Listless Patriots leave bettors tearing up tickets

A hefty guy full of bold statements, New York Jets coach Rex Ryan talked trash to the NFL's dynamic duo and then decked them with a haymaker. He won the war of words and the game, and thus was not forced to put his foot in his mouth.

The New England Patriots, meanwhile, are developing a strange fetish for losing in the postseason.

The league's most accomplished and feared coach-quarterback combination, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, was knocked out without much of a fight Sunday as the Patriots fell quietly to the Jets, 28-21.

Usually fiery, Brady was surprisingly listless. He threw an early interception, took five sacks and seemed to treat the occasion as if it were a preseason game in August.

The Patriots, the AFC's top seed and Super Bowl favorites, disappointed a large percentage of the betting public in the most hyped and wagered game of the weekend.

When a dominant team gets taken down, Las Vegas sports books often profit, and that was the case with New England's demise.

With the Patriots favored by about 9 points, and approximately minus-450 on the money line, bundles of parlay and teaser tickets were turned into trash.

But the wiseguys were on the right side. The sharpest of them all, Billy Walters, who was profiled on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday night, had his money riding on the Jets, according to a few sources.

But that was rather predictable, and so too were the Jets-Patriots betting patterns.

"It was a Super Bowl scenario -- lay the points and take the money line," said MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood, who moved the number from 8½ to 9½ early Saturday. "I could see we were going to get a tidal wave of Patriots money."

Rood said the MGM books wrote about 650 money-line tickets (in the plus-350 range) on the Jets, compared to about 60 on the Patriots. The payout on Jets money-line wagers, he said, totaled more than $250,000.

"There's a lot of happy people out there," Rood said. "We got some late sharp money on the Jets."

But the day was still a small winner, he said, because of the liability on the line with parlays linking Green Bay, Chicago and New England. Those tickets imploded with the Patriots.

There were 17 points scored after the two-minute warning -- capped by a Brady touchdown pass with 24 seconds remaining -- to push the score over the total of 45.

"The Patriots and 'over' would have been a pretty ugly scenario, so we dodged a bullet there," Rood said.

The day opened with the Bears, 10-point favorites, taking care of business in a 35-24 victory over Seattle that was a blowout in reality. Chicago led 28-0 and 35-10 before surrendering two late TDs and putting a mild scare into some bettors, such as myself.

All four weekend games went over the totals, beginning Saturday when Ben Roethlisberger rallied the Pittsburgh Steelers past the Baltimore Ravens 31-24, and Aaron Rodgers and the Packers ambushed the Atlanta Falcons, 48-21.

The NFL's final four is set, so get the popcorn ready for a classic double feature.

The Steelers are 3½-point favorites over the Jets in the AFC, and the Packers are 3 to 3½-point road favorites over the Bears in a long-awaited championship meeting of NFC neighborhood rivals.

Of the quarterbacks still standing, Roethlisberger is probably considered the most reliable. He's been there and won it.

Rodgers has the hottest hand. He shredded the Falcons, connecting on 31 of 36 passes for 366 yards and three touchdowns, and he'll show up throwing cheese at Soldier Field.

The betting public, no doubt, will support the Packers. The Jets-Steelers matchup will split more opinions.

Those who say Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez can't win the big one should recognize he just beat the Big Two, Brady and Peyton Manning, in back-to-back weeks.

Ryan's tough talk is tough to tune out now. He put his best foot forward to stomp the Patriots, and that makes a statement.

Contact sports betting columnist Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. He co-hosts the "Las Vegas Sportsline" weeknights at midnight on KDWN-AM (720) and thelasvegassportsline.com.