Happy Monday to everyone except Nelson Agholor! Holy cow, if you had the Ravens -9.5 let me offer you my sincerest condolences. As much as we all love betting on the NFL, it sometimes has a little bit of a scripted WWE vibe.
In case you're new to this column, each week I go over a crazy bet and a bad beat from the prior week of NFL action. Our goal with this article is to celebrate with the winners and let all who suffered a bad beat know that they're not alone! Here are the two I zeroed in on from NFL Week 8.
Bad Beat: Ravens Blow the Cover Late in Devastating Fashion
This one may qualify for Bad Beat of the Year status! Just about everyone and their brother laid the points with Baltimore over Arizona. The Ravens were laying -9.5 on the road to an undermanned Cardinals squad.
Things started off just fine for Ravens backers as they took a 7-point lead just before halftime on a Gus Edwards 1-yard TD run. Baltimore also dominated the third quarter behind another TD run from Edwards to go up 21-7 heading into the final stanza. That's where things got scarier than an old Nightmare on Elm Street movie.
After Justin Tucker drilled a 48-yard field goal to make the Baltimore lead 24-7, Joshua Dobbs led the Cards down the field on a 9-play drive that culminated with a 17-yard TD pass to Trey McBride. Dobbs then converted the two-point attempt to trim the Ravens lead to just 9 points.
Everyone who took Baltimore rejoiced however, when Edwards scored yet another TD to stretch the lead back out to 16 points. With just under 3 minutes left, most folks who laid the points were already dreaming of stacks of dead presidents. Unfortunately, that's NOT how it all played out.
Hollywood Brown snared a 1-yard TD from Dobbs to bring the Cards to within 10. Arizona was called for a penalty on the two-point try and failed to convert it on their second attempt. The Cards lined up for the onside kick, but Ravens backers probably weren't all that worried.
After all, onside kicks are rarely recovered by the kicking team. Unfortunately for Ravens bettors, Nelson Agholor muffed the onside kick and gave Cardinal bettors new life. With just 26 seconds remaining, Matt Prater nailed a 47-yard field goal to hand Baltimore backers a bad beat for the ages!
Caesars Sports Bettor Ends Night in Style with HUGE Win on the Chargers!
Sometimes the craziest bets don't have to be so crazy. A lot of times, we make sports betting harder than it has to be. A big bettor at Caesars in Michigan did NOT overthink things.
He bet a cool $220K on the Los Angeles Chargers -8.5 on Sunday Night Football. Given that the Chicago Bears were starting a former DII QB for the second straight week, it was easy to understand this bettor's logic. As difficult as it is to trust Brandon Staley, this bettor came out smelling like a rose!
The Chargers came out firing on all cylinders, as they built a 17-0 lead and never looked back. The Bears trimmed the lead to 10 points late in the 2nd quarter, but that was as close as they would get. Justin Herbert threw for 298 yards and 3 TD which gave the Chargers a comfortable 30-13 win and sent our crazy bettor at Caesars home $200K richer!
