Vegas Play of the Day: Houston Texans at Carolina Panthers

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Bob Leverone / AP

The Carolina Panthers’ Kelvin Benjamin, center, runs Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016, after a catch as the Arizona Cardinals’ Tyrann Mathieu, left, and Patrick Peterson defend in the first quarter of an NFL game in Charlotte, N.C.

Wed, Aug 9, 2017 (11:19 a.m.)

We’ve entered the fourth season of the annual South Point-lined Play of the Day competition, effective July 1.

Starting bankrolls have reset to $10,000, with the the minimum wager $300. Ray Brewer won back-to-back titles in the 2015-2016 and 2016-17 seasons, after Taylor Bern prevailed in 2014-2015.

Carolina Panthers minus-1 vs. Houston Texans: $330 to win $300

This line came down from Carolina minus-3 when coach Ron Rivera officially announced he wouldn’t play Cam Newton in the preseason opener. That seems unnecessary considering that even if Newton played, it would have been in limited time.

The Texans will split time between Tom Savage and Deshaun Watson at quarterback, but is that duo really any better than the Panthers’ Derek Anderson and Joe Webb? The experience edge tilts strongly toward the latter.

There are no definitive reports on how long the rest of the starters will play, but the home team also has the better roster. Despite advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs last year, Houston was one of the worst teams in the league.

Carolina won three fewer games but was victimized by bad luck a year after reaching the Super Bowl. The Panthers are more banged up than the Texans early in the preseason, which is a larger concern.

But they’re still the home team, and taking Newton out of a couple possessions shouldn’t have taken the game off of the key number of 3.

Current Standings: Granger (4-4, $11,657), Keefer (4-2-1, $10,795), Grimala (2-1, $10,595), Brewer (3-5, $8,340)

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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