Both the AFC and the NFC Championship games lived up to the hype yesterday. Both underdogs covered the spread, but when all was said and done, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers punched their respective tickets to Super Bowl 58.
Wow! What an incredible Championship Sunday in the NFL! Find out which bettors scored big, and which went home crying in this edition of Crazy Bets and Bad Beats.
Crazy Bet: Mahomes Helps Cash Gigantic Ticket for Bettor at DraftKings
Say it with me, now: I will not bet against Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs! I will not bet against Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. In case you can't tell, I was one of the unfortunate ones that bet on the Ravens yesterday.
Thankfully, this big bettor at DraftKings did not subscribe to my advice this time. They placed a $100,000 wager on the Chiefs to win the AFC Title at the generous price of +380. They ended up laughing all the way to the bank, as Kansas City never trailed in the game. Here's how it all went down:
Mahomes hooked up with Taylor Swift's new heart throb, Travis Kelce, for a 19-yard touchdown strike about halfway through the first quarter. This play brought a hush over the normally raucous Baltimore crowd. Lamar Jackson answered right back though, with a 30-yard TD pass to rookie sensation Zay Flowers.
The second quarter was all Kansas City! Isiah Pacheco scored on a 2-yard touchdown dash and Harrison Butker drilled a 52-yard field goal just before halftime. This put the Chiefs up 17-7.
Oddly enough, the Chiefs wouldn't score a single point the rest of the game. However, Steve Spagnuolo's defense completely shut down a normally efficient Ravens offense throughout the entire second half. "Spags" relied on timely blitzes from his linebackers and solid coverage from his DBs to ice the game away.
Justin Tucker brought Baltimore to within three points with a 43-yard field goal, but it was too little too late. Kansas City's 17-10 win gave our crazy bettor at DraftKings a $380,000 payout! Holy Cow!
Bad Beat: Niners Win But Blow the Cover Late Against Lions
Things didn't go as well for another bettor over at BetMGM. They placed two separate bets on the 49ers in the NFC Title Game. One wager was on SF -3 for $250,000 and the other was on SF -7 for $100,000.
San Francisco looked tight on offense and flat-out clueless on defense in the first half. Detroit was on a major roll and led 24-7 at the break behind three TD runs from Jameson Williams, David Montgomery, and Jahmyr Gibbs.
The Niners offense woke up in the second half in a big way. However, Dan Campbell helped out San Fran's cause by continually going for it on 4th down. Gibbs also fumbled, which led to the Niners tying the game at 24 all just a few minutes later.
As bad as San Fran played, this big bettor at BetMGM was still covering both bets with less than a minute remaining. Unfortunately for them, Jared Goff found Jameson Williams in the back of the end zone from 3 yards out on yet another 4th down play.
Michael Badgley's extra point brought the Lions to within 3 but Detroit couldn't win the onside kick. The Niners won 34-31, which meant that this bettor's $250K (-3) wager was refunded as a push and their $100K (-7) was a loser. OUCH!
