Jeff Benton
9-3 freebie run with the Red Sox-Yankees Over last night.
Your Thursday freebie is another total. Go Under in the Cardinals-Rams meeting tonight.
Let's start with the fact all three Thursday night NFL games this year have stayed Under the total. For you Einstein's, that is a 100% stat through three games contested.
Arizona has only allowed 61 total points in their four games played, with three of their four games holding Under the posted price.
St. Louis opened the year with a pair of Overs in their meetings with Detroit and Washington, but the Rams have settled into a pair of defensive battles the past two games, playing Unders in games against Chicago and Seattle.
Based on the fact seven of the last eight series meetings between these NFC West division rivals have held Under the total, I would say the chances of this turning into a field possession, field goal game look pretty solid.
Go with the Cardinals and Rams to play Low.
4♦ ARIZONA-ST. LOUIS UNDER
Craig Davis
Your Thursday free play is Utah.
Going to back Utah plus the points (+14) at home against Southern Cal tonight.
Not too often the Utes are a home dog, but they've delivered in that role by going 4-2 against the oddsmakers catching points in Salt Lake City since 2001.
Utah got hammered prior to its by week in a 37-7 loss at Arizona State. But the Sun Devils hammered them last season too. Against Southern Cal, on the other hand, the Utes gave the Trojans all they could handle in last year's road loss.
The biggest problem for Utah this season has been the ankle injury suffered in the season's second week by top running back John White. He missed the upset home win against BYU and wasn't at 100 percent in the Arizona State game. But having a bye last weekend had to help.
Don't know what to make of this USC team. It struggled to outscore Syracuse in its road opener and then fell to 0-2 ATS this season as a road chalk when it lost outright as a 9 1/2-point pup at Stanford three weeks back.
USC wins on the field, but this is too many points for the Trojans to be laying so I'll grab the two touchdowns and look for a Pac-12 home dog to bark for the second straight Thursday just as Washington did in last week's upset of Stanford.
1♦ UTAH