Week 5 featured the biggest upset of the season and saw the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles blow a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter of their first loss. But surely the craziest part of this week was the reported "respected" money on the winless New York Jets, which transformed them from underdogs to favorites over the Dallas Cowboys right before kickoff.
Then, the Arizona Cardinals took the field and said, 'hold my beer." They should've held onto the ball.
The Cardinals squandered a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter against the bumbling Tennessee Titans in improbable fashion. First, with Arizona leading 21-6, Cardinals running back Emari Demercado broke free on a 72-yard run but let go of the ball just before crossing the goal line, nullifying a likely clinching touchdown as it resulted in a touchback. (Demercado was +260 to score at ESPN BET). Tennessee marched 80 yards in six plays for a touchdown to cut the Cardinals' lead to 21-12, after a missed extra point.
Five minutes later, Arizona's Dadrion Taylor-Demerson picked off Titans quarterback Cam Ward at the Cardinals' 6-yard line, another seemingly clinching play. But Taylor-Demerson fumbled after the interception, the ball was batted around and was recovered by Tennessee's Tyler Lockett in the Cardinals' end zone for a touchdown to bring the Titans within 21-19 with 4:39 to play.
The Titans finished off the comeback with an 11-play, 71-yard drive that resulted in a winning field goal as time expired on one of the most brutal beats a bettor will ever endure.
More than 3,150 entries in Circa Survivor -- the NFL survivor pool with a $1,000 buy-in and $18.7 million prize pool -- took the Cardinals, the second-most popular selection of the week. The only more popular one, the Los Angeles Rams, lost as 8.5-point favorites to the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night, the largest upset of the season per the point spread.
The Titans, who were 7.5-point underdogs to the Cardinals, pulled the second-largest upset of the season points spread-wise (tied with Cleveland, Week 3 vs. Green Bay). Tennessee was as long as a 30-1 underdog to win during the game at ESPN BET.
Odds & Ends
The New York Jets aren't favored often, but they were Sunday.
In the hours leading up to the 1 p.m. ET kickoff, the Jets went from 1.5-point underdogs to around 2-point favorites over the Cowboys at sportsbooks. It was the first time the Jets had been favored this season, and it didn't go well. The banged-up Cowboys jumped out to a 30-3 lead and cruised to 37-22 win, keeping the Jets winless.
"A number of well-respected wagers came for the Jets, moving us to flip-flop the favorites," Joey Feazel, head football trader for Caesars Sportsbook, said.
John Murray, vice president of the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, said a flurry of bets started showing up on the Jets late in the week. "Sometimes the bets that move the line end up going horribly wrong and this was a good example of that as the Jets were never in the game," Murray said.
The 0-5 Jets have attracted more bets to win the Super Bowl than five other teams at ESPN BET, including the Atlanta Falcons and Cardinals. At BetMGM, the Jets have attracted more bets and more money to win the Super Bowl than six other teams, including the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars.
"The Ravens are in a lot of trouble." Simple words from Murray of the SuperBook, but no less true now that Baltimore is 1-4 straight up and against the spread after a 44-10 dismantling from the Houston Texans.
The Ravens entered the season as +650 Super Bowl co-favorites with the Buffalo Bills and attracted the third-most handle in the market at ESPN BET, but their campaign has been thrown totally off the rails by several key injuries. "If the same team takes the field next week, they will be considered slightly better than a middle-of-the-pack team," Feazel said.
For all of their tribulations, the Ravens are doing one thing right (in a sense): Baltimore is the only 5-0 Over team in the NFL, and the only one to be undefeated on either side of over/unders.
From unexpected failure to unexpected triumph, the Indianapolis Colts are 4-1 ATS through the first five weeks, tied with the Detroit Lions for the best mark in the NFL. While the public was slow to warm up, the Colts are finally starting to attract action, taking the fourth-most bets and sixth-most handle of any team in Week 5 before the Sunday and Monday night games.
Lions -10.5 was the most backed spread by tickets and handle at BetMGM this week, meaning lots of public players happily cashed when the Lions thrashed the flailing Cincinnati Bengals, 37-24.
Favorites ATS in Week 5 (through Sunday afternoon, per ESPN BET odds): 5-7
Overs in Week 5 (through Sunday afternoon, per ESPN BET odds): 8-4