Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Matt Schaub and the Houston Texans, the St. Louis Rams strolled up into Reliant Stadium in Houston and put on a waxing on the free-falling quarterback and the underperforming Texans.
Texans fans might be feeling the sting of another beatdown – this time, it was 38-13 – but Vegas sportsbooks are nothing but happy that the Rams won completely outright, rendering the nine-point spread it was getting irrelevant. With the Texans a huge public bet on the strength of a bounce back game from Schaub, the games was shaping up to be a make-it-or-break-it affair for books.
Then the game started and the Rams defense inexplicably turned into the Monsters of the Midway, taking the game over and rewarding books with one of their biggest wins of Week 6.
In addition to St. Louis’ surprising win at Houston, Vegas sportsbooks also took in good-sized wins on the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots, two teams that went about their business of covering their respective lines in opposite fashion. The Panthers, fresh off of a disappointing loss at Arizona the week before, dominated the Minnesota Vikings from start to finish on its way to a convincing 35-10 victory.
Meanwhile, the New England Patriots needed every last ounce of Tom Brady’s fourth-quarter magic, rallying late in the fourth to stun the previously unbeaten New Orleans Saints, 30-27. Brady’s touchdown pass to Kembrell Thompkins with five seconds left gave the Patriots a three-point lead, enough to cover the 2.5 points it was laying against Drew Brees and company. The late news that tight end Rob Gronkowski wasn’t playing spurned a mad rush of money on the Saints, and it would’ve been a disastrous result had New Orleans closed out the game when it had the opportunity to do so.
On the other end of the ledger, a pair of public teams all covered their respective lines, leaving sportsbooks with a lot of bets to pay out. The Philadelphia Eagles did enough against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-20, to cover the 3-point spread while the Dallas Cowboys kept the Washington Redskins at bay throughout the game, handily winning, 31-16, and covering the 8-point spread to the delight of everyone who backed the Romo coaster.
Then there was the Denver Broncos taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars with the biggest line in Vegas history. After initially being set at 28 points early in the week, surprising action on the Jaguars caused the line to drop to 26.5 points, where it stayed for most of the week.
And then something miraculous happened: the Jaguars finally covered a spread this season. It still didn’t win, but the 35-19 final score was a lot closer than a lot of people expected, even with the split action resulting from the huge spread.
