Let's cash with them for a 2nd straight Saturday.
And I know the game tips at 11:00 am but quite frankly, it's the best game on the board.
It was just a week ago today I jumped on the Retrievers of UMBC at home (-12') over New Hampshire and they delivered, winning by 15.
Truth be told, it shouldn't have been that close as they led by 20 with just under 2 minutes to go when they pulled some starters and the subs almost blew it.
I liked them again on Tuesday (-8') against UMASS Lowell but liked Detroit Mercy just a tad bit more.
Well both got there but UMBC was a no brainer, no sweat job, an absolute wire to wire blowout winner 91-69.
Then take their home floor in this Championship game a perfect 10-0 in conference play and 23-8 for the season.
And since losing at Vermont on January 29th 64-55, this team has been absolutely unbeatable riding an 11-game winning streak (10-1 ATS)
One of those 11 wins was this Vermont team on February 19th and the Retrievers hammered them in front of the home folks 75-62.
They dominated the paint out rebounding the Catamounts 42-34 and held them to 35% from the floor and 36% from 3.
UMBC has been undervalued all season long by the line maker in Las Vegas and they are undervalued again today.
With exception of the 1-point home win over New Hampshire on January 10th, they have won the other 9 home conference games by an average of 17 points.
Best team in the conference all year and they will punch their ticket to the big show with another double digit win.
Congrats to UMBC.....you are going dancing baby.
There is a clear cut right side to this game.
And that right side is the Seattle Seahawks.
Let's start with the New England Patriots, who truth be told, shouldn't be here.
Courtesy of C.J Stroud throwing 4 INT's and Sean Payton being a complete dumb ass, they are here.
They are here because they played one of the easiest regular season schedules in NFL history, a schedule which saw them play just 2 winning teams.
They played the Ravens when they were banged up and injured and they played the Bills.
Inside that schedule is one other important nugget about their regular season schedule: they only faced one top 5 defense..
Week 8 they faced the #3 "D" in the Cleveland Browns at home with Dillion Gabriel at QB and blew them out 32-13.
The Browns sacked him 6 TIMES.
Then the playoffs arrived, and they faced 3 defenses in the top 5: Chargers #5, the Texans #1 and the Broncos #2.
And Drake Maye struggled in all 3 games.....BADLY.
Wild card round at home he threw a pick against the Chargers in an ugly 16-3 win as LA sacked him 5 TIMES.
Divisional round against the Texans, and was 16 of 27 for 179 yards and another pick as Houston sacked him 5 TIMES.
And against Denver in the 1st half, he was 7 of 14 for 41 yards. You can throw out the 2nd half due to the weather. Broncos sacked 5 TIMES.
Now he faces a defense in Seattle, which is ranked in the top 5 in total defense and the 3rd best in the league at sacking the QB.
And the reason why is the following stat: Seattle is 6th worst team in the NFL at blitzing the QB, but they rank top 3 in QB pressures.
They don't have to blitz to get pressure because their front 4 gets there.
Folks, 21 sacks given up by an offensive line starting 2 rookies on the left side and 3 of those games they had home field advantage.
And now they face the best defense they will have seen all year long......and I see nothing that leads me to believe his line will be able to protect him here.
Advantage Seahawks. And it's a HUGE ADVANTAGE.
In my opinion the only way this game is not a double digit game is if Darnold turns it over. I really believe that.
I would be lying if I said his turnover problems didn't worry me a bit!!
However, he has thrown just 1 pick in his last 4 games. Simply put, he is playing the best football of his entire career right now.
New England is a great story but in my opinion, the better TEAM across the board is the Seahawks.
You don't win as many Super Bowl games as I have betting on a great story, you bet on the team that you feel wins the game.
In a nutshell, this game feels a lot like two other Super bowls: #48 with Seattle/Denver and #55 with Bucs/Chiefs.
Those 2 games were decided by the dominance of an overwhelming defensive line versus an inferior offensive line.
END OF STORY.
The Seattle Seahawks win this game and in case you didn't know, in the history of the Super Bowl the SU winner is 50-7-2 ATS
That's right, only 7 times in 59 games the underdog has lost but covered.
Congrats to the Seattle Seahawks on your world championship.
Seattle 31-13.