‘Black hole,’ ‘miraculous ending’ part of wild NFL Week 8 for bettors
Hello darkness, my old friend. The Jets have come to talk with you again.
New York fired coach Robert Saleh, traded for star wide receiver Davante Adams and welcomed back edge rusher Haason Reddick. But nothing has helped.
The Jets hit a new low Sunday with their fifth straight loss — straight-up and against the spread — in a 25-22 defeat as 7-point favorites at New England, which entered tied for the NFL’s worst record at 1-6.
Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich called it a “moment of darkness” afterward.
“I’ve been in the darkness,” philosopher/quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “You have to go in there and make peace with it.”
The countless bettors who lost money yet again on the Jets will surely take solace in those words of wisdom.
New York (2-6, 2-6 ATS) was the biggest loser of the day for gamblers at the Westgate SuperBook and one of the biggest at Station Sports and Caesars Sportsbook.
“It’s crazy because the Jets obviously sort of went all-in for this window with Rodgers,” SuperBook director John Murray said. “They’re a mess right now. They’ve got their wagon sort of hitched to Aaron Rodgers, and he’s obviously not the player he used to be.”
Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito agrees.
“For all those believers that thought getting Davante Adams was going to cause the Jets to make a run, and their favorable schedule, I don’t see it,” he said. “Rodgers is not mobile anymore, and that defense is not a good defense.”
Mixed bag for bettors
Underdogs dominated the morning games, going 6-2 ATS with four outright wins by the Patriots, Browns (+7½, beat Ravens 29-24), Cardinals (+5, beat Dolphins 28-27) and Eagles (+2½, beat Bengals 37-17).
In another bad game for bettors, the Texans (-5) won but didn’t cover in a 23-20 win over the Colts. Houston was in position to cover when it lost a fumble at the Indianapolis 8-yard line with 3:07 left.
“Overall, it was a pretty good day, probably our best Sunday in the last three weeks,” Esposito said.
The best morning games for bettors were the Lions (-12½), who destroyed the Titans 52-14, and the Falcons (-1½), who beat the Buccaneers 31-26.
Bettors also cashed in on totals, as overs went 7-1.
‘Another black hole’
Favorites went 5-1 ATS in the afternoon and evening, with the Raiders (+9) bailing out the books with a backdoor cover against the Chiefs in a 27-20 loss.
After Kansas City went ahead 27-13 on a Patrick Mahomes touchdown pass to Xavier Worthy with 4:59 left, the Raiders answered with a Gardner Minshew TD strike to DJ Turner with 2:03 remaining.
The Raiders also cost bettors cash when they covered late in a Week 7 loss at the Rams on an otherwise meaningless field goal.
“For the second straight week, the Raiders were the sportsbooks’ favorite garbagemen,” Caesars vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said. “The late backdoor cover was another black hole for customers taking the favorite with the points against the Raiders.”
The betting public won in the late games on the favored Bills (-3, beat Seahawks 31-10), Chargers (-7½, beat Saints 26-8), Broncos (-13, beat Panthers 28-14) and 49ers (-5½, beat Cowboys 30-24).
“The only good game of the afternoon was the Raiders game,” Esposito said. “More weeks than not, the Raiders have been our friend.”
Hail to the Commanders
Unlike Jets bettors, Commanders backers can see the light after winning and covering for the sixth time in seven games in spectacular fashion.
Washington flipped to a 1-point favorite over Chicago after rookie QB Jayden Daniels was cleared to play with a rib injury.
The Bears went ahead 15-12 with 25 seconds left on a TD run by Roschon Johnson and 2-point conversion pass from Caleb Williams to Cole Kmet.
But that only set the stage for the electric Daniels, who completed a 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass to Noah Brown with no time on the clock to give Washington the wild 18-15 win and cover.
Daniels heaved the ball from his own 35-yard line. The pass, which was short of the goal line, tipped off the hands of Zach Ertz and into the arms of Brown, who was standing alone in the end zone.
The majority of bettors won on Washington. But a Caesars bettor in Nevada lost a $120,000 wager on the Bears -2½, and another Caesars gambler lost a $133,000 bet on Chicago on the money line (+110).
“The Bears’ 2-point conversion at the end of the game topped off what turned a decent result for the book into an excellent result for the customers, only for a miraculous ending to sway the game again in heartbreaking fashion for Bears fans,” Mucklow said. “Many people bet Washington at 22-1 on the last drive.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.