The Dirty Birds: NFL Bad Beats from Week 2
You cannot talk about bad beats in the NFL for Week 2 without starting with the first game of the week. The battle of Ohio saw the Browns and the Bengals squaring off. The Browns finished at -6 over the Bengals in this one.
Cleveland led after three quarters, 28-16. That’s enough to cover the spread. But, as we know in the NFL, teams can score quick and ruin any good plans.
After Mike Thomas scored with just under six minutes to go, the Bengals pushed the margin of the game back to five points. At this point, you wonder if the Browns will do much besides run out the clock or pin the Bengals back.
But GOOD NEWS – the Browns marched down the field and scored in a two-minute drive! Back to a 12-point game! Here comes the money.
Except – no – Joe Burrow, in his rookie season, led the Bengals BACK down the field and scored a touchdown with just 43 seconds to play, as Tyler Boyd made a great catch in the back of the end zone. FAIL. BYE MONEY.
Cowboy Comeback
Thankfully, this was not my money – but holy Cowboys and Falcons. I mean, if you bet any money on the Falcons at any point in this game – SORRY.
Although, I guess they DID cover the three-point spread. But, live betting has become very common and extremely popular. I don’t remember the exact number, but one bettor bet like $100K to win $1K that the Falcons would win straight up.
Ooops. I mean, Atlanta led this game 20-0 after one, and 29-10 at halftime. Dallas scored 30 second-half points, including the final 18 of the game.
Those 18 came in the final five minutes of the game, and sorry, Falcons. If you had Atlanta in your survivor pool: A. you are not a very good survivor player, and B. you are now officially eliminated. No one blows leads in the NFL like the Atlanta Falcons.
AFC East Clash
We now turn our attention to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. I was on the POSITIVE side of this one. I would like to think that with every BAD beat you take, there is a GREAT win on the flip side of that.
But, in sports betting – that just simply is not true. The Buffalo Bills came into the game as a six-point favorite on the road against the Miami Dolphins. The Bills led 17-10 at halftime, but then saw that lead move to 17-13 after three quarters.
As a backer of the Miami Dolphins, I was none too happy when the Bills scored back-to-back touchdowns to take a 31-20 lead with just 3:09 left in the game. As the spread was six, all it would take at this point is a late touchdown.
You know – the ones we see every week at the end of games. But, as a bettor, you think, “This won’t happen to me. I ALWAYS lose these type of games.”
Then, FITZMAGIC! What a pass by Ryan Fitzpatrick to Mike Gesicki, as he scored with 49 seconds to play. For fun, the Dolphins went for two and got it. Less than a minute later, and the Dolphins covered!
We won’t talk about the score with 7:43 by the Denver Broncos, and then Pittsburgh’s James Conner electing NOT to score late in the game. But it happened. Oh yeah, and the Sunday Night Football game had point-spread drama too.
That’s two weeks down, and 15 weeks to go in the NFL regular season. Be prepared; you WILL take an L on a bad beat in Week 3. Just hope it’s only one, and not two or three.
