3 NFL Teams That Killed Public Bettors
Week 6 saw a handful of upsets in the NFL. Which teams killed public bettors the most? Here are the five biggest.
1. Green Bay Packers
According to oddsmakers from online sports book Bovada.lv, the Packers were only a three-point road favorite versus NFC North rival the Vikings on Sunday. With Sam Bradford out again for Minnesota, public bettors loaded up on Green Bay, taking the Pack at a 78% clip.
Unfortunately for Green Bay backers (and the Packers themselves), Anthony Barr buried Aaron Rodgers into the turf midway through the first quarter and the signal-caller wound up breaking his collarbone on the play.
Brett Hundley replaced Rodgers but completed just 18-of-33 passes for 157 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. With Rodgers potentially out for the season, Sunday may have been the last time public bettors will back Green Bay at that high of a percentage.
While it was nowhere near the percentage that the Packers received from the betting public, the Patriots also caused bettors some heartache on Sunday. Per our NFL Public Betting page, 67% of public bettors took New England and laid the nine points against the New York Jets.
The Patriots left backers stewing after the Jets took a 14-0 lead following a fumble by Mike Gillislee late in the first quarter. Things started to look up when the Patriots tied the game at 14-14 right before halftime and were even covering the spread heading into the fourth quarter. When a replay review took away an Austin Seferian-Jenkins touchdown when he fumbled the ball out of bounds in the end zone, New England backers had to feel real good about the Pats covering.
Unfortunately for them, their good vibes were short-lived. The Jets kicked a field goal with just 2:52 remaining in the game and that was all the scoring the rest of the way. The Pats won 24-17, but failed to cover as a 9-point favorite.
3. Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons looked like they were going to boat race the Dolphins as a 14-point home favorite on Sunday in Atlanta. The Falcons got off to a 17-0 lead at halftime and given the offensive struggles of the Dolphins, bettors had to feel good that Atlanta would open things up in the second.
What happened instead is that the Falcons were held off the scoreboard in the second half. In fact, the Dolphins not only managed a comeback, but they scored 20 unanswered points to win the game 20-17. Matt Ryan was intercepted on what could have been a game-winning drive in the close minutes, giving the Falcons back-to-back losses at home to AFC East opponents.