This is a play on the CHICAGO CUBS as part of our MLB Underdog Double Play. We lost a tough one with the Cubs last night as they blew a 5-0 lead which snapped a three-game winning streak with a lot on the line. Chicago is now a game behind Arizona for the second spot and just a half-game ahead of Miami for the final Wild Card spot in the National League. With the win last night and a Dodgers split, the Braves have a four-game lead over Los Angeles for the best record in the National League. Atlanta is just 11-11 over its last 22 games and it is laying a similar number tonight in a less advantageous pitching matchup against a team playing for a lot more. Darius Vines will be making a spot start after Max Fried will miss his place with a blister. Vines has limited experience in the Majors and has been solid with a 3.27 ERA and 0.91 WHIP over 11 innings but this is his most pressured spot. Jameson Taillon had a great six-game stretch with a 2.19 ERA in July-August before struggling by allowing 23 runs over his next five outings but has bounced back at the right times. He has posted a 1.59 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in his last three starts. 10* (905) Chicago Cubs

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This is a play on the WASHINGTON NATIONALS as part of our MLB Underdog Double Play. Baltimore made it three straight wins with a 1-0 victory last night to lower its magic number to three to win the American League East. There is a lot to play for at this point and the line reflects that with the value on the road spoiler. Washington has lost two straight and four of five but it has been a better than expected season as it has exceeded its projected win total by 10 games already. The Nationals are a respectable seven games under .500 on the road and up just over 20 units. Pat Corbin gets the ball for Washington and he looks to bounce back from a bad game against Atlanta in his final outing. He opened August great with a 2.70 ERA in his first four starts but then was shelled by the Blue Jays and Mets in his next two starts before limiting Pittsburgh and Milwaukee to three runs over 12.2 innings. Grayson Rodriguez has been rock solid since coming back into the rotation in mid-July. He has gone 11 straight starts of allowing three runs or less but the wins have not been the majority as the Orioles are 6-6 in his 12 starts since coming back including 3-3 at home. 10* (929) Washington Nationals

This is a play on the CHICAGO CUBS for our MLB Signature Sweet Spot. The Cubs are coming off a weekend sweep of Colorado to bring in a three-game winning streak into its biggest week of a baseball season in a while. Chicago is tied with Arizona for the No. 2 Wild Card spot in the National League but Miami is just one game back with the Reds and Giants still lurking. The Braves took three of four in Washington and have a three and a half game lead over the Dodgers for the best record in the National League. Going back further, they have not been at their best as since a six-game winning streak, they have gone just 10-11 over their last 21 games. Justin Steele was the league leader in ERA for quite some time and he brought in a 2.83 ERA through his first 27 starts after going five straight starts of allowing two runs or less but was lit up in his last two outings, giving up six runs in each over nine combined innings. His biggest start of the season comes tonight. Bryce Elder was also up in the ERA leaderboard but he slipped back a while and has been really inconsistent. He has allowed four runs in each of his last two starts and going back to early July, he has put up a 5.40 ERA in his last 13 starts after posting a 2.45 ERA through his first 17 outings. 10* (957) Chicago Cubs

This is a play on the LOS ANGELES ANGELS for our MLB Signature Sweet Spot. The Rangers are coming off a home sweep of Seattle to make it five straight wins and they have taken over first place in the American League West with a 2.5-game lead over Houston. Texas closes the season with a six-game roadtrip and it is sitting just at .500 on the road this season. The Angels are coming off a 2-4 roadtrip and they have dropped nine of their last 11 games overall and like many teams in their position, it is about playing spoiler over the final week and they are catching a great number in this series opener. Patrick Sandoval had a rough three-game stretch where he allowed 14 runs but it coming off a solid bounce back effort and prior to that bad stretch, he had a run of eight straight starts where he allowed two runs or fewer seven times. He does not give up the big blasts as he has allowed only 12 home runs and never more than one in any game. Jon Gray got off to a great start this season but he has regressed since June and has been especially bad of late. He has posted a 7.6 ERA over his last six starts while going more than five innings only once. He has not made it out of the fourth inning in each of his last three outings and is severely overpriced here. 10* (904) Los Angeles Angels

This is a play on the TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS for our NFL Monday Primetime Dominator. Philadelphia is off to a 2-0 start with a pair of ugly wins and it goes into a tougher than expected matchup. Offensively, something is off even though the Eagles were able to run the ball all over Minnesota with 259 yards but they cannot have that success again against a much better defensive front. The system is basically the same as last season but having a new offensive coordinator takes time to adjust to play calling. The big mismatch though is on the other side of the ball as the Eagles secondary is a mess and will be facing one of the top receiving corps in the league which can do a reversal as well and open up the running game that has been pedestrian so far. We have seen this line drop despite the majority of the money coming in on the Eagles which are going to be a very public team come kickoff. Tampa Bay is also 2-0 to start the season and it can certainly be considered a fraudulent 2-0 thank to the Buccaneers being +5 in turnover margin. While he does get a bad rap, Baker Mayfield has performed well in this offense as he is completing nearly 70 percent of his passes and has a 104.4 quarterback rating as he has avoided the turnovers. He will have plenty of looks downfield against this Eagles defense that has allowed 306 and 346 yards through the air in their first two games. While the Buccaneers defense has not faced an offensive line this strong yet, the fact they have allowed only 108 yards rushing in both games total still does say something. 10* (478) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

This is a play on the LAS VEGAS RAIDERS for our NFL Sunday Primetime Dominator. The Steelers came through for us Monday in a wrong side win as they were outgained 408-255 but the defense generated four turnovers, two that led to direct touchdowns saving some fantasy teams, or ruining some, along the way as well. Pittsburgh has now been outgained 799-494 in its two games and both of those were at home and now it hits the road for the first time. Quarterback Kenny Pickett has yet to hit his sophomore stride as he is ranked No. 30 in the NFL Advance Quarterback Stats and looks lost in this offense. Part of the problem is that he has no rushing game to help him out and that is the issue on both sides. Offensively, the Steelers have rushed for 96 yards on 31 carries (3.1 ypc) and on defense, they have allowed 386 yards on 69 carries (5.6 ypc) and that is not going to get it done as the back half can only do so much. The Raiders upset Denver on the road in their opener and then jumped ahead of Buffalo 7-0 before the Bills took over last week. They are back home in Las Vegas for their home opener in hopes of getting their own running game going as they have ran for only 116 yards on 44 carries (2.6 ypc) but facing this defense can turn that around. Josh Jacobs is coming off one of his worst games ever as he carried the ball nine times for -2 yards so expect a lot more from him. The defense got torched by Josh Allen after holding Russell Wilson to just 166 yards passing the previous week and Picket will not have success. This line opened at even and move to the Steelers being the favorite but it has flipped to the Raiders side. 10* (476) Las Vegas Raiders

This is a play on the CAROLINA PANTHERS for our NFL Ultimate Underdog. Carolina is off to an expected 0-2 start with a pair of division losses that could have gone either way if not or turnovers. The Panthers outgained Atlanta 281-221 but were -2 in turnovers and last Monday they could not convert in the redzone. The Carolina offense has stumbled the first two games behind rookie quarterback Bryce Young but in his defense, even though the sample size is small with just one other game played by the opposition, he has faced the No. 3 and No. 6 ranked defenses in yppl and now it will be Andy Dalton going up against the No. 30 ranked defense as Seattle is allowing 5.9 yppl and he is far from a downgrade. The running game has been just fine as the Panthers have rushed for 254 yards on 51 carries (5.0 ypc) despite Miles Sanders not breaking out yet. Seattle opened as the favorite at 4 and it jumped slightly to 4.5 and then after the Carolina loss it has moved all the way to 6 as of Wednesday. The Seahawks were outgained in regulation by 100 yards last week against Detroit after getting outgained by the Rams 426-180 so it has not gone great despite being 1-1. Give Geno Smith credit for bouncing back last week but he is still ranked just No. 18 in the NFL Advance Quarterback Stats and with both tackles still hurt, he faces an underrated defense that is ranked No. 7 in defensive yppl. The one concern was Young coming into a hostile environment as a rookie but Dalton is experienced and better equipped for the surroundings so he will be just fine and let the defense to its thing in what looks like a field goal game either way. 10* (469) Carolina Panthers

This is a play on the DETROIT LIONS for our NFL Signature Enforcer. The Falcons are off to a 2-0 start and were hammered when this line came out at 6 and when down to 4.5 shortly after and it continues to drop as it is down to 3.5 as of Wednesday with some 3-120 out there and a flat 3 could become available. Atlanta took care of a rookie quarterback in his first ever road game in the season opener and then was able to overcome a 12-point deficit against Green Bay last week. It has been a tale of two different offenses for the Falcons despite scoring 24 and 25 points as they put up 221 yards against the Panthers but upped that to 446 yards against Green Bay so we do not know much based on two games of 5.0 yppl and 5.8 yppl other than the fact the total of 5.3 yppl is middle of the pack and now the Falcons leave the fast turn of the dome for the first time. We played against Detroit last week as the Seahawks won in overtime with the Lions never seeing the ball and to be fair, that is a regular season rule that needs to go away. The Lions were overpriced last week against Seattle following their win over the Chiefs the previous Thursday in their opener and now we are seeing a reversal based on their loss and the Falcons undefeated start. Detroit outgained Seattle 418-393 despite not seeing the ball in overtime with 75 of those opposing yards coming after regulation. Detroit is No. 4 in the NFL in yppl at 5.9 and while the Falcons defense is ranked No. 3 in defensive yppl at 4.2, the success has mostly come in the passing defense as they have allowed only 4.2 ypa against young quarterbacks Bryce Young and Jordan Love but Jared Goff is averaging 8.1 ypa. 10* (466) Detroit Lions

This is a play on the DENVER BRONCOS for our AFC Game of the Month. One paper, this looks like a Miami lay as the Dolphins are off to a 2-0 start with both wins coming on the road while the Broncos are 0-2 with both of their losses coming at home. This is an opposite situational play based on that and we are getting value on top of backing Denver along with other factors that are not being taken into consideration. Luck factor is a big ingredient in finding value and this game fully falls into this metric with these teams on opposite ends of those ratings. The Broncos come in as the second unluckiest team at -46.4 percent as they have lost two winnable games by a combined three points. Denver was outgained by the Raiders by one yard and against Washington, it outgained the Commanders 399-388, albeit a big chunk coming on the Hail Mary, which is a slim margin but blew a 21-3 lead in the process as it fell apart down the stretch. Many are calling Russell Wilson a wash but there is more to it than a 0-2 record and an eye test as he is ranked No. 5 in the NFL Advance Quarterback Stats which include how yards are accumulated along with defensive pressure. Miami is the third luckiest team in the league at 43.2 percent coming off a couple games that could have gone either way. But because of the 2-0 start, the Dolphins are shooting up in the futures market to win the AFC and the Super Bowl while Tua Tagovailoa is now the favorite to win MVP and yes, he is ranked behind Wilson in the NFL Advance Quarterback Stats. The records alone are factoring into the number which opened at 6 and has moved to 6.5 with 7 possibly coming thanks to 80 percent of money on Miami. 10* (461) Denver Broncos

This is a play on the CLEVELAND BROWNS for our NFL Supreme Annihilator. We played against Cleveland on Monday night and won even though it was the wrong side as the Browns gave the game away with a pair of defensive touchdowns for the Steelers. Deshawn Watson was not good, especially in the clutch, but he went up against one of the top defenses in the league that people do not like to admit. The loss of Nick Chubb was devastating for him and not a good one for the Browns but not bad enough that they cannot overcome. They face another good defense here but they are in a good spot coming off that loss where they outgained the Steelers 408-255 but four turnovers overall did them in including the aforementioned two that directly turned into scores. Tennessee overcame an early 11-0 deficit to win in overtime against Los Angeles in a very even game where they lost the yardage battle by just one yard and it was a clean game with no turnovers on eighter side. The Titans come into a bad spot this week and while their defense looks good, they have allowed 282 and 281 yards passing the first two games which gives hope to Watson. The offense managed only 285 yards against the Saints in their first road game while settling for five field goals. Tennessee faced one of the worst defenses in the NFL last week after going against that tough New Orleans defense and it has another challenge here as Cleveland is the only team in the NFL where its opponent has yet to run a play in its redzone so this defense has been for real. This line opened 4.5 and went up to 5 but after Monday night, the line has come down considerably which is a big overreaction. 10* (454) Cleveland Browns

This is a play on the ARIZONA ST. SUN DEVILS for our CFB Star Attraction. USC comes in as a massive favorite which comes as no surprise as the Trojans have rolled the competition in their 3-0 start. They are averaging 59.3 ppg but they have not been tested as the last two games have come against Nevada and Stanford, ranked No. 132 and No. 105 respectively. The first game was against San Jose St. which was the best of the three at No. 78 and the Spartans were able to keep it close for a while and put up 28 points against this suspect defense. This will be their toughest opponent since then and the situation is not in their favor. USC is coming off a bye week which is insignificant here as its last two games can be constituted as byes and now the trojans hit the road for the first time with a game at Colorado on deck, also on the road. Arizona St. is off to a 1-2 start as it snuck by Southern Utah of the FCS in its opener and then lost to Oklahoma St. 27-15 before getting shutout last week against Fresno St. 29-0. The Bulldogs are a very underrated 3-0 but even with that, the Sun Devils gave the game away by losing the turnover battle 8-0 and no team is going to compete with a differential like that. To their credit, the defense played well, allowing just 350 yards of offense and holding Fresno St. to seven field goal attempts. Here, we play against teams with a turnover differential of +0.75 per game or better and after a game with a turnover margin of +3 or better going up against teams with a turnover differential of -0.75 per game or worse. This situation is 26-7 ATS (78.8 percent) over the last five seasons. 10* (370) Arizona St. Sun Devils