Bucs prove they'll fight to the bitter end

Football Betting Lines

12/20/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jon Gruden is not into moral victories. Neither are his players. However, the hard-nosed Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and his troops had to feel at least some sense of satisfaction after nearly pulling off the biggest upset of the NFL season.

There wasn't a whole lot in the Bucs' favor heading into Sunday's visit to Chicago's Soldier Field. Tampa Bay hadn't won on the road all year long, and was facing a Bears squad that had been nearly invincible on its own turf in 2006. The Buccaneers came in as the lowest-scoring team in the league, while Chicago had yielded the fewest points at home this season. Even history wasn't on the Bucs' side, as the club historically hasn't fared well in cold-weather stadiums during the winter months.

Despite all those obstacles, Tampa Bay almost did the unthinkable. Fueled by a stellar performance off the bench from quarterback Tim Rattay, the Buccaneers roared back from a 21-point second-half deficit to send the game into overtime before finally succumbing to a Robbie Gould field goal late in the extra period that gave the Bears a thrilling 34-31 victory.

In the end, the game turned out to be another stinging defeat in what has been a season full of pain for Tampa Bay. But while the Bucs remain short on talent, Sunday's performance showed they clearly don't lack heart, especially considering the club has nothing to play for right now other than positioning for April's draft.

"We've got a lot of resolve," said Gruden. "(The players) showed tremendous grit today and (the comeback) is credited to them, it really is. I'm more proud of that then I can tell you."

You also can't question Gruden's intensity and desire and the way those attributes rub off on his charges. His handling of his team's quarterback quandary this season, however, is much more debatable, particularly after witnessing the results on Sunday.

Gruden's patience finally wore out with ineffective rookie Bruce Gradkowski, who was hopelessly ineffective once again, late in the second quarter with the Bucs trailing 14-3. Rattay showed his rust early on, but the one-time San Francisco 49ers hopeful was nearly unstoppable after the intermission, engineering four touchdown drives and providing the spark that the offense had been desperately seeking for months.

Rattay finished 20-of-35 for 268 yards and threw three touchdown passes, all of which came in the fourth quarter. One was a 64-yard strike to speedy wideout Joey Galloway - the longest play from scrimmage for the Bucs this season - that closed the gap to 31-24. After Tampa's defense forced a quick stop, Rattay hit Ike Hilliard in stride down the middle, and the veteran receiver outraced the Chicago secondary for a game-tying 44-yard score.

"He did a great job," said tight end Alex Smith of Rattay. "I think once he finally got his feet settled in, you can see that he was making plays left and right. He was moving around with his feet, and that was the big difference."

WALKING THE PLANK

Rattay's outing earned the journeyman signal-caller the start for this Sunday's contest at Cleveland, a move for which many fans and observers had been campaigning for weeks. The seventh-year pro started 16 games for the 49ers from 2003-05, including the first four games of last season, before being benched in favor of No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith. A few weeks later, Rattay was traded to Tampa Bay for a sixth-round draft choice to serve as Chris Simms' backup.

"It's just common sense right now, based on performance and who gives us a better chance to win a football game," explained Gruden on the switch. "We'd like to finish the season as strongly as we can."

Gradkowski had been under center for the last 11 games after Simms went down to season-ending internal injuries in Week 3. The 23-year-old was pretty effective early on, but has really hit the wall over the past month. Gradkowski's 65.9 quarterback rating is tied with fellow rookie Vince Young for the lowest among NFL regulars, and he hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in four straight games.

Against the Bears, Gradkowski completed just 5-of-11 throws for 37 yards and was sacked twice before getting the hook.

"He is a young guy and he does have promise, but I think right now he's out of rhythm a little bit," Gruden remarked. "Things are happening fast, he's clearly struggling and the best thing to do is try to go in another direction."

PILLAGED?

Gould's game-winning kick was set up by a controversial 28-yard pass from Bears quarterback Rex Grossman to wide receiver Rashied Davis. Although replays showed the ball appeared to come out of Davis' hands and touch the ground, the play was not reviewed upstairs.

It was later revealed that replay official Jim Blackwood attempted to contact the field crew to look at the catch, but was unable to do so because the pager system had malfunctioned. The NFL admitted to the technical error in a statement issued on Monday.

"(The ball) hit the ground," said Gruden of the costly play. "The disappointing thing is that the play's not ruled properly on the field."

HELLO CLEVELAND

Tampa Bay will get one final chance at earning that elusive first road victory of the season this Sunday, when the club travels to Cleveland to battle the 4-10 Browns.

Points could be at a premium in this upcoming matchup that clearly won't be a highlight of the Week 16 docket. Cleveland is tied for 29th overall with an average of 16.1 points per game, while the Buccaneers' 13.0 per game average is next-to-last in the league.

Tampa Bay is just 1-5 lifetime against the Browns, and hasn't won in two previous visits to Cleveland. The Bucs' only win in the series was a 17-3 verdict in 2002.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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