Seahawks’ comeback from dead defied odds
It boggles the mind, and it still will for months and maybe years. Aaron Rodgers had led the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl, according to the countless prophets on Twitter who declared the game over.
The defending champions were lifeless in Seattle. With three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks were dead.
But, occasionally, the tweeters get it wrong, just as the headline writers at the Chicago Tribune once declared, “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
This upset will go down in NFL betting history, even though the favorite won the game.
“If you’re Martin Scorsese, you couldn’t write anything better for that game,” said Jimmy Vaccaro, South Point sports book oddsmaker and film historian. “It was amazing.”
Rodgers, hobbling on one good leg, put the Packers on the doorstep of the Super Bowl, and it was a great story. Until the door was slammed in his face.
A fake field goal attempt resulted in a touchdown pass. An onside kick was bobbled and recovered by the kicking team. A seemingly hopeless 2-point conversion pass — basically a Hail Mary — was caught. The Seahawks pulled off all of that and then won the coin toss in overtime.
Rodgers never touched the ball again and limped to the locker room in mind-boggling disbelief.
Russell Wilson, a Geno Smith-like disaster for most of the day, hit Jermaine Kearse for a 35-yard touchdown pass as Seattle stunned Green Bay 28-22 to win the NFC championship.
“How did the Packers let that game go?” MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood asked, knowing there was no logical answer. “It’s just unbelievable.”
So, while the Super Bowl pairing we expected is the one we are getting, how it came together Sunday was amazing and unbelievable and everything in between.
At most Las Vegas books, the line is pick-em for the New England-Seattle matchup in Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 at Glendale, Ariz. At MGM Resorts, the Patriots are 1-point favorites. The total is 48½. The debates will be heated for the next two weeks.
“I think the Patriots should be the favorites,” said Rood, who was writing Patriots tickets, including one for six figures, at a 5-to-1 ratio. “The one set of power rankings I really use show New England .83 (points) ahead of Seattle.”
New England got there the easy way, embarrassing the outclassed Indianapolis Colts 45-7 to win the AFC title. The public was blown away, too, because the Patriots drew heavy betting when the Super Bowl line opened with the Seahawks as 2½-point favorites.
“I can understand why people are supporting the Patriots, but I think it’s a little bit of an overreaction,” Westgate Las Vegas sports book director Jay Kornegay said. “Everybody was dogging the Patriots just a week ago, when it took everything they had to beat Baltimore. I think the Packers are a lot better than the Colts.
“I thought Green Bay might be the second-best team in the league, with New England probably third. That’s why I think the line should be around 2½. I’m not a big believer in the Patriots.”
The wiseguys who bet the Colts as 7-point underdogs are no longer believers in the Colts. Andrew Luck was bad, and his supporting cast was terrible.
Tom Brady, who passed for three touchdowns, had the support of a power running attack and a dominant defense. Brady has not won a Super Bowl since 2005, losing in his most recent trips in 2008 and 2012.
Seattle is the first defending champion to reach the Super Bowl in 10 years. New England was the last team to repeat.
“It’s an interesting matchup,” Kornegay said, “and I think we’ll get really solid two-way action.”
The Seahawks drew most of the action in the NFC title game, getting bet from 7- to 8½-point favorites. The Packers, twice denied at the goal line early in the game and settling for two field goals, led 16-0 at halftime.
It was 19-7 with three minutes to go — at one point, Seattle was a 9-1 underdog in live wagering — before Green Bay’s mind-boggling meltdown. A highly improbable turn of events also sent the score over the total of 44½, another ridiculous wagering result.
“Once that game went Seattle and over, it was a seven-figure swing for us,” Rood said.
Bookmakers paid off the money-line and teaser bets on the Seahawks, and in most cases the Seahawks were linked to the Patriots in parlays.
“There were too many parlays to overcome,” Kornegay said. “We ended up on the short end. It was a small loss.”
As for Rodgers and Packers backers, it was an unforgettable loss.
“If Wilson plays like that against Brady, the Seahawks will get their ass kicked,” Vaccaro said. “I would much rather see Rodgers and Brady in the Super Bowl than Seattle and Brady.”
But the Seahawks are back, after they were declared dead on Twitter.
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