Patriots win definition of a pick’em game
It would’ve made too much sense if Marshawn Lynch had simply grabbed the ball and bull rushed his way over the goal line for the winning touchdown. The ending was scripted.
It should have been easy for the Seattle Seahawks to follow the script. Instead, something totally illogical and insane happened.
“It’s mind-blowing. That is just unbelievable,” Westgate Las Vegas sports book director Jay Kornegay said. “I’m still shocked the Seahawks lost, but that was another great Super Bowl.”
It was thrilling for everyone holding a ticket on the New England Patriots and sweating bullets. It was the agony of defeat on the other side. It was millions of dollars changing hands in a split second in the biggest betting event of the year.
The first pick’em game in Super Bowl history was the definition of just that, a game decided in the last minute at the 1-yard line. When the confetti fell in Glendale, Ariz., the Patriots had won 28-24. Or the Seahawks lost it, however you choose to view it.
“The way the game finished, it lived up to its billing,” said Chuck Esposito, Sunset Station sports book director. “Half the room erupted, and the other half you could hear a pin drop.”
Tom Brady passed for four touchdowns for the Patriots, but the one Malcolm Butler prevented ended the game. Butler jumped in front of Russell Wilson’s pass at the goal line and intercepted a ball that never should have been thrown.
The Seahawks had one timeout, more than 20 seconds, three plays and one of the most powerful running backs on the planet, but Lynch never touched the ball.
“What I don’t know is how you don’t run the ball three straight times when you’ve got a weapon like Lynch,” MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood said. “As soon as they got down there, I said, ‘Do not throw the ball.’ ”
Asked to explain the worst play call in Super Bowl history, a babbling Seattle coach Pete Carroll talked in circles and made no sense.
“None of us really understand that play call. That was shocking,” Kornegay said. “We never had a pick’em line for a Super Bowl, and that was definitely a pick’em game. I think they should use the World Series format of best-of-7, and it would go seven games.”
It was an absurd Super Bowl in so many ways, from the end of the first half to the last minute of the game. But basically nothing about the NFL is logical, and while those of us who bet the games every week know this, we still continue to be amazed by the ridiculous turns of events on Sundays.
“How can you script that?” said oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro of the South Point. “Tell me anybody can handicap this stuff.”
It was not easy on the bookmakers, either. Las Vegas books will show a small win on the game, but in a wagering event of this magnitude, a small win feels like a loss. Most books needed the Seahawks and under the total of 47½, meaning parlay payouts were plentiful, and players hit all four ways you could play a teaser.
“It was the worst-case scenario for us with Patriots and over,” Kornegay said. “We’re hoping to show a small profit at the end of the day. It could not have been a worse final for us. It’s a little disappointing.”
Bookmakers expect to do well on proposition betting, but Vaccaro said, “It’s a very big win if Seattle scores at the end.”
The opening coin toss turned up tails and the closing minute was a head scratcher. With the clock ticking under a minute, Patriots coach Bill Belichick opted not to use a timeout.
“What’s interesting is New England completely blew the game,” said Steve Fezzik, a Pregame.com handicapper. “Belichick, the best coach in the NFL, didn’t show up in Arizona. Belichick doesn’t call timeout with 50 seconds left and lets it run down to 30 seconds? It’s like he forgot how to coach. Belichick got away with one. He got lucky.
“Obviously, Carroll gave the game away. I thought it was a horribly coached game on both sides.”
It was the coaching version of “Dumb and Dumber.”
At the end of the first half, Belichick’s defense let Wilson drive the Seahawks 80 yards in 29 seconds for the tying touchdown. With six seconds before the half, Carroll gambled and ran a play instead of settling for a field goal. As Fezzik pointed out, the right move by Belichick would have been to instruct his defensive backs to mug the wideouts at the line of scrimmage and force a pass-interference call.
Seattle’s touchdown that made it 14-14 with two seconds left — on a perfect pass from Wilson to Chris Matthews — led to a horrific beat for those who bet under the first-half total of 24 or 24½. After a scoreless first quarter, 21 points were scored in the last 2:16 of the half.
“It happened so fast,” Kornegay said. “All of the sudden, we’ve got a shootout.”
In the end, Belichick got lucky, and so did Brady, who threw two interceptions as the Patriots dug a 24-14 hole in the fourth quarter.
But, also in the end, this is what betting on the NFL tends to be all about, a ton of action and crazy, random results.
“This is a game where I can truly say it was a great two-way betting game,” Esposito said. “We were definitely rooting for that last TD.”
Added Vaccaro, who has bet or booked all 49 Super Bowls, “It was unreal the amount of tickets we wrote. I’ve never witnessed anything like today.”
Imagine the emotional swing for the bettor who put down $1.22 million on the Patriots at pick’em at MGM Resorts.
“The game itself was a pretty significant seven-figure swing for us,” Rood said. “We came out of the day OK, basically breaking even and maybe a very small winner. But it was a good season, and we can’t complain.”
Lynch went over his prop total by rushing for 102 yards. He needed one more yard, and Seahawks bettors will be complaining about one inexplicable play call for a long time.
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
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