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NFL Betting - Bad Beats
by Tom Grassi
As the old saying goes, you win some close ones and you lose some close ones. In the world of sports betting most just remember the close ones they lose.
It’s been a wacky year in the NFL with last week being no exception. NFL football bettors got their money’s worth as a number of games went right down to the wire.
In Baltimore, the winless Colts visited the AFC North leading Ravens. The offshore sportsbooks didn’t give Indy much chance of staying with the Ravens as they were lofty 16-point underdogs at the betting windows. Ravens bettors who laid the big number were sitting on the edge of their seats throughout the fourth quarter as Baltimore was holding a 21 point lead. With two minutes and eighteen seconds left in the game, the Colts took over on their own 24 yard line. Of course, being down three scores what incentive did the Colts have to score? Not much. Don’t tell the Ravens bettors that as after not scoring a touchdown for the entire game the Colts drove 76 yards and scored on a 13 yard touchdown pass on the final play of the game. That’s right, Baltimore backers were in shock as they lost their “sure” winner.
Washington was hosting the Patriots and the Skins were 8-point home underdogs. New England bettors were feeling good early when the Pats raced out to a 14-3 lead. However, Washington scored with just over a minute left in the first quarter to trail 14-10. For the rest of the game Washington was within the 8-point betting line. However, with 10 minutes to play and holding a 7-point lead Brady and the Pats took over at the Washington 49 yard line and drove down to the Skins 4 yard line. All New England bettors now felt pretty good as for sure the Pats would end up with a field goal and take the lead up to 10 points. When was the last time Tom Brady through an interception in the end zone? Just when Pats bettors thought they had the money in their pocket Brady throws a wild pass and Washington intercepts. There were a lot of television sets broken up in Chowder Town!
Another early game that had sports bettors biting their nails was the New Orleans versus Tennessee game. The Saints were 4.5-point favorites over the Titans. With the Saints holding a precarious 5 point lead with four minutes to play the Titans drove down to the Saints 24 yard line leaving 2 minutes and 18 seconds to play. Down by five points they obviously had to go for the touchdown. However, a fourth down play failed and the Saints took over. However, the Saints were only able to run four plays and take the clock down to one minute and thirty four seconds. They punted and took the Titans down to their own 20 yard line. The Titans teased their backers again as they drove the ball down to the Saints 8 yard line and on the last play of the game their QB was sacked. New Orleans bettors couldn’t handle the anxiety of having to stomach not one last minute attempt by the Titans but two!
We’re not going to have all you sports bettors relive all of the other pain and agony, but there were other games that went down to the last drive. Carolina had a final chance to cover against Atlanta. Cincinnati killed their backers as they blew the cover and the game when they let Houston score in the final 10 seconds. Bears running back Marion Barber might get run out of Chicago after he ran out of bounds to stop the clock in regulation and then fumbled in overtime to let Denver win 13-10 having some sports bettors who had Chicago only get a push instead of a win.
Maybe the worst nightmare for sports bettors all weekend was those of you who had the Cowboys Sunday Night. Everyone bets on the Sunday Night Football game. The Cowboys were laying 4.5 points to the Giants and with 5 minutes and 41 seconds left to play the Cowboys were winning by 12 points. The best thing for a sports bettor is to allow the opposing team to score a touchdown and still cover the points spread. Dallas backers, and owner Jerry Jones were feeling pretty good. However, the Giants scored with 3 minutes to play to close the gap to 5 points and Cowboy backers were starting to squirm. Dallas takes over on their own 20-yard line with just over 3 minutes to play and one or two first downs would lock up the cash. Can Tony Romo finally do something to preserve a Dallas win? After two runs, the Cowboys were faced with a third down and 5 yards to go. Of course, Romo throws an incomplete pass, stopping the clock and now the Cowboys have to punt. The rest is history as Eli Manning drove the Giants 56 yards in one minute and 26 seconds for the go ahead touchdown. What seemed like a sure Dallas point spread win turned into losing tickets at the betting windows.
If you had the Cowboys it probably was awful tough to sleep Sunday night. But Giants bettors I’ll bet slept like babies.
Not to worry, this Sunday in the NFL will once again provide awesome betting action.
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