Washington bettors dealt brutal beat; historic total not low enough

The Review-Journal’s Todd Dewey will track the biggest betting storylines every Saturday of the college football season.

Washington beat Utah on Saturday to remain one of only seven undefeated Football Bowl Subdivision college football teams.

But the Huskies didn’t cover the spread as 9-point favorites, and Washington bettors were dealt two brutal bad beats in a 35-28 win.

The Huskies were leading 33-28 with 30 seconds left in the third quarter when Washington’s Alphonzo Tuputala intercepted a pass by Utah’s Bryson Barnes and returned it for what appeared to be an easy touchdown and a double-digit lead.

But Tuputala absent-mindedly dropped the ball at the 1-yard line before crossing the goal line, and the Utes recovered it.

On the next play, the Huskies scored on a safety to go ahead 35-28, but they still needed a field goal to cover.

Despite the botched pick-six, Washington bettors were still in position to cash their tickets when Grady Gross lined up for a 32-yard field goal try with 1:38 remaining. But the kick was blocked by Connor O’Toole.

Barnes then threw another interception, and Washington ran out the clock.

How low can you go?

What is believed to be the lowest total in college football history still wasn’t low enough.

The consensus total for the Iowa-Rutgers game Saturday was 27½ — and as low as 27 at the Westgate SuperBook. But under bettors got the money in a 22-0 Iowa victory.

The Hawkeyes led 3-0 at halftime and 6-0 at the end of the third quarter before exploding for 16 points in the fourth quarter.

Iowa converted an interception into a TD with 4:39 left and threatened to push the game over the total in the final minute when it drove deep into Rutgers territory.

But after Hawkeyes running back Kaleb Johnson rushed for four yards on fourth-and-1 to pick up a first down at the Rutgers’ 5-yard line, Iowa took a knee and ran out the clock.

Iowa has now gone under in five straight games and eight of 10 this season. In the last three weeks, the Hawkeyes beat Northwestern 10-7 (total 32), lost to Minnesota 12-10 (total 30½) and beat Wisconsin 15-6 (total 33½).

Despite the string of unders in Iowa games, the majority of betting action was on the over in Saturday’s matchup.

At Caesars, where the total has dipped to 27½ from 28 earlier this week, 71 percent of the money and 61 percent of the bets were on the over.

Caesars vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said he looked through his database and couldn’t find another total in the 20s.

“I did find, though, 1,500 games over the last five years with a higher first-half prematch total than this game’s full game,” he said.

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