Moose is loose: Bad beats of the week
Thursday, December 29
Closing line: Baylor -9
Final: Baylor 67-56
From the beginning the Alamo Bowl had more fireworks than New Year’s Eve in Vegas and unfortunately for Washington bettors the pyrotechnics never stopped. Baylor threw the 1st punch of the game grabbing a 21-7 after 1 and looked unstoppable. After a 28-3 2nd quarter and complete role reversal from Washington, the Huskies took a 35-24 lead into the break. Everyone holding a Huskies ticket had to be feeling good, hell I know I was. Despite an opening drive TD for Washington to start the half, Baylor’s offense owned the 3rd quarter scoring on every possession and putting up 29 points to grab a 53-49 lead going into the final stanza but this is just when things got interesting. Keith Price had an amazing 3rd and Goal run from the 8 yard line to give the Huskies a 56-53 lead with 9:40 left and it looked like Washington backers would cash their ticket but 4 plays and 1:25 later Baylor answered right back to take a 60-56 lead. With 3:25 to go, Washington faced a 4th and 8 on the Baylor 39 and when Price’s pass to Kasen Williams sailed out of bounds every Huskies bettor knew the worst case scenario was looming. Despite leading the game by 18 pts at one point with Huskies bettors clutching tickets anywhere from +7.5 to +10.5, the cover remained in doubt. With 3 minutes left in the game. Alamo Bowl MVP Terrance Ganaway took a run up the middle untouched for 43 yards and a Baylor TD giving the Bears an 11 point lead putting them outside the number. Hey there was still 2:30 left in the game and Baylor hadn’t stopped Washington all night surely they would play prevent one more time and Washington would get a meaningless backdoor TD? On the kickoff Washington Freshman DT Danny Shelton jumped in front of the normal Washington return man to scoop a squib kick returning it 16 yards only to lose a fumble on the 50 recovered by Baylor. Game over, Baylor gets the cover. Don’t believe me, video to prove it?
Friday, December 30
Closing Line: Oklahoma -13.5
Final: Oklahoma 31-14
In a game where Iowa lead the time of possession battle 33 minutes to 27 and out gained Oklahoma, the Hawkeyes found themselves down 21-0 headed into the 4th quarter. With 6 minutes left in the 4th Iowa’s James (don’t call me Dawson Leery) Vandenberg hit Jordan Canzeri for a 9 yard td bringing the Hawkeyes to within 1 score at 21-14. Oklahoma drove down and tacked on a 35 yard field goal giving the Sooners at 10 pt lead with 2:28 left in the game. Iowa backers were sitting pretty… or so they thought. Iowa went 4 and out, only burning 40 seconds off the clock giving the Sooners the rock at the Iowa 30 with 1:48 left. Enter Blake Bell aka “The BellDozer” and on 4thand 1 instead of kicking a fg the BellDozer broke the hearts of Iowa bettors everywhere taking a seemingly innocuous QB sneak up the middle untouched for 21 yards into the endzone and a Oklahoma Cover. If you had Washington and Iowa you were probably wondering what you did to the Gambling Gods to deserve this treatment on back to back nights.
Saturday, December 31
Closing line: Texas A&M -9.5
Final: Texas A&M 33-22
Texas A&M took a 20-7 lead into the break having controlled the first half and extended that margin to 30-7 heading into the 4th. If you had the Aggies you looked pretty good but anyone whose followed this team at all this year knows they’ve turned the 2nd half meltdown into an art form. Northwestern started the 4th with a Dan Persa TD run and subsequent 2 point conversion cutting the lead to 30-15. After an Aggie Punt, Northwestern drove right down the field and scored again with 5 minutes left cutting the once 23 pt lead to 30-22 putting themselves inside the number for the 1st time since the 1st quarter. With 1:21 left and the Aggies facing a 3rd and 2 on the Northwestern 10 yard line dog bettors knew a first down would all but end the game and guarantee a Northwestern cover. Unlike OU the night before the Aggies got stuffed for a 4 yard loss and had no other choice but to take the 3 with 35 seconds left and Bullock split the uprights. For the 3rdgame in as many days, if you had the dog you felt the moose.
Saturday, December 31
Closing line: Louisville -9.5
Final: Louisville 69-62
In a back and forth game Kentucky finally extended to a double digit lead of 65-52 with 1 minute to play. After trading buckets, the score was 67-54 with 19 seconds left and following 2 Anthony Thomas free throws, UK had a 69-56 lead with 10 seconds to play basically making it impossible for Louisville to cover. Fast forward to the last 5 seconds and this is where things got crazy. Russ Smith drilled a 3 pointer to make it 67-57. Terrance Jones then catches the indbound pass, gets tackled (no call) by Russ Smith right before Smith drains his 2nd trifecta in 5 seconds to give Louisville a miracle and wholly undeserving cover.
Sunday, January 1
Closing line: Miami -2.5
Final Score: Miami 19-17
The Jets took a 10-6 lead into the break in a very sloppy low scoring game. After a scoreless 3rd quarter, Miami finally broke through to get their 1st TD on a Matt Moore TD pass giving the Dolphins a 13-10 lead with 10 minutes to go. After back 2 back Sanchez picks Miami built a 19-10 lead with 2:32 left. On the 1st play of their last ditch effort Sanchez fumbled ending the game but Rex Ryan and the Jets elected to challenge out of pure desperation and the play was overturned. 6 plays later Sanchez found the endzone with just over a minute left securing a NYJ cover. On a side note the line opened at Miami -1 so I know there were plenty of sharps out there who middled this game when it fell 2.
Mooses honorable mentions for the week:
Honorable Mention
Stanford under 38 1st half
35 pts scored in final 11 minutes of 2qtr
Stanford vs Oklahoma State under 74 game
oklahoma st ties it at 35 with under 1 minute left to go to OT
Utah vs Georgia Tech Sun bowl U49.5
Utah down 7 converts on 4th down for game tying TD after Utah initially indicated they would try to go for 2.
