Gambler Drops $35,000 On Falcons In-Game Bet At -3333, Gambling Gods Step In

There are kicks in the nuts and then there is the story about how a gambler tested the gambling gods this weekend by dropping a $35,000 in-game bet on the Falcons at -3333 to win a fast $1,050 at BetMGM. The story goes that the gambler made the massive bet with seven minutes to play and the Falcons holding a 39-24 lead.

Let me do the quick math for you: that’s a 15-point lead…for the Falcons. The Cowboys got the ball with 7:57 on the clock and went 10 plays in 3:00 for a touchdown. 39-30 Falcons with 4:57 to play. Not the end of the world, but not ideal for the gambler or the Falcons. History tells us Dan Quinn knows how to blow a historic lead — 28-3 in a Super Bowl ring a bell?

The Falcons get the kickoff and it’s time to run some clock and get out of town with a road win. Todd Gurley goes off the right end for a fast six. Whew, great start when you have $35,000 floating on a gambling app. Even better, Dallas has to use a timeout here to save the clock. Todd Gurley gets it again on 2nd down and gains four and a first down. Dallas burns another timeout.

Now the clock sits at 4:44.

1st down: Gurley minus two yards.

(Cowboys burn another timeout.)

2nd down: Matt Ryan’s sacked, but the clock continues to run.

3rd down: Ryan completes a pass for 10 yards, short of the first down, clock runs.

4th down: Punt with 3:09 left to play and Dallas at its 24.

Again, it’s a two-score game. The Cowboys had to burn those timeouts. Dan ran the ball to run out the clock and seems to be looking pretty good here.

Then it happens. The gambling gods woke up from their early game nap and saw the Falcons up two scores. Dallas proceeds to go on a 9-play, 1:08 drive with Dak going in for a one-yard touchdown.

The Falcons still hold the 39-37 lead with 1:49 left on the clock. Dallas has to get an onside kick or this game is over. By now we’ve all been told how onside kicks in the NFL are now impossible thanks to new rules that prevent the kicking team from getting a running start to smash the receiving team. There’s no way the kicking team will have enough time to get past the 10-yard distance to recover.

And then Greg Zuerlein lays the ball on the ground, no tee. A Fox analyst says he’s never seen an onside kick where the ball is laying on the turf. There’s no way this wacky idea from Zuerlein works. Better yet, the ball probably won’t go 10 yards.

Falcons fans should’ve just turned off the TV so they didn’t have to watch what happened next. They don’t deserve this torture. They don’t deserve Dan Quinn doing it to them again.

The onside kick that set up the comeback!@dallascowboys NEVER QUIT.

(via @thecheckdown) pic.twitter.com/4RtilBgsa3

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 20, 2020

I hate to make it worse for Falcons fans and the gambler to tried to make an easy thousand, but entering Sunday, “teams were 440-0 when scoring 39 points with 0 turnovers since 1933, when team turnovers were first tracked, according to Elias”