Super Bowl sleeper? Bills tear up $150K ticket on Cowboys
The Bills Mafia fan base might want to clear space on its calendar for a trip to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl after all.
Buffalo is still on the playoff bubble at 8-6, but the Bills are back in top form after almost winning at Philadelphia two weeks ago, beating the Chiefs in Kansas City last week and crushing the Cowboys 31-10 on Sunday at home.
The Bills cruised to a cover as 2½-point favorites in their wire-to-wire win as James Cook rushed for 179 yards and their defense held the NFL’s highest-scoring offense to a field goal through 57 minutes.
Afterward, Caesars Sportsbook slashed the Bills’ odds to win the Super Bowl from 18-1 to 12-1 and bumped up Dallas’ odds from 8-1 to 11-1.
“You would have to say the Bills are back. They’re playing their best at the most important time” Caesars assistant director of trading Adam Pullen said. “I think they’re the second-best team in the AFC behind the Ravens. They’ve got a chance to win the division if they run the table.”
Buffalo has the Chargers and Patriots on deck before closing out the season at Miami.
A Caesars Sportsbook bettor in Nevada lost a $150,000 wager on Dallas +2½, and the Bills delivered the biggest win of the day to the Westgate SuperBook.
“Outside of the 49ers, the Bills are right there as far as the top contending teams,” SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay said. “They’re peaking at the right time.”
The Cowboys have won all seven home games while going 6-1 against the spread, but they’ve lost and failed to cover four of their last six road games. Last week’s 33-13 rout of the Eagles is their only victory over a team with a winning record.
“I hear my inner Dennis Green saying, ‘The Cowboys are who we thought they were,’” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “They beat up a lot of bad teams. But they got dominated (by the Bills). This was a bad loss for them.”
Favorite things
Favorites went 8-3 ATS on Sunday and are 11-3-1 this week after the Ravens (-4) beat the Jaguars 23-7 on “Sunday Night Football.”
Favorites swept the board in the afternoon games with Buffalo, the Rams (-6½, beat Commanders 28-20) and 49ers (-12½, beat Cardinals 45-29). But books still prevailed.
“Despite all the favorites doing well again, we saved the day by winning our two biggest decisions on the Dolphins and the Bills,” Kornegay said.
Caesars also won big on Miami as bettors backed the Jets against a Dolphins team without wideout Tyreek Hill that was coming off Monday’s meltdown loss to the Titans.
Miami, which closed as a 7-point favorite, whipped New York 30-0.
“The top two games we did well on were the Dolphins and Saints,” Pullen said. “They were 7- and 6-point favorites, respectively. It’s usually not like that, but we took a lot of bets on the (underdogs). Especially the Giants with ‘Tommy Cutlets’ and all the hype.”
New Orleans dealt the Giants and their popular undrafted quarterback Tommy DeVito, aka “Tommy Cutlets,” a 24-6 defeat.
Close covers
The Chiefs closed as high as 10½-point favorites over the Patriots after the line was in single digits all week. The majority of bettors cashed in on Kansas City in its 27-17 win at New England. But those who laid 10½ or 10 were left frustrated when the Chiefs didn’t score after the Patriots turned it over on downs at their own 6 with 2:35 left.
Following a 2-yard run on first down and the two-minute warning, Patrick Mahomes knelt down three straight times, including on fourth-and-goal when Kansas City could’ve kicked a field goal to cover all Chiefs bets.
“It was the right thing to do,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said.
Rams bettors experienced a new type of sweat when the Commanders, getting 6½, scored a late TD to close the gap to 28-20. In this age of analytics, bettors wondered if Washington would go for two, which would make it a 6-point game and cover the spread, instead of attempting an extra point.
Old-school Commanders coach Ron Rivera opted for the kick. It was blocked, and the Rams ran out the clock.
Circa Survivor
The Circa Survivor contest is down to 10 entries still in the running for the $9.2 million prize from a field of 9,267.
Five survived with the Rams, one with the Niners and one with the Saints.
Two entries, including Las Vegas showman Kenny Davidsen, escaped with a win on the Bengals, who overcame deficits of 17-3 and 24-17 in Saturday’s 27-24 overtime win over the Vikings.
One entry advanced with the Browns, who erased a 17-7 fourth-quarter deficit in Sunday’s 20-17 win over the Bears.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
