Parlay Pandemonium

My friend asked me to help him with a Thanksgiving Day parlay contest his bookmaker was running for the three NFL games which were played yesterday,

He had to pick a team and Over-Under for each game on the slate.

Here's what I went with.

I'll start with the final game and work backwards.

I took Green Bay as -3 favourites over the Miami Dolphins and for the total score to fall below the line of 47.5.

The final score was 30-17 to the Packers. So, the Green Bay -3 gamble came in comfortably. The 'Under' was not as comfortable because it covered by only half-a-point.

The middle game saw the Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants by a score of 27-20. Both selections covered the spread because I had the Cowboys to win by at least five and for the game to have Over 37.5 points in total.

But, all those results were for nothing because of a head-scratching closing few seconds in the Chicago Bears versus Detroit Lions game.

The score was 23-20 to the Detroit Lions. The Bears could have attempted a field goal to tie it and send the game into overtime. Instead, with the game clock dying (because head coach Matt Eberflus didn't use his final timeout), Caleb Williams threw an incomplete pass. The team could not attempt a field goal to head into overtime because time expired.

As you can see, I had the Bears +10.5. That one won. The totals play was for the game to go Over 48.5. The final score of 23-20 resulted in the Under coming in. 

Had the Bears successfully kicked a field goal, that would have meant the game had a total of forty-six going into overtime. We would have been in a good situation in that scenario because all we would have needed in OT was at least a field goal from either side. 

It's a shame. The thing which bugs me is - if a timeout had been called - there's a good chance that aforementioned scenario played out and we would have cruised into the second and third games. Hindsight being what it is, we would have cruised to victories.

But that's why they call it gambling.

Not that it cost me, or him, anything.