Posted on
4/25/2008 5:25:42 PM
AFL Arena Football Betting – Tampa Bay vs. Orlando
By Mike Rose
It doesn’t matter what either of these team’s records are when they meet up since the game always pans out to be a war. That’s the main reason why this rivalry got the nickname “The War on I-4”. Tampa Bay visits “The Jungle” winners in just two of their first seven games on the year. The mark has them currently placed last in the Southern Division staring up at the first place New Orleans VooDoo. They’ve only managed one SU win in four tries on the road this season, and that came way back in Week 1 against the Kansas City Brigade. Head Coach Tim Marcum’s club is in the midst of a five-game losing streak, which includes two dismal efforts in a row at home against Arizona and New York the last couple weeks. All’s well for Head Coach Jay Gruden’s Predators who picked up a solid win at Georgia in dramatic fashion last week to sweep the regular season series. The win propelled them to 6-2 SU and 4-2-1 ATS on the year.
After dropping a shocker to Arizona at home in Week 7, 63-62, many expected the Storm to come out with fire in their eyes when they hosted the NY Dragons last week. Oddsmakers tagged them 7.5-points better than the Dragons in the contest, but they never lived up to their billing. After grabbing a 14-10 lead after the first quarter, the Storm let the game get away from them allowing the Dragons to outscore them 56-33 the rest of the way. Their poor play equaled out to a 19-point home defeat. They outgained the Dragons 335-258 and out first-downed them (24-19), but they lost the turnover battle 3:0 ultimately allowing New York to pull away due to the three lost possessions.
Orlando has had many bounces go their way throughout the first eight games of their season, and they pulled off another magic act last week at Georgia to knock off the Force. Down 10 with five minutes to go in the game, the Preds looked all but cooked. However, QB Shane Stafford, lacerated ear and all, threw a TD pass to Chas Gessner with 3:30 left in the game to cut Georgia’s lead to 62-59. The Preds “D” stepped up and got a stop, and then Stafford found Gessner in the endzone again with five seconds to go to earn the Preds their third road victory of the season.
Oddsmakers opened Orlando 5.5-point home favorites for this season’s first installment of the “War on I-4” with the ‘total’ set at 116.5. You can get down on all the Arena Football action your heart desires for this match-up at BetUS.com right now!!!
Orlando is 12-8 SU and 11-9 ATS the L/20 times they’ve locked horns with in-state rival Tampa Bay, and they won and covered both meetings last season by decisive margins with both games going under the closing ‘total’. The Preds have won and covered the L/5 meetings at home against Tampa Bay, and they’re 6-2 SU and ATS in their L/8 games at Amway Arena.
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