Lumpkin, Bulldogs stun No. 5 Auburn

Football Betting Lines

11/11/2006 - Auburn, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kregg Lumpkin rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown and Matthew Stafford threw for 219 yards and a score as Georgia stunned No.5 Auburn, 37-15, at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Stafford completed 14-of-20 passes without an interception, and ran for 83 yards and a touchdown on seven carries for the Bulldogs (7-4, 4-4 SEC), who had lost four of their previous five games.

Brandon Cox struggled through a terrible afternoon as he went just 4-of-12 for 35 yards and a touchdown with four interceptions for the Tigers (9-2, 5-2 SEC), who had a four-game win streak halted.

The Bulldogs took control of the game from the start, as they took the opening possession and marched 65 yards for a 7-0 lead. The drive was highlighted by a Stafford 53-yard completion to A.J. Bryant down the left sideline that took the ball to the Auburn eight-yard-line. Lumpkin then dashed up the middle and into the end zone for the early lead.

A 34-yard field goal from Gordon Ely-Kelso with 12:07 left in the second quarter extended the Georgia lead to 10-0 before the visitors tacked on seven more points on their next possession.

Stafford once again got it done through the air, hooking up with Kenneth Harris on a 40-yard completion to take the ball to the Tiger's one-yard-line. Brannan Southerland then pushed the ball across to give the Bulldogs a 17- point lead.

Things only got worse for the Tigers on their next possession, as Cox fired a pass to the left sideline that was picked off by Tra Battle. The senior defensive back then raced 30-yards for a touchdown and a commanding 24-point cushion for his team.

Brad Lester's 21-yard TD gallop got the home crowd back into the game and cut the Auburn deficit to 24-7, but the momentum quickly returned to the Dawgs as Georgia forced another turnover on Auburn's next possession.

Cox attempted a slant over the middle but had his pass deflected at the line by Charles Johnson. The ball hung up in the air long enough for Battle to settle under it for his second interception of the game, giving Georgia good field position at the Auburn 39.

The Bulldogs cashed in right before halftime as Lumpkin took a screen pass and scurried 14-yards for a touchdown and a 30-7 halftime lead for Georgia.

Cox finally got on track as he connected with Rodgeriqus Smith for a 34-yard touchdown with 4:27 to play in the third. Auburn added the two-point conversion to make it 30-15, but gave the points back early in the fourth.

Stafford sprinted up the middle on a quarterback draw and into the end zone from nine-yards out with 12:28 to go to cap the scoring and dash any national title aspirations that Auburn may have had.

Game Notes

Auburn running back Kenny Irons rushed 10 times for 49 yards...Georgia outgained Auburn 446-171 in total yards...Georgia lost three fumbles in the game...Auburn will face Alabama in the Iron Bowl game next week while Georgia hosts rival Georgia Tech in two weeks.

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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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