Purdue +7 at Marshall
Week 1 of the college football season had some very spectacular plays and dramatic finishes, from BYU's hail marry to win the game, to Kansas fumbling a snap on a spike attempt, missing out on a game tying field goal. For sportsbettors, all that matters is who covers the spread. Even more so now that sportsbetting is becoming more mainstream, ESPN even broke into a cover alert for the Baylor/SMU game. For each side that covers theirs a side that loses and this article is for those who were on the "right side" up until the very end when they weren't and one play, or a series of unlikely events cost them their winning ticket. They say that all breaks even out over the long run but some are just harder to get over then others. This weeks bad beat of the week is:
Purdue +7
Sunday football is usually reserved for the pros but with the NFL not starting their season until next week the NCAA figured they'd fill the void, and gain good ratings by plugging in Purdue at Marshall. This was the only game on the board for Sunday and even though not marque teams were featured the lone NCAAF game was reported as having a handle four times greater then the most bet MLB game that day. With that being said almost 2/3 of the tickets (at some books) were on the Marshall Heard -8 down to -7 . The game started out perfect for Marshall picking off Purdue's quarterback Appleby and retiring it to the house for a 7-0 lead. Purdue was able to fight back to only trail by 3 at the end of the first quarter. Then with the only score of the second quarter for both teams Appleby scored on a quarterback sneak for Purdue giving them a 4 point lead heading into halftime. The second half line didn't indicate that Marshall would get it together opening as -4 point favs second half over Purdue while trailing by 4. But Marshall marched down the field on its opening drive to score a go ahead touchdown. That didn't last long as Purdue matched them with a touchdown of their own once again leading by 4. Marshall kicked a field goal to cut the lead to 1 at the end of the third quarter. If you have Purdue you feel pretty good about your chances at this point because Marshall hasn't been able to score like they did last year and you hold an 8 point lead with your +7 spread. You felt even better when Purdue kicked a chip shot field goal to push the lead back to 4 early in the fourth quarter even though Appleby missed a wide open receiver in the endzone on the previous play. Marshall gets the ball with five minutes left in the game trailing by 4 and puts a drive together, burning up some clock but eventually scoring a touchdown with 2:50 left in the game to take a 3 point lead. Still not covering the spread of -7 and with minimal time reaming in the game even if they got the ball back they would just have to take a knee to win the game, thus making it look like Marshall was going to cost its backers by winning but not covering. But that all changed when Purdue near midfield, going for a game winning/tying drive threw an interception... Instead of falling to the ground to preserve his teams victory Marshall's Tiquan Lang returned the interception 55 yards for the touchdown and sending Marshall backers dumpster diving for their crumpled up Marshall -7 tickets. They had not been covering the spread since midway through the first quarter. In addition to needing two pick six's to cover the spread. Tough way to break in the season if you had Purdue plus the points. Even though the majority of bettors benefited from the Thundering Herd's crazy comeback cover, its safe to say that Purdue was the right side until they were not with under 2 minutes left. For that reason they are the bad beat of the week.
Runner Up: Georgia Bulldogs -35
If you had the Bulldogs on Saturday you took a bad beat of a different variety. The number 9 ranked Bulldogs were in control through out the whole game. They opened up a 14 point lead at the end of the first quarter and were up 35-0 before Louisiana-Monroe scored a touchdown with 20 seconds left in the half. Still Georgia had a 28 point lead at the half well on pace to cover the 35 point spread. In the third quarter there was a 76 minute delay due to weather. When play resumed Georgia got it together after giving up a touchdown before the delay. They recorded a safety followed up by a touchdown. Then to start the fourth quarter backup running back Keith Marshall scored a two yard touchdown giving the Bulldogs a 51-14 lead with 10:58 left. About a minute more into the game lightning started again, and both coaches decided to call the game. In the box score the final is 51-14 Bulldogs but if you went to cash your ticket all you received was your money back. The reason is that for the game to count for betting purposes the contest must go the distance. That means that even though the Bulldogs won 51-14 since they didn't play out the final nine plus minutes the tickets (on both sides) are voided. Meaning no payday for Bulldogs backers.
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