Columnist Jeff Haney: Double-digit ‘dogs dominate NFL card

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001 | 11:38 a.m.

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or haney@lasvegassun.com

No fewer than six NFL games this week carry point spreads in the double digits - an astonishing number this early in the season.

In three of those games the favorite is laying two touchdowns or more, including the Raiders-Cowboys matchup, in which Oakland is favored by 19 points in Las Vegas sports books.

And it's conceivable the line on Monday night's Rams-Lions game, now around 12, could spill over to 14 by game time.

Pro football handicapper Tobin Hensgen of "The Game" (thegame-nfl.com) says that while it is unusual to see so many big numbers at this point in the season, most of them appear accurate.

"The database I use to generate regressive analysis to determine a spread - likely very similar to Vegas (oddsmakers) - says these lines are pretty much legit," Hensgen said.

"But that's on paper," he added.

In fact, Hensgen does have an opinion on several of the monster-spread games.

In the Raiders-Cowboys game, he thinks each team's most recent game could be influencing the line too much.

"Oakland's last win was huge at home against a weak Seattle team; Dallas' last loss (to Philadelphia) was embarrassing," he said. "The Raiders' other games included getting stiffed by Miami (in an 18-15 loss) and an OT win against Kansas City. Dallas will have problems all year but has demonstrated it can score even against a fairly good San Diego defense.

"Teams don't play as poorly or as well as the previous week's games that had exaggerated scores. Both of these teams fit that mold, which indicates the play is on the side of getting the huge lumber."

The line is a solid 19 points across Las Vegas, but has moved to 18 at some offshore establishments.

Hensgen leans toward laying the lumber, however, with the Eagles against the Cardinals.

He's impressed by Eagles coach Andy Reid, and thinks Arizona - which has lost its two games by 21 and 20 points - could be a team in disarray.

Philly is a 14 to 14 1/2-point favorite in local books.

"The Eagles stood in with the Rams in Week 1 and Reid won't let one he's supposed to win slip by him," Hensgen said. "Philly seems to be having fun while who knows what's going on in Arizona. Lay the points."

Sherman will serve as a supervisor under Palms sports book director Marc Nelson, formerly of the Fiesta.

Although the Palms will not be permitted to book NBA action (its owners, the Maloof family, also own the Sacramento Kings), Sherman said it will boast plenty of attractive features for sports bettors.

"We plan to offer a lot of props on stand-alone football games, such as Thursday and Sunday night games," Sherman said. "We'll be doing a lot with golf and NASCAR. ... We're going to give people more options on the betting menu."

One offshore sports book listed Trinidad as a minus 275 favorite while another had Hopkins at plus 300 to win the fight, Jay said.

"We found the same type of thing, you may recall, with the Lewis-Rahman fight back in April," Jay noted.

Trinidad-Hopkins bettors in Las Vegas could no better than "no vig" on the fight: Trinidad was available at minus 300 in some Las Vegas books, while Hopkins was as high as plus 300 in others.

Hopkins upset Trinidad, scoring a 12th-round TKO.

Korner's picks went 5-2, besting Zierlein's 4-3 record.

This Friday night at 9 p.m. in the Stardust race and sports book, Tim Jeffery of Don Best Sports takes on Tim Trushel of the Vegas Sportswire.

The contest features a field of 16 competing in a single-elimination tournament for a $10,000 first prize.

Among the new "board" teams are UC-Riverside, Youngstown State, Towson State, Drexel, Hofstra and Delaware.

Daraban made the announcement on the daily Stardust Line program with John Kelly.

"We take a look at what we feel are the top six football games each week," show host Joe Speck said.

Speck reports that neither prognosticator's record against the spread is exceptional so far this season -- although Lori did correctly predict the return of the regular NFL referees.