have to go all-out on Sunday to defend his home field advantage. The Pats are well aware of the situation: they can’t let Manning win at Foxboro.

For the Broncos this is certainly a whole different story. Last season, their miraculous and Tebowmania-filled trip into the NFL Playoffs ended abruptly at the Gillette Stadium. Sure enough Tim Tebow had turned things around for the Broncos late in the season and he had managed to pull off the upset in their first postseason game in 5-years against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then came Tom Brady and the Patriots and Tebow was nowhere to be seen. He finished off the game with 9 of 26 passing for 136 yards; Brady on the other hand passed for 363 yards and 6 touchdown passes as he guided New England to a 45-10 crushing of the Broncos. Now, this trip to the east coast is going to be a big different for Denver. Now they have NFL Hall-of-fame worthy talent behind Peyton Manning. And he seems to get better grip of the team after every game.

The Broncos head coach, John Fox, has been trying to get his team to adapt as quickly as possible to Manning game. Sure there were some sloppy moments but he  appeared to fit right in with Denver last week in the Broncos 37-6 rout of Oakland. After completing only half of his passes in a loss to Houston on Sept. 23, he was 30 of 38 against the Raiders for a season-high 338 yards and three touchdowns. The important thing here is that this was more than just Manning been Manning. This was a true team effort. His defense was able to control the Raiders pas rush and managed to keep him safe. He wasn’t sacked for the first time this season, and that allowed him to take the extra split second to secure his pass. This is the third time so far this season that he finishes a game without throwing an interception.

“The key that I’ve said all along is just trying to keep making progress somehow,” Manning said in a press conference earlier this week. “That doesn’t always show on the scoreboard — you’d like to win every game as you’re feeling your way and learning about your team and learning about yourself a little bit.” Well, he’s working hard to figure it out. Let’s see what he can throw against the Patriots.

After three games in the season and facing a 1-2 record for the first time in more than a decade, the New England Patriots knew very well that a win at Buffalo was of utter importance. Not only would that keep them from reaching a 1-3 record this early in the season, but it would help them built up some much needed momentum. For a moment there, however, it really seemed as if the Buffalo Bills were going to pull of an upset at home, and that it would be them taking the win. With 11 minutes to go in the third quarter, Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills starting quarterback, connected a 68-yard pass to Donald Jones to make take a 21-7 lead. The home crowd was static. It seemed as if for the third time in almost 12 years, the Bills were going to take a win over the Pats. Just for the record, consider that with this win New England improved to 17-1 in its past 18 meetings against Buffalo, and 22-2 dating to the 2000 season.

Sure enough the Bills had a 14-point lead coming into the third quarter and the Patriots just seemed out of it as Tom Brady couldn’t find his helmet in one of the plays and Bill Belichick had to pull of a punt return. It was a bit embarrassing. But that didn’t really keep Brady from digging deep inside and finding the right weapons. The Pats needed a quick answer. Time was limited and playing on the road was not helping at all. That’s until Tom Brady responded with an eight-play, 80-yard drive by hitting Danny Woodhead for a 17-yard touchdown. After tying the game with a 4-yard run, Brady capped a five-play 63-yard drive by hitting Gronkowski with a 28-yard touchdown pass. And then there was simply no looking back.

Brady completed 6 straight touchdown drives to close off a record-breaking second half and give the Patriots a well-deserved 52-28 come-from-behind win over the Buffalo Bills. New England generated 580 total yards, including 340 passing yards via Tom Brady who finished the night with 22 of 36 passing, with no interceptions, 3 touchdown passes and a running score. The Patriots defense, guided by the hard hitting Brandon Bass forced six turnovers, and simply shut down the Bills for the better part of the second half. With their fantastic second half effort, the Pats avoided their first three-game losing streak in 10 years.

“Down 21-7 and on the road, backs against the wall, and I thought we showed a lot of heart,” Brady said in the postgame press conference. “That’s what this team is made of. And we’re going to battle until the end, I know that.” And they showed just that. The main issue behind this is not only how well things worked out for the Patriots. But also, how easily the Bills sunk. Buffalo combined for two first downs and 31 yards on their final four drives of the game. Two of which ended with turnovers. Ryan Fitzpatrick went for 22 of 39 passing for 350 yards with 4 touchdown passes. But it was ultimately his 4 interceptions that cost him the game.

It wasn’t an illegal action, but it sure enough wasn’t classy. We’ve seen it over and over again, teams that face a win-or-lose situation call a timeout before a kicker makes a field goal attempt in order to freeze him, to get him out of his concentration. Well, this time the whole thing backfired for the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets marched away from the Sun Life Stadium in Miami with a important win on the road. The Jets Kicker Nick Folk received a second chance that gave the Jets a wild win after his blocked field-goal attempt in overtime was pardoned because of a Dolphins timeout. When he squared again to take his second kick, he successfully kicked 33-yarder with 6:04 left, for the Jets to beat the Dolphins 23-20 on Sunday.

The New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez had a solid game. He managed to connect with Santonio Holmes for a 38-yard gain to set up the winnig kick. Two plays later, Folk’s field goal attempt was blocked by Randy Starks charging up the middle. The officials whistled the play dead just as the ball was snapped because Dolphins coach Joe Philbin had called timeout. I insist: it was really a very bad call by the coaching staff from Miami. “I thought it was the right call,” Philbin said. “I was planning all along to call timeout right before he kicked the ball. Typically we’re going to ice the kicker.” Risky business. It was ultimately costs him the game. At the end, not even the Dolphins could believe their luck ultimately. “You never see that happen,” Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. “It’s a weird thing. It’s one of those things where you say the odds were not in your favor today. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

That’s not all, as a matter of fact the Dolphins had a chance to close the deal just a few minutes before that. Dan Carpenter was wide left on a 48-yard field-goal attempt that would have given them the victory. Carpenter also missed from 47 yards early in the fourth quarter. It was certainly not Carpenter’s best night, but the late call by Philbin just blew it off the charts. Still, the Jets kept on relying their offensive game on Mark Sanchez. He finished off the night with 21 of 45 passing for 306 yards, 1 touchdown pass and one interception.

Tim Tebow, on the other hand, took a little action. He called a fake punt and ran for 5 yards and a first down, but otherwise again contributed little to the Jets’ offense. He still has yet to throw a pass this year. And it’s a bit worrying when in a third down, your game plan includes sending a pass from Sanchez to Tebow. It’s hard to watch that sort of play in the field, particularly because the ball bounced off Tebow’s helmet, and even consider for a moment that Rex Ryan is taking this one seriously.

Mark Sanchez has some work to do still. I mean, at 2-1 for the season, things are not that bad, but quite frankly there’s plenty of space for improvement. He twice missed open receivers for potential scores, made several wild throws and had a handful of passes dropped. He did, however, show a bit of his character at the end. His 7-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Kerley with 3:01 gave the Jets their first lead, 20-17.