Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The Cooler, where there is always more than one way to win. Let's get to it:
*In what looked at times Monday like a video game, or at least a Big 12 game, the Rams and Chiefs combined to score 105 points on Monday Night Football. Los Angeles gave up 51 and still won, thanks to a late touchdown that gave the Rams 54, putting an exclamation point on a showdown between explosive 9-1 teams that absolutely lived up to its billing.
If you like offense — and really, most people prefer 54-51 to 13-10 and those who say otherwise might be pining more for nostalgia than gritty field position battles — Monday was your kind of night.
If you run a casino in Las Vegas, however, Monday was not your kind of night. In an effort to scare away gamblers, the over-under point total for the game was set at 64 — the largest since at least 1986.
But gamblers — especially casual ones who like to have a few bucks on a game for fun — love the over. It's more fun to root for points than to hope for turnovers, incomplete passes and field goals.
ESPN reports that a representative for William Hill, which has 108 sports books in Nevada, said 69 percent of the over-under action in Monday's game was bet on the over and that the books lost seven-figures Monday as a result.
Nice for gamblers, not nice for the money machines. Let's just hope those poor, poor casinos can rebound.
*Vikings coach Mike Zimmer offered up some very interesting quotes Monday that further advanced my theory that there is some push-pull happening this season between the way Zimmer wants the Vikings to play and the way new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo is calling games.
