Four teams will enter the 2008 NFL football season with a new head coach. The Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins will all have to adjust to new offenses, schemes and motivational tactics. Here we will break down all four teams and try to get a read on how the NFL coaching changes will affect each squad.

Atlanta Falcons: Mike Smith is the new guy for Atlanta after Bobby Petrino resigned in the middle of the 2007 season. Emmitt Thomas finished off the year after Petrino’s sudden exit, winning one of the final three games.

Mike Smith spent the last few years as the defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Under Jack Del Rio, Smith led the Jaguars to a #12 defensive ranking last year but now heads to a team that ranked #29 in total yards allowed. The Falcons also ranked #29 in points allowed, and weren’t particularly good stopping the run or pass.

Atlanta hired Mike Mularkey to run the offense. Mularkey was the offensive coordinator for the Steelers earlier this decade before becoming the Buffalo Bills head coach.

Atlanta has multiple problems on both side of the ball, but a year removed from the Mike Vick debacle should see an improvement from last year’s four-win team.

Baltimore Ravens: Since 1999, only one man has roamed the Baltimore Ravens’ sidelines. That being Brian Billick, who compiled an 80-64 record and won Super Bowl XXXV. Two years ago, Baltimore went 13-3 in the regular season and won the AFC North Division, but last year’s 5-11 record, coupled with an unfathomable loss to Miami and a stagnant offense, has ended Billick’s tenure as head coach.

Enter John Harbaugh, brother of former quarterback and current Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh. This will be the first head coaching job for Harbaugh, who has spent time under Philadelphia coach Andy Reid.

Cam Cameron will handle the offensive duties, which includes selecting the next quarterback of the future. The three options are Kyle Boller, Troy Smith and Joe Flacco.

Baltimore is in a rebuilding stage, and with a tough AFC North Division to deal with, Harbaugh will be hard-pressed to make the playoff this year. Also, word out of camp is that his physical-style of practice is leading to multiple injuries, which could impact the beginning of the season.

Miami Dolphins: Not much needs to be said about the Dolphins’ disastrous year in 2007. Bill Parcells will be the man behind the curtain this year, and he hired Tony Sparano away from Dallas to do his bidding.

Cam Cameron exits from Miami, who along with a weak roster to begin with, was hit hard by injuries and then started trading away talent for the future. Even this year, Jason Taylor was traded to Washington. While Sparano isn’t expected to get immediate results, Parcells will demand improvement in attitude and set a foundation for a contender in the next 3-4 years.

Miami ranked dead last in rush defense last year, and was in the bottom third in both rushing and passing offense. Running back Ronnie Brown will return from his ACL tear last October, and when he left he was having a tremendous statistical year. Brown had over 600 rushing yards in seven games, and was netting more than five yards per rush attempt. Obviously, he will be the focus of the 2008 offense as well.

Still, will Miami make any noise in the standings this season? Fuggedaboudit.

Washington Redskins: Joe Gibbs is gone (again). Washington easily has the best chance of any team on this list to make some noise come January. Jim Zorn will take over for Gibbs, and Zorn’s main job is to settle the quarterback situation.

Washington has a talented roster on both offense and defense, but it was sporadic quarterback play that is the team’s pressing issue. Zorn was the quarterbacks coach in Seattle, and owner Dan Snyder hopes he will help current quarterback Jason Campbell to become more like Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

Zorn is implementing a new West Coast offensive scheme, and he must be grateful that the Redskins play five preseason games this year. New offenses are nothing new to Washington, who has gone through more than their fair share of coaches over the past couple of years. Still, West Coast offenses take time for the players to handle, so expect Washington to use this preseason a bit differently than most other teams.

While we’re still a few weeks away from the opening of NFL training camps, it’s never too early to start thinking ahead to the next NFL football season. Here are a few of the Super Bowl Contenders that should make some noise come January, along with their ATS betting trends from last year:

New England Patriots: Everyone’s obvious choice to win the Super Bowl, the Patriots will be back as the favorite to win it all this year, however, they have lost a few key pieces. Still, when you have Tom Brady and Randy Moss, there aren’t going to be many teams in front of you in the win column. And remember, these Patriots are coming out hungry after the shocking loss to the Giants in last year’s Super Bowl.

After starting the 2007 season by covering the pointspread in eight straight games, New England couldn’t keep up with the inflated lines (four times being favorites of 19.5 points or higher) and finished with a 2-6 ATS mark.

Indianapolis Colts: We’ll see the Colts in action shortly in the Hall of Fame Game (Canton, Ohio on August 3). This year’s Colts team is pretty much the same as last year’s squad, who played well in every game last year, save two games against San Diego. With no major personnel losses, Indy’s biggest concern is their division, which many predict is the toughest in the NFL.

Like New England, the Colts started the year of strong against the pointspread, going 6-2 ATS. And again like the Patriots, Indianapolis faltered at the betting window in the second half of the season, going 3-5 ATS.

San Diego Chargers: Last year the Chargers made it all the way to the AFC Championship Game. Are they good enough to make it to the Super Bowl this year? Well, they did lose RB Michael Turner, but with a healthy season the Chargers will once again be making noise come playoff time. They must, however, start better than last year (1-3) and be in the running for home field advantage if they want to get past the Patriots and Colts.

The Chargers went an average 5-5 versus the pointspread to start the 2007 season, but finished strong by covering nine straight (including the playoffs). San Diego was the favorite in all but three of their regular season games last year (New England, Indianapolis and Jacksonville), and should see similar type lines again this season.

Dallas Cowboys: The only team from the NFC on our list, Dallas has a new running game and was the best team in the NFC all year, despite their early playoff exit. The Cowboys benefit from a weaker conference than the first three teams on this list, and anything short of a long playoff run would be surprising to most NFL observers.

Dallas covered the pointspread in nine of their first twelve games in 2007, but failed to cover the spread in any of their final five contests (including their playoff loss to the Giants). Another interesting trend for the Cowboys was their Over/Under record, which saw 10 of their first 13 games go Over the total, while the next four all went Under.

All four of these teams had winning pointspread marks for the regular season. Keep that in mind when betting on NFL Football games early in the season. The good teams usually have winning ATS records as well as the good straight up records.

There are a few other teams that should have good seasons, but didn’t make the list. Those teams would be Jacksonville (tough division), Cleveland (ten wins last year, but difficult schedule this season), New York Giants (key personnel losses) and Minnesota (great running game, but still need a quarterback).

LazerWager has posted their odds to win Super Bowl XLIII, and not surprising the odds-on favorite is the New England Patriots at 7:2. Right behind them are the Dallas Cowboys at 6:1. Both Indianapolis and San Diego pay back 7:1 odds. Check out the rest of LazerWager’s Super Bowl Odds, and remember that the Colts and Redskins kick off the NFL Preseason on Sunday, August 3!

When we last check in (prior to the Lakers and Jazz Game Three), the home teams in the second round were dominating both the win column and the cash. Home teams had gone 10-0 straight up, and 9-1 against the pointspread.

Since that time, the linesmakers have done a good job adjusting the lines. Home teams are 12-2 straight up from May 9 going forward, but are only 7-7 ATS. For the second round as a whole (not including tonight’s Spurs-Hornets Game Seven), the home teams are a combined 22-2 straight up and 16-8 ATS.

Both home teams that lost outright also failed to cover the pointspread. Orlando lost 90-89 as a 5.5-point favorite, while Utah fell to the Lakers, 108-105 as a four-point choice. Therefore, in the second round of the NBA Playoffs, the winning team was 18-6 ATS – a 75% proposition!

Despite the home teams’ dominance, the action on most of the games have been pretty even. In fact, there wasn’t one lopsided game since the last blog posting! The book was relieved, however, to see Boston win Game Seven on Sunday, as more than a few people took Cleveland in the series, paying roughly 5.5-to-1.

The Cleveland-Boston series was the exception this year. The Cavs covered three of the four games played in Boston despite losing all four contests. Cleveland ended up going 6-1 ATS against the Celtics over the span of the seven-game series.

The New Orleans-San Antonio series has stayed perfect to form. The home team is a perfect 6-0 both straight up and ATS. The Hornets hope that trend remains true tonight, as they are a 4.5-point home favorite.

Will the home-team trend continue into the Conference Finals? Last year, home teams went 8-3 straight up and 7-4 ATS. Cleveland went a perfect 6-0 ATS against Detroit, including three ATS wins in the Motor City. San Antonio went 4-1 ATS against the Jazz, covering one of the two games played in Utah. The two NBA Finals teams went a combined 10-1 ATS in the Conference Finals Round.

We’ll be back here next week to see if any trends develop during the next series!

Heading into Friday night’s Game Three between the Lakers and Jazz, the home teams in the second round have been near perfect so far. In ten second round games, the home team is a perfect 10-0 straight up and a near-perfect 9-1 against the pointspread. That lone ATS loss was Game One of the Cleveland-Boston Series, in which the Celtics won by four points while laying ten.

Not only are the home teams winning, they are winning big. The average margin of victory in the nine ATS home covers was by 15 points. Eight of those nine games saw the home team win by double-digits.

Does this trend continue through the rest of the second round? It’s hard to tell, but both Orlando and San Antonio had big wins in their first game on their home court.

Orlando was a five-point favorite at home against the Pistons after losing the first two in Detroit. The Magic easily covered that number, winning by 25 points.

San Antonio was blown out in each of the first two games in New Orleans. They responded with a convincing 11-point victory at home in Game Three, covering as seven-point chalk.

Both Utah and Cleveland are small favorites in their first home games of the second round. Utah is a -4.5 favorite against the Lakers on Friday, while Cleveland is a small one-point choice at home against the Celtics on Saturday night.

There were three one-sided games in the LazerWager Sportsbook this week. The players fared well, winning two of the three. First, the players won big with Cleveland covering the 10-point number in Game One against Boston (the only road team to cover the spread in the second round). Next, the players backed Orlando at home in their 25-point win against Detroit.

The book was able to recoup some of their losses on Thursday, as once again the players backed LeBron James and the Cavs, who fell by 16 in Boston.

Keep an eye on the home teams throughout the rest of the second round, and we’ll be back here soon with more NBA Playoff Trends.

Heading in to the elimination games of the NBA Playoffs, some interesting NBA Betting Trends are starting to emerge. Let’s first take a look at how these games are playing out, then we’ll see how NBA bettors are faring so far this postseason.

Through Sunday, April 27, home teams in the playoffs are 20-10 straight up and 17-13 against the pointspread (ATS). While the Houston vs. Utah series has been a little strange (road team is 1-3 both straight up and ATS), that 20-10 mark moves to 19-7 (73%) if you remove the results from the Rockets and Jazz.

The higher-seeded teams have an identical straight up record as home teams (20-10), but fare a little better against the spread, going 19-11 ATS. Favorites are a near-even 16-14 versus the number, but a closer look at the numbers show that the chalk started 13-6 ATS, and then went 3-8 ATS over the last three days.

Totals Players should note that the “Under” has won 12 of the last 17 games, and is 17-13 so far in the postseason.

Sports bettors were right on the money from the beginning, with two of the most one-sided games being on New Orleans -4.5 in Game One against Dallas, and Utah +1 against Houston in Game Two. The Hornets beat Dallas 104-92, easily covering the number, while Utah won outright on the road, 90-84.

Sunday afternoon was another good day for the players, as the Hornets and Cavs were betting favorites and both came through with big wins. Cleveland beat Washington outright, 100-97, and New Orleans won by 13 while laying just 4.5 points.

The best games for the book were actually in baseball betting, as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays swept the Boston Red Sox. Boston had heavy backing in all three contests.

As far as the rest of the playoffs are concerned, the book didn’t have any big winners, but ended up pretty well with balanced action in between the two weekends.

We’ll check back here later after the first round is over and see how both the teams and players are doing heading into the second round.

Remember, to check out the LazerWager Sportsbook daily for current lines on every NBA Playoff Game, and don’t forget to visit our NBA Playoff Props as well!

What a game to end a fantastic March Madness Tournament! The Jayhawks miracle comeback (down by 9 with two minutes left) left most LazerWager players as winners Monday night. Let’s recap the final three games of the Tournament.

Saturday was a great day for the books. It started with Memphis as a two-point favorite against UCLA. The players jumped all over the Bruins, as nearly 75% of the pointspread wagers were backing UCLA. The Tigers had a slim three-point halftime lead before blowing out the Bruins in the second half, winning by 15.

The second game had North Carolina as a three-point choice against Kansas. Although there were more bets placed on Kansas in this matchup, there was a significant larger amount of money bet on the Tar Heels. North Carolina was blown out early, trailing by 17 at halftime. The books also cleaned up on the second half, as UNC -7.5 was the popular second half play. The Tar Heels pulled to within six with about five minutes left, but then faded as Kansas won by 18.

The Championship Game was split 60-40, with the majority of the wagers coming in on Memphis, but about 65% of the cash was on Kansas. The worse possible scenario for the House was almost realized, as a one-point Memphis win would pay out the Memphis Future wagers, and also the Kansas pointspread money. Luckily for the house, the Tigers inability to make free throws down the stretch sent the game to overtime, where Kansas won by seven points.

Total players also had a good Final Four, with over 60% of Over/Under wagers being paid out as winners. In fact, the Championship Game stayed under the posted total of 158, even with the overtime period.

Now that the College Basketball season is over, hoops fans will turn their attention to the NBA, which starts their playoffs in a week and a half. We’ll review some NBA Betting trends here next time.