A few weeks back, I was crying over spilt milk. I was telling y’all how many times we were on the losing end of games that went from winners to losers late or in overtime. Well, after watching the ending of the Florida / Auburn game we got one back. When the lines came out last Sunday, I immediately bet Auburn -1. I was sure that this line would go up, and I was somewhat right as the number sat at 2 ½ for most of the week. Then on Thursday, large money came in on Florida pushing them to -2. My -1 now looked like a donkey bet, but I wasn’t the least bit worried because I now chunk bet Auburn ML for even more. I loved Auburn in this spot, and the sharp money on Florida didn’t scare me in the least bit. In my eyes, Florida money was square, circle, triangle, rectangle….. whatever.

I also loved the over. Here is my write-up from last week, and you’ll see why I liked both plays so much.

Florida @ Auburn 7:45 PM EST Play On: Auburn (-) pts

Good bounce back spot for Auburn. They were not focused, out-played, and totally embarrassed from the get-go last week against Arkansas. The Tigers gained just 213 yards on offense, QB Cox was sacked 5 times, and they coughed-up 3 fumbles. That’s as ugly as it gets. Don’t expect that to happen in back-to-back weeks with shrewd OC Al Borges calling the shots.

The Gators are off a solid win against LSU, but I’m not much of an LSU believer. I had two wins on the Late Phones using both Auburn and Florida over LSU, and there is some line value here based on those games. Auburn was a 3 ½ point home favorite vs LSU and Florida was a pick at home last week. Now, after Auburn’s upset loss the line is just 2. Had Auburn won last week, the line would have been at least 4 or 5. Under HC Meyer, Florida is just 2-3 SU away and the Gators have a huge home/road scoring dichotomy after 18 games under his direction. At home, they average 32.7 points and 22.2 away for a 10.5 difference. On defense, they allow just 10.8 points at home but 26 on the road for a difference of 15.2. Facing an Auburn team that is 38-7 SU at home their last 45 and 19-2 in SEC play since 2004 is not good for a team that plays much differently on the road than at home. Go with Auburn.

Again, when the totals came out I bet over 38. After releasing both Auburn and the over, I wasn’t happy with the total closing 41 at kickoff. At halftime, there were 28 points on the board. In my mind, we had the total cashed and were just sweating-out the Auburn side. Well, if you saw the ending, this was a game that we were lucky to win even though it shouldn’t have come down to this play (maybe I should listen to my own advice from above… LOL). With Auburn leading 21-17, the Gators had one last play. The hook and ladder was complete then a fumbled lateral was picked-up by Auburn and ran back for a TD with no time left to make the final score 27-17. What a gift! We deserve it once and awhile.

DUMB = Donate Unearned Money Back There should be a situational coaching position on every team. Let’s go back to the Florida / Auburn game. With about 2 minutes left in the game, Auburn had the ball and Florida was out of timeouts. One 1st down and the game’s over. The correct play was for Florida to let Auburn score and give themselves a chance to tie the game. Nope, they played it out, Auburn kicked a FG, and Florida got the ball back with 35 seconds left with basically no chance. Yes, they know a lot more about the actual coaching than me, but that’s just common sense stuff that a coach making 2 million per year should know.