NFL bad beat for the ages: A bad penalty led to a meaningless Raiders FG as time expires

Anyone who had the Denver Broncos as a 7.5-point favorite at BetMGM on Sunday wasn’t sweating it most of the day. The Broncos were clearly better than the Las Vegas Raiders and comfortably covering most of the day.

Then it became a near lock on what should have been the last play of the game. With less than 10 seconds remaining the Raiders got tackled in the field of play with no timeouts left. Broncos bettors were finally ready to officially cash the ticket.

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Then came one of the most bizarre, baffling bad beats of this or any other NFL season.

The Raiders trailed 24-14, meaning the Broncos were covering the spread by 2.5 points. Tyler Lockett caught a 26-yard pass to the Broncos’ 33-yard line. No big deal because Lockett was tackled in bounds. But then, inexplicably, Broncos safety Brandon Jones wouldn’t let Lockett get up after the tackle. Instead of the clock running out, a flag was thrown. It was a delay of game on the Broncos and most importantly it stopped the clock with five seconds left.

And still, Broncos bettors shouldn’t have been that worried. The Raiders had little reason to kick a field goal, and a Hail Mary is a low-percentage play. But then, the Raiders decided to kick a field goal, on the very, very low chance that the kick would be good and there would be a second left for an onside kick and then a Hail Mary.

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The Raiders made the field goal as time expired. The only people happy with that were those who have Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson on their fantasy teams, and those who had Raiders +7.5 bets. The Raiders lost 24-17 and covered the spread, somehow, by a half of a point.

The Broncos took a 21-7 lead in the third quarter. Las Vegas saw quarterback Geno Smith leave the game with an injury after the third quarter. There was seemingly no way for the Raiders to cover the spread. Until they did on the final play.