Happy Monday, fellow sports bettors! Y'all already know what time it is! Let's look at some crazy bets and bad beats from NFL Week 11.
As you might expect, it was another wild and unforgettable week of football. Joe Burrow hurt his wrist and is now out for the remainder of the season. Not only that, but three point-spread underdogs ending up winning outright on Sunday. Let's get into it.
Crazy Bet: Sports Bettor at DraftKings Cashes Out HUGE with the Vikings +3
Sunday Night Football turned out to be a sneaky good game to watch. It also turned out to be highly profitable for a certain sports bettor at DraftKings! Someone believed in Joshua Dobbs so much that they bet $35,000 on the Vikings +3 over the Broncos.
You'd have to be living under a rock to not know about Dobbs and his unlikely rise to NFL stardom. That being said, this wager still took some serious guts, especially since the Broncos have been on such a good roll. However, Minnesota got off to a great start and covered the spread, even though they lost the game outright 21-20.
After a somewhat boring first quarter, Dobbs hit Josh Oliver for a 3-yard TD pass to start the second quarter. This gave the Vikings a 7-3 lead. About 7 minutes later, Greg Joseph nailed a field goal to put Minny up 10-3. Denver answered with 2 field goals of their own to make it 10-9 Minnesota at halftime.
The third quarter belonged to none other than Mr. Dobbs. The former Tennessee Volunteer scampered 10 yards for the quarter's only score. That extended the Vikings lead to 8, which had to put our crazy bettor's mind a little more at ease.
However, those pesky Broncos refused to go away quietly. Russell Wilson engineered back-to-back drives that ended in two more Wil Lutz field goals. Greg Joseph responded with another field goal of his own to stretch Minnesota's lead back to 5.
The drama was not over though. Wilson led Denver on a 10-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with a TD pass to Courtland Sutton. That gave Denver a 1-point lead, so they decided to go for 2. With a $35,000 wager hanging in the balance, Minnesota's defense stifled the 2-point conversion run. Our crazy bettor at DraftKings may have been drenched in sweat, but at least they went home almost $30,000 richer!
Bad Beat: Caesars Gambler Gets Bit by the Hook with Texans -5.5
In the famous words of Rocky Balboa, "the world ain't all sunshine and rainbows." Unfortunately, that was true for a bettor at Caesars on Sunday. Someone bet $220,000 on the Houston Texans -5.5 over the Arizona Cardinals.
The bet made plenty of sense on paper. Houston had been playing lights out football and head coach Demeco Ryans looks to have turned this franchise around in record time. The only problem was that the Texans needed to win by at least 6, which would be no easy feat against the Cardinals.
As bad as Arizona has been, they just got Kyler Murray back and he's always been a bear to defend. That was also the case early on in this game, as Murray hooked up with Rondale Moore for a 48-yard TD strike to give the Cards a 7-0 lead.
CJ Stroud responded about 8 minutes later with a 20-yard TD pass of his own to Dalton Schultz. Veteran kicker Matt Prater drilled a 57-yard field goal to put Zona back on top by 3 points shortly before the first quarter expired.
The second stanza was all Houston! Devin Singletary scored from 11 yards out to give the Texans their first lead. Stroud threw a bullet to Tank Dell to stretch the lead to 11 just before halftime.
The third quarter is where things went wonky. Murray scored on a 1-yard TD run to bring the Cards to within 5 points. Arizona went for 2 but was denied. Unfortunately for this bettor at Caesars, Houston didn't score the entire 2nd half. That means he lost $220,000 by half a freaking point! OUCH!
