THIS WEEKEND’S BAD BEATS – by Daniel Galvin
Well, let’s start it off with the Thursday night NFC West matchup between the Seahawks and Cardinals. This one was a real dagger in the heart for pretty much everyone. For all of those who took that six-point spread in either direction, I’d like to apologize on behalf of Lady Luck since she seriously made all of us feel like garbage. With 54 seconds left on the clock, the Cardinals were down by 12 points and that -6.0 looked like a hard-freaking-lock for the Seattle spread hitting. But with Arizona having the ball in the red-zone, everyone who took the spread had some serious anxiety. A couple of plays later, Andre Ellington squeezed a one-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to six points with 20 seconds on the ticker. Cardinals’ bettors were jubilant at this point, but then Lady Luck laid down the hammer of unfortunateness when the Seattle front blocked the extra point, leaving the score 22 to 16 for the final. Yeah, you might be content with a push, but when you are a routine extra point away from covering with twenty seconds left on the clock and it gets blocked, that cuts real deep.
The total points for the Tennessee Titans and Cincinnati Bengals was at 40.5 on Sunday. Considering the complete lack of offensive production from Cincy and Tennessee not having an offensive identity, the under looked good. Both teams have decent defenses who could do some damage against lower tier offenses, which up until 36 seconds left in the 4th quarter looked like the case. AJ Green was fairly quiet until he ripped off a meaty 70-yard touchdown reception with 5:03 left in the 4th to bring the total points to 37, providing Marcus Mariota and company ample time to score.
For all those who took the under, this is the moment when you’re saying expletives in your head and realize you might be s*** out of luck. Or if you become the most optimistic thinker when your action is in jeopardy (myself), you were probably praying for a three and out from the Titans with a booming punt to the one-yard line. Followed by some more praying, you expect Andy Dalton to go on a long drive and take a fat knee at the Tennessee two-yard line to end the contest. Well, the gambling gods wanted that over to hit, and about four and a half minutes later, Demarco Murray punched in the one-yard tudder butter to make the total points 43. Just another crippling Sunday blow for the average sports bettor.