posted March 7, 2008 at 16:51 in Other Articles

Georgia Force vs. Tampa Bay Storm

Southern Division rivals square off Friday night as the (0-1) Georgia Force invade Tampa to take on Head Coach Tim Marcum’s (1-0) Storm. This will be the first home game under the new ownership of Dr. Bob Nucci of the Nucci Spine Institute.

His new club picked up its first win of the season last week when they went into Kansas City and upended the Brigade by a 51-49 final count. Tampa couldn’t have asked for a better start considering the Brigade had only lost two of their six games in “The Hangar” last season. The win was the Storm’s third in a row on the road, and 5th in a row in regular season play. QB Brett Dietz didn’t have a banner day offensively (18-of-25 passing for 193 yards & 2 TDs), but he threw no INT’s to allow the Storm to win the turnover battle, and ultimately, win the game. Spread bettors either pushed or won depending on where they got their position in (opened (+3) and closed (-2)). The 100 combined points crawled over the closing ‘total’ of 96, but fell a half point Under the original opening of 100.5.

Georgia was one of the best teams in the league last season, but went through a major facelift this off-season. They did their best last week at home against a stacked Dallas club, but eventually fell by a 51-41 final count, and in the process, failed to cover the 6-point spread. The combined 92-points fell comfortably ‘Under’ the grossly inflated posted ‘total’ of 112. Their new look offense, once again led by QB Chris Greisen (25-of-40 passing for 349 yards, 5:1 TD/INT ratio) outgained the Desperados 346-302, but they lost the turnover battle 3 to 2 and were never able to regain the possessions.

Oddsmakers opened the Storm up as 6.5-point home favorites with the ‘total’ set at 98 for this crucial Southern Division battle. You can get down on both the side and ‘total’ for this game at BetUS.com right now. Georgia won and covered each of their games last season. They upended the Storm 61-47 as 7.5-point road chalks on St. Patrick’s Day last year, and protected their own house later in the season when they beat their conference rivals 52-38 as 9-point home chalks. Tampa Bay leads the all time series that dates back to 2002 7 games to 6, but Georgia has gotten the best of the Storm in 5 of their L/6 meetings.

Columbus Destroyers vs. Dallas Desperados

This is a game Dallas has had circled on its ’08 schedule ever since last year’s shocking Divisional Round post-season loss to the division rival Destroyers. In case you forgot, Dallas held a 14-point lead at the half and looked all but sure of cruising to the home win and cover in the second half. It didn’t exactly happen that way as Columbus recovered back-to-back kick-offs that rattled off the uprights, and had the game tied up with less than a minute expired in the 3rd quarter. The enormous swing of momentum deflated Dallas’ balloon in a blink of an eye, and they were never able to recover from it the rest of the way. Columbus’ win was one of the biggest upsets in AFL history.

Even though the Destroyers captured the National Conference crown last season, the front office decided to make wholesale changes up and down the roster. The defense has been completely revamped, and none of QB Matt Nagy’s receivers remain on the roster. Instead, they brought in WR Derek Lee from Georgia who once played with Nagy when he was a member of the Force. They picked up right where they left off last week at Colorado as Nagy found him 11 times for 95 yards, and threw 3 of his 4 TD passes his way. They held a 40-37 lead against the Crush heading into the 4th quarter, but couldn’t hold on and eventually lost by a 50-47 final count. They did however cover the 5-point spread and the combined score fell a half point Under the closing ‘total’ of 97.5.

Dallas picked up a big road win and cover at Georgia to avenge their only regular season loss from last year, but in the process, lost stud QB Clint Dolezel to a separated shoulder that will keep him on the shelf for 4-6 weeks. This is a big blow to the Despo’s plans of going undefeated this season, but QB Chris Sanders is a proven commodity in this league that will be working with one of the best offensive units the league has to offer.

Dallas has been deemed 9-points better than the Destroyers in this spot with the ‘total’ set at 95. You can get down on both the side and ‘total’ for this game at BetUS.com right now. These clubs played in some very memorable games last season. The Playoff battle has already been mentioned up above, but Dallas also stormed back from a 23 point deficit at home to upend the Destroyers by a 53-51 final count in their first meeting last season. Columbus covered as 15-point road dawgs then, and the combined 104 points fell Under the closing ‘total’ of 114. The rematch in Columbus saw Dallas win again, but this time, they pulled off a wire-to-wire job and managed to cover the 6-point spread in the 56-47 road victory.

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