Packers deal Bears, bookmakers a beating
It was four minutes into the third quarter when Aaron Rodgers was gunning for his seventh touchdown pass. Not only were the Chicago Bears getting blown out, but bookmakers were taking a beating, too.
The big difference is the bookmakers have had a winning season, so one losing week is just part of doing business. The Bears have been losers all season, and they are stuck with their overpaid loser of a quarterback and their dreadful defense.
“That’s disastrous,” South Point oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro said. “That team is so bad.”
What started as a good Sunday for the books turned bad in the afternoon and soon got worse. It became an NFL booking nightmare when Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers embarrassed the Bears 55-14 in the nightcap.
Green Bay was the eighth favorite to cover in the day’s 11 games. After Arizona, Denver and Seattle swept the board in the afternoon, parlay liability for the books rolled over to the Packers, who were bet from 7- to 9½-point favorites. The line briefly reached as high as 10.
All three afternoon games went over the total, and the Bears-Packers mismatch went over 54 midway through the third quarter.
“We were sitting OK,” Westgate Las Vegas sports book director Jay Kornegay said. “It was an OK day going into the afternoon games, and then you had three big favorites cover and all go over the total. It made the Packers game one of the biggest decisions of the year. I’ll say it will be the worst result of the year by going Packers and over.
“It has been a very solid football season for us. It was about time we got hit in the jaw.”
The Bears were knocked out by halftime, when they trailed 42-0 and Rodgers had six touchdown passes. Aiming for his seventh, Rodgers misfired and went to R-E-L-A-X on the sideline for the rest of the night.
Imagine the venom that will be spit on Chicago sports radio today. Is the Jay Cutler contract for seven years and $126 million a total disaster? Is the end near for coach Marc Trestman? The answers are obvious.
Bookmakers avoided a total disaster only because of the New York Jets and an offensive pass-interference penalty, an unlikely combination.
The Jets, 4-point underdogs, stopped an eight-game losing streak by upending Pittsburgh 20-13. While the wiseguys finally cashed tickets on the Jets — after failing miserably for several weeks — the public pounded the Steelers in a game that looked too easy.
“It was a split situation. The sharps were playing the Jets,” said MGM Resorts book director Jay Rood, who counted Steelers tickets at a 12-to-1 ratio. “A complete contrarian game. The tickets that were written on the Jets were high-dollar tickets, but we did well to the game.”
Ben Roethlisberger, who had six touchdown passes in each of the two previous games, did not throw his only one against the Jets until 1:16 remained on the clock. Before kickoff, Rood said he overheard bettors predicting another monster day for Roethlisberger.
“I wish I would have put up a prop on how many TD passes were thrown by Roethlisberger,” Rood said. “We would have crushed it.”
Only two games truly went the bookmakers’ way, and the other was San Francisco-New Orleans.
The Saints, who closed as 5½-point favorites, appeared to win 30-24 when Drew Brees hit tight end Jimmy Graham for a 47-yard touchdown pass as time expired. But Graham pushed off 49ers cornerback Perrish Cox, who flopped in a bit of acting, before hauling in the Hail Mary, triggering the debatable offensive pass-interference penalty.
Brees, careless with the ball all day, was sacked and lost a fumble in overtime, and the 49ers might have saved their season with a 27-24 victory that snapped the Saints’ 11-game home win streak.
“The best was the Steelers, and the worst was all of them,” Vaccaro said. “The only bailout was the Steelers game, and to some degree it was the savior. We’re headed for the first bad Sunday in a while. But there’s no beef here. That’s the way it is.”
Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas and Detroit covered as favorites in the morning games. Kansas City, which opened as a favorite and closed as a small ’dog, also won.
The Broncos, Cardinals and Seahawks, big favorites that attracted major public wagering, took a broom to the books in the afternoon.
The Cardinals, laying seven points and trailing 14-10 in the fourth quarter, were lucky to cover in a 31-14 win over St. Louis. But the Cardinals (8-1) were unlucky, too, likely losing quarterback Carson Palmer for the rest of the season to a knee injury.
“It’s the NFL,” Rood said, “and it’s predictable in that it’s unpredictable.”
But the end of this story was predictable: Cutler stunk, and the Bears were embarrassed again.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports betting columnist Matt Youmans can be reached at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. He co-hosts “The Las Vegas Sportsline” weekdays at 2 p.m. on ESPN Radio (1100 AM). Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.
