Ja’Marr Chase, Alec Pierce deliver a couple late bad beats to NFL underdog bettors

As the early games Sunday were winding down, those who had the New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars catching points felt pretty good. Even if they allowed field goals to lose in the final seconds, they still were going to cover.

Yeah, about that.

Two long touchdowns, one right after another, created a couple of miserable beats for bettors on those underdogs.

First, Ja’Marr Chase ruined Saints bettors. The Saints, who were three-point underdogs at BetMGM, were beating the Cincinnati Bengals for most of the game. Even when the Saints had a bad punt late, the Bengals had a little more than two minutes left trailing 26-24. They’d angle to get in field-goal range, win 27-26 and Saints bettors would be happy … ah, wait.

Chase took a short pass, spun away from a tackle, outran another Saints defender down the sideline and scored a 60-yard touchdown. If either Saints defender tackles Chase, a field goal and that one-point Bengals win is still on the table. Instead Cincinnati held on to a 30-26 win and Saints +3 bettors had a tough beat.

The Jaguars beat was worse. The Jaguars closed as a 1.5-point underdog but were +2 and +2.5 for much of the week. Those bettors who got the +2.5 were feeling good when Trevor Lawrence hit Christian Kirk for a touchdown with less than three minutes left. That put the Jaguars ahead 27-26. They missed the two-point conversion, which actually wasn’t a bad thing for Jaguars +2.5 bettors. A field goal by the Colts and they’d win 29-27, with the Jaguars covering.

Hold that thought too. The Colts had third-and-13 with less than a minute left when Matt Ryan threw deep and hit rookie Alec Pierce for a 32-yard touchdown. That came with 17 seconds left and the Colts won 34-27.

Unbelievable.

It’s a lesson that NFL bettors already knew well: Even when a bet looks pretty good, it often isn’t.

Comments are closed.