The NFL playoffs are one of the most popular sports betting events to wager upon. For this reason, fans not normally handicapping the NFL will test their luck gambling on various teams to come in and pull the upset. In some cases, casual fans will bank on unlikely heroes to help their teams get over the hump and win games. However, most often then not, price per head unlikely heroes live up to the title, because they can’t get the job done. Today we’ll look at how a couple of players were the reason the two Championship games took the route they did.
Billy Cundiff of the Baltimore Ravens and Kyle Williams of the San Francisco 49ers will forever be known for the wrong reasons. Cundiff the long time kicker of the Baltimore Ravens, and one of the most accurate kickers in the entire NFL, redefined his reputation on Sunday night, when he missed a simple chip shot field goal, to allow the Baltimore Ravens to tie the game with the Patriots and head to overtime. By missing the field goal, Cundiff, who had been accurate the rest of the day, was then labeled the most hated man, not only by the Ravens fans but also by his own teammates. Football is supposed to be a team game, but when your kicker misses what should be an easy field goal, everyone and their uncle on his team, suddenly becomes his enemy. What’s worse? Moments before Cundiff missed the field goal, Baltimore wide receiver Lee Evans missed what should have been a game winning touchdown. In other words, it should have been Evans and not Cundiff who was hated by his teammates.
On the other hand, if you give Cundiff and Evans free passes, then there is no way you can give a bookie software free pass to rookie receiver Kyle Williams. Filling in for the injured Ted Ginn Jr. Williams was responsible for returning kicks and punts from the New York Giants. Unfortunately for the rookie, he made not one but two errors at very costly times for his team. Firstly, after believing he avoided a ball, allowing the Giants to spot the ball, the referees rules that Williams knee had grazed the ball, thus making it okay for the Giants to recover the football. As a result, the Giants were able to move ahead and NFL score a game leading touchdown. Then if that wasn’t bad enough, William elected to return a punt in overtime, but had the ball jarred loose by one of the Giants defenders. The Giants would not only recover the ball, but also eventually score the game winning field goal moments later.
What’s most interesting about Cundiff and Williams gaffs, is that they became the goats of the game, and not their teams lack of play. Meaning to say, if Evans had caught the ball, and the 49ers defense had been able to stop the Giants run game in overtime, would we really be talking about Cundiff and Williams? Furthermore, would both players have received death threats from fans over the Internet, had the fans realized, that the whole teams were to be blamed and not just the individual players? As well, if Cundiff and Williams had performed better would they have been praised as heroes?
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