Monday Night Football

It only took UK TV stations 22 years to work out that the Monday Night Football format was a good idea, but there you go. Starting at the beginning of November I shall be previewing both the American Football and Association Football versions, so this is a trial run.

Blackburn v Sunderland (Premiership, 8:00pm GMT)
Looks like a low scoring game with a high possibility of a draw, although a Blackburn win represents value especially if Darren Bent is ruled out. Might have to get the stopwatch out tonight and run the 'five minutes no goals trade', although it may be a good idea to trade out immediately after ten minutes and wait until after 70 minutes before doing it again as that's when these two tend to stop scoring.
Recommendation: Blackburn win, under 2.5 goals. Use the Strategy With No Name for both half time and full time - Blackburn haven't been behind at half time this season and Sunderland haven't won away yet. There's a case to be made for Blackburn winning both halves, but I'm leaving that alone.

Jacksonville Jaguars v Tennessee Titans (NFL 1:30am GMT)
First Monday night meeting between these two: Jacksonville have won six of their eight Monday night home games, Tennessee are 7-9 in Monday night road games but that includes games when they were the Houston/Nashville Oilers: since 2000 the franchise is 4-3 away from home on Monday nights.

The Titans are on a three game winning streak on the road and have won 13 of their last 20 road games; they've won three of the last five meetings in Florida (they lost the corresponding game in Week 4 last season). Jacksonville have won half of their last 20 home games but have lost three of their last five and for that reason I think Tennessee probably just about have enough to win this game - however, the total points market could be where the profit could be made here and 44.5/45 looks too high to me, somewhere between 36 and 42 looks more realistic - especially if the Titans are the favourites. Recommendation: Tennessee to win and under 44.5/45 points - but don't break the bank on the latter.