Raiders win but New York teams bust NFL bettors, boost books

In an almost ideal scenario for some Las Vegas sportsbooks, the Raiders won but didn’t cover the spread in Sunday’s miraculous 31-28 victory over the Jets.

The best result for the books would’ve been an outright win by the Jets, which would’ve killed all money-line parlays and teasers on the Raiders — which won on Derek Carr’s 46-yard touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs III with 5 seconds left.

But the New York Giants burned a bunch of tickets linking big favorites and gave the books their biggest win of the day when they stunned the Seahawks in a 17-12 win at Seattle as 11-point underdogs.

“We would’ve had a huge morning if the Jets had hung on. But the Giants made up for it by winning outright in one of the biggest surprises of the year,” Westgate sportsbook vice president Jay Kornegay said. “It worked out perfectly with the local team coming out with the win. We’d hate to see the Raiders lose when they’re battling for a playoff spot.”

The Westgate and Station Casinos reported solid wins on the Raiders, who closed at -7½. But BetMGM lost on the game after taking a late flurry of action Sunday on the Jets, including a $240,000 wager to win $200,000 placed at the Bellagio at +7½ (-120).

“Believe it or not, money came in on the Jets,” MGM Resorts director of trading Jeff Stoneback said. “We also took some five-figure bets on the Jets.”

New York scored TDs on back-to-back fourth-quarter possessions — the second after recovering a Ruggs’ fumble — to erase a 24-13 deficit.

The Raiders appeared destined to be a punch line as the first team to lose to the woeful Jets (0-12) when it turned the ball over on downs at the New York 9 with 1:42 left.

But the last laugh was again on the Jets. After going three-and-out, they gave the ball back to the Raiders at midfield in the final seconds and inexplicably sent an all-out blitz on the winning play.

“The largest eruption in the room was for the late TD to Ruggs,” Sunset Station sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “But it was more from the fans than the bettors, since the Raiders didn’t cover.”

According to ESPN Stats & Info, New York was the first defense in the last 15 years to send six pass rushers in a similar situation (covering 252 pass plays): final 15 seconds, down four to eight points and 40-plus yards to the end zone.

“There’s a reason they’re the Jets,” Esposito said.

Underdogs boost books

The Jets, Giants, Jaguars and Browns are the four losingest NFL franchises since 2015 and the Lions aren’t too far behind. But all five underdogs covered Sunday as books had another banner day.

“Whenever you look at the NFL scoreboard and see a few surprises, you can count on the books having a good day,” Kornegay said. “The NFL is so unpredictable right now. It’s more unpredictable than the COVID safety protocols.

“That’s why the league is really difficult to handicap these days. But it’s certainly good for the books.”

Underdogs went 7-5 ATS with four outright wins. Joining the Giants in the win column were Detroit (+3, 34-30 over Chicago), Cleveland (+4, 41-35 over Tennessee) and New England (+2, 45-0 over Chargers).

Jacksonville (+10) covered in a 27-24 overtime loss at Minnesota.

Browns bust loose

Baker Mayfield threw four first-half TD passes as the Browns (9-3) took a 38-7 halftime lead over the Titans.

“The Browns were beating a lot of bad teams. I just thought they were fool’s gold, really,” Kornegay said. “But Mayfield went off. I know the sharps were on the Browns a little bit but the sharps were also on the Seahawks and over.”

Money on Seattle and over 48 turned out to be as sharp as a bowling ball as New York’s defense sacked Russell Wilson five times and held the Seahawks to a season-low 12 points.

There were 103 $1,000 entries still in the hunt for the $1.39 million prize in the Circa Survivor contest entering Week 13. The Vikings bailed out their 52 backers and 11 stayed alive on the Raiders. But a dozen were dispatched by Seattle.

Colts-Raiders line

Indianapolis (-3, 26-20 over Houston) was one of five favorites to cash Sunday, along with Miami (-10, 19-7 over Cincinnati), New Orleans (-3, 21-16 over Atlanta), Green Bay (-8½, 30-16 over Philadelphia) and the Rams (-3, 38-28 over Arizona).

The Colts opened -3 over the Raiders on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.

“It really was a huge win for the Raiders because the Browns, Dolphins and Colts are all in front of them and they all won,” Esposito said. “The Raiders host the Colts and Dolphins and they’re going to have to win one of those two games and beat the Chargers and Broncos to be in the wild-card discussion.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.