Pigskin postmortem

Last week, the line moves had a record of 17-8 in the colleges, with most of the early money going on underdogs, but went 0-2 in the pros with losses on the Vikings and Chargers (which could be considered a "false move" since the line moved toward the Chargers and then was bet back to the Browns by another big bettor).

This week's big line moves include Colorado State being bet down from a 9-point underdog to a 7-point dog at home against Fresno State and California also getting money as a dog and being bet down from 15 points against Oregon to 13 1/2. That was the first bet made, and moved easily past the key number of 14.

There also was more movement than usual in the NFL numbers as bettors jumped on the Chiefs, Bengals, Dolphins and Cowboys.

Pigskin Postmortem

Some Las Vegas sports book directors said last weekend was very good, while others said it was a disaster. It all depended on who got hit big on winning line moves by bettors. Some bookies weathered the storm better than others. But they all agreed that Monday night's Rams-Lions game would ultimately tell the tale.

The Rams opened at -10 1/2 at the Stardust last week, and most other books opened around 11 or 12, but every book was writing significantly more tickets on the Rams than the Lions and the line moved to 14 everywhere by Saturday and to 14 1/2 at a few books on Monday (and even to 15 at Station Casinos).

The Rams' easy 35-0 victory made a lot of bettors happy and saw bookmakers' profits dwindle significantly. The only solace bookies had was the fact the game stayed under the total, which had been bet up from 47 1/2 to 50.