It could be said that the Worst Bad Beats of the week usually pick themselves, but for Week 9 of the NFL season that’s especially true. It might have been a week of exciting football games, but close contests were few and far between.
The best game of the week heading into tonight’s snore-fest between the Tennessee Titans and Dallas Cowboys was the justifiably hyped Los Angeles Rams at New Orleans Saints match up in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints won 45-35, and are now in the driver’s seat of the NFC playoff race after handing the Rams their first loss of the season.
But you can’t call that a bad beat. The Saints were favored by at least -1.5 at kickoff and won by 10. The truth is, we had only one bad beat this week, but just because it stands alone doesn’t make it any less special and deserving of a solid look through the jeweler’s loop.
Here it is, your lone Bad Beat from Week 9:
Houston Texans 19, Denver Broncos 17
Spread: Broncos -1
There are teams and players that seem to always find their way into this weekly recounting of lost money and shredded betting slips and Case Keenum is, through nine weeks of NFL action, perhaps the Bad Beats MVP.
Related: NFL Betting Guide | Week 10 Odds
When his team is a double-digit dog, he does just enough to make the opposing team leave victorious, but not cover. When his team is favored, it’s all but a guaranteed loss. The fact that Keenum fooled anyone, especially John Elway, into thinking he was a legitimate NFL starting quarterback this offseason is perhaps the biggest spread beat of all time.
When it looks like he’s going to lose his job to his backup, that backup is busted by the cops breaking into someone’s house and is evicted from the team. Case Keenum beats the odds every single day and, along the way, has cost you, the bettors, and the teams that pay his salary, tons of money.
#Broncos QB Case Keenum is one of only 3 NFL starters this season to not reach a 100 passer rating #HOUvsDEN https://t.co/Bq4voIflE7
— Denver Post Broncos (@PostBroncos) November 5, 2018
Here’s what happened Sunday.
Keenum and the Broncos are down 19-17 to the Texans with 3:29 left in the fourth quarter. Both teams have traded punts for what must have seemed like epochs before Denver finally begins to, glacially, move the ball down the field.
It takes Keenum a minute and a half to move the Broncos from their own 20 to their own 39 before they face a fourth-and-one at the two-minute warning. Keenum completes a three-yard pass on fourth down to keep the chains moving.
The clock ticks and Denver, slowly thanks to Keenum’s inability to pass downfield and multiple offensive penalties, finally reaches their own 45 a minute and six seconds later before facing another fourth down, this one requiring eight yards to surpass.
Case Keenum was asked what he thought of the offense not trying to gain more yards at the end of the game:
“You’d have to talk to Bill [Musgrave] and VJ… You’ll have to talk to those guys about the operation and what they wanted to do. I haven’t talked to them about it yet."
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) November 5, 2018
Keenum again finds lightning (albeit the slowest lightning on record) in a bottle and completes an 18-yard pass to Emmanuel Sanders to once again move the chains. Down by two, all Denver needs is a field goal to not only win, but cover. All Keenum has to do over the next 50 seconds is get his team close enough to make that field goal a sure thing. He still has a time out in his pocket.
Needless to say, Keenum can’t do it. Over the next two plays Denver gains a total of four yards before trotting out Brandon McManus for a 51-yard field goal attempt. An attempt that would go wide right, handing the Broncos their sixth loss of the season and relieving you of the cash you were dumb enough to lay on any team quarterbacked by Case Keenum.
Case Keenum on Brandon McManus: “I think he’s the best kicker in the game” pic.twitter.com/OpnBhvtsP3
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) November 5, 2018
