Bettors kept taking the Chiefs, and Jaguars ruin all those bets with backdoor cover
Bettors, as usual, loved the Kansas City Chiefs.
The line for the Chiefs' divisional round against the Jacksonville Jaguars kept rising through the week as money kept coming in on Kansas City. It was at Chiefs -8.5 during the week, then -9 and it closed at -9.5 at BetMGM. The Chiefs got 75 percent of the money bet on the divisional round game at BetMGM.
That means there were a lot of angry bettors on Saturday evening.
The Chiefs were ahead for most of the game and leading by double digits late, but kept giving the Jaguars chances. Kansas City led 27-17 when Jamal Agnew fumbled inside the 5-yard line, which was a crushing play to Jaguars bettors. The Jaguars forced a punt but Trevor Lawrence threw an interception right away. All the Chiefs needed was to kill the clock. They couldn't do it. They punted back to the Jaguars. Jacksonville had 1:04 left and little chance to win, but the Jaguars weren't going to give up.
Lawrence hit passes of 11 and 21 to get the Jaguars on the edge of field-goal position. Jacksonville would try a field goal instead of automatically going for it because it needed a field goal and touchdown in some order. On third down Lawrence passed — it was his 39th and final pass of the night, and his over/under for passing attempts was 38.5 at BetMGM — and got 5 more yards. Maybe that was the difference as Riley Patterson came on and hit a 48-yard field goal. That cut the Chiefs' lead to 27-20. When the Chiefs recovered the onside kick, Jaguars +9.5 bettors had the backdoor cover.
Kansas City bettors had to feel like they were on the right side and lost. Patrick Mahomes suffered an ankle injury that clearly impacted his play. The Chiefs probably would have won by double digits with a healthy Mahomes for four quarters. Then the Chiefs couldn't put away the cover at the end.
The Chiefs were a bad bet this season. They were just 5-11-1 against the spread this season, one of the worst records in the NFL. That's because oddsmakers know bettors like to take the Chiefs and inflate the spreads to adjust for it. On Saturday, those extra points made a difference.
