About the same time that New Orleans Saints fans were wandering around in shock at their last second loss to Tom Brady and the Patriots, bettors holding a New England -2 and Over 51 tickets were just beginning to party. In one of the most dramatic finishes in recent memory, the Patriots shocked the Saints with a final drive to win the game starting with just 1:20 left on the clock.
Lots of money came and went during that final 1:20. Small fortunes were made and lost. Bettors holding Saints +2 Under 51 tickets sat and stared at their now worthless pieces of paper and tried to figure out what went wrong.
The lesson is clear, do not underestimate Tom Brady. It just does not usually work out well for those who try. Another old adage to keep in mind about professional football would be ‘no team is as bad as you think they are…and…no team is as good as you think they are.” Just one of the little thoughts that keep wagering on sports so interesting.
The backers of Green Bay and Cincinnati also took some tough beats last Sunday. The finale of the Packers-Ravens game was another tough one for favorite bettors. The Packers are 2.5 point favorites and leading 19-10 with less than 3 minutes to go when Flacco converted a fourth down and 21 by hitting Tandon Doss for 63 yards. Then, on the very next play, Dallas Clark caught an 18 yard pass in the end zone. The game ended 19-17 and the Pack failed to cover…but won the game.
The Cincinnati Bengals were 6 point favorites for their matchup with Buffalo but couldn’t manage to hold on to a 24-17 lead letting backup quarterback Thad Lewis toss a 40 yard touchdown pass to rookie Marquise Goodwin with only a minute in regulation capping an 86 yard drive against a tough defense…. the Bengals also won the game…but failed to cover.
Last but not least we had the ending of the Panthers-Vikings game when the Vikings, then trailing 35-3 scored a touchdown bringing the total up to exactly the posted Over & Under of 45. Bettors who wagered on the Under had to be happy with just getting their money back.
In general it was a good weekend for the Overs. Over bettors cashed in more tickets than Under bettors for the third straight week and handicappers were sent back to their calculators to try again next week.
