If you’re a fan of betting against the spread, you know the pain of a bad beat. If you’re a Browns fan, well… you know pain. Monday night’s remarkable AFC North showdown between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens brought a painful defeat in both regards.
The showdown has already been dubbed the best game of the season so far — a high-stakes, higher-scoring, back-and-forth affair that literally went down the final seconds. It’ll also be remembered as one of the worst “bad beats” on the betting lines we’ve ever seen. Because while the sports book predicted a tight game, no one quite anticipated the final act of this one going the way they did.
With two seconds left in the game, the 45-42 score put the matchup in the betting sweetspot for many. The Ravens, who were favoured in the sports books, were winning by three points — and that meant a lot of bettors from both sides of the line were about to get paid — or at least get a push. Because even though Baltimore won the game, the narrow point differential meant if you bet on the Browns to cover, you would also be safe because Baltimore’s point differential wasn’t quite enough for the Ravens to cover the spread.
And then, in those final two seconds, a chaotic, lateral-filled, last-ditch effort by the Browns resulted in the rarest of scores: a safety — two points awarded to the Ravens after the ball went out of bounds behind the goal line.
The score was then settled at 47-42, the point differential enough to break the hearts of many bettors after the Ravens covered the spread, and apply salt to the wounds of anyone rooting for Cleveland.
SVP reacts to that Ravens-Browns amazing bad beat. pic.twitter.com/q7ikovBQdb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 15, 2020
Browns fan being consoled in stands at the end …had to of lost … #badbeat segment for @notthefakeSVP pic.twitter.com/GgT4BtuV4s
— Ken French (@CoachKenFrench) December 15, 2020
Ouch.
[relatedlinks]
0:46