Favorites, Unders Cash on Sunday
Joe Public did well on Sunday again, as the majority of the favorites cashed in the NFL in Week 9. Here’s a quick-hit recap of the action.
Favorites vs. Underdogs
Of the 12 games played in the NFL in Week 9, six of the favorites cashed. That’s only 50%, but there were two pushes (Titans -3 over Ravens and Raiders -3 over the Dolphins), plus the underdog Jets won outright versus the favored Bills on Thursday night. Thus, if you had the favorites on Sunday in the NFL, you did quit well.
Of course, the biggest favorite lost outright. That favorite was the Seahawks, who according to oddsmakers from online sports book Bovada.lv was an 8-point home favorite over the Redskins. After nearly pulling off another fourth-quarter miracle, the Seattle faithful had to watch Kirk Cousins pull a rabbit out of a hat and hand the Seahawks a 17-14 loss. Seattle has only its offense to blame, as Russell Wilson and Co. could only muster 12 fourth-quarter points. The other two points were scored by the defense when they sacked Cousins in the end zone midway through the first quarter to take a 2-0 lead.
Overs vs. Unders
Joe Public isn’t a big fan of betting the under so even though the favorites cashed, the majority of the NFL games on Sunday were low-scoring. Not including the Thursday night ‘over’ between the Jets and Bills, the under went 7-4 on Sunday. In fact, the highest totals fared the worst. The Bucs and Saints accounted for only 40 points in New Orleans when the total was sitting at 54.5. Kansas City and Dallas produced just 45 points with the total sitting at 53. Indianapolis-Houston (45) and Washington-Seattle (44.5) also fell under.
That said, bookies probably groaned late Sunday night as an improbable ‘over’ cashed for bettors in the Oakland-Miami game. With the game sitting at 20-16 midway through the fourth quarter, the Raiders scored a touchdown to push the game to 27-16 and only had to run off the rest of the three-and-a-half minutes to hold the score under the 44.5 total. Instead, Derek Carr threw a late interception and Jay Cutler turned the gift into a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. Miami’s onsides kick attempted failed, however, and Oakland held on to a 27-24 win as a 3-point favorite.
Worst Beats
If you had Oakland -3, taking a push in that game Sunday night was hard to swallow considering the Raiders were up by 11 with only a few minutes left. The Raiders b, so no doubt that game affected bettors. Under bettors also had to be steaming with the way that game finished as well.
Other than that game, there weren’t many other bad beats. I guess if you had the Seahawks on the money line you felt burned by the Redskins’ last-minute touchdown, but that wouldn’t classify as a bad beat. Everything else played out “fair” for bettors in Week 10.