Raiders lose to Broncos, as expected
As online poker was growing, one common refrain from players was, “It’s rigged!” With every bad beat or unlikely card, players were convinced that nothing was random and the poker site had it out for them. Now, with sports wagering continuing to expand across the United States, bettors become furious over any play that affects their bottom line, no matter how innocuous.
Of course, people do have a bit of a reason to be suspicious, as recent NBA betting scandals have shown, but sometimes you just need to relax and understand that 99.99% of the time, a play is just a play. A miss is just a miss.
The latest conspiracy theory is that Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll had money on the game because he had his team kick a meaningless field goal as time expired to lose to the first-place Denver Broncos by seven instead of ten.
Weird field goal, but go ahead
Down 24-14, the Raiders were frantically trying to notch a late score to keep their extremely slim hopes alive. On what turned out to be the second-to-last play of the game, Raiders quarterback Kenny Pickett passed to Tyler Lockett for a 26-yard gain down to the Denver 33-yard line. Lockett was tackled and on the ground with eight seconds left, but an official determined that the defender intentionally stayed on top of him for too long, not letting him get up to try to run another play, and thus threw a penalty flag for delay of game.
The clock ran another four seconds before the whistle blew, Denver got an extra five yards from the penalty, and then proceeded to kick the field goal as time expired.
With the betting line at Denver -8.5, that field goal allowed Las Vegas Raiders bettors to win their wagers. The over/under was 40.5, so those three points also pushed the ultimate total to 41, again causing winners and losers to shift on the final play.
Hilarity ensues
And bettors lost their minds. Why on earth would they kick a meaningless field goal? They should have either kneeled to concede the game or heaved one to the end zone, a pass which would likely be knocked down. Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy posted a video of himself crashing out, calling for Pete Carroll and the refs to be put in prison and repeatedly saying Carroll should be murdered.
In the meantime, instead of assuming that somehow the refs and the coach fixed the game so that everything could align at the very end and the Raiders would lose by seven, the most logical explanation was that Carroll just wanted the score to look more respectable and get his field goal unit some practice.
While there was no conspiracy to rig the game for betting purposes, the answer as to “why” was actually not quite that simple. In an interview on Monday, Carroll said that he was trying to make a last-ditch effort, no matter how impossible it might have been, to kick a field goal with time still on the clock, recover an onsides kick, and score a touchdown on a hail mary.
Any microscopic chance at a comeback hinged on Carroll lobbying the refs, though, and that didn’t work. Because Lockett was tackled with eight seconds left, but the penalty didn’t stop the clock until four seconds were remaining, Carroll begged the officials to reset the clock to eight seconds. That way, there would still be a few seconds left after the field goal. The refs did not do what Carroll requested, but he had already sent the kicking team onto the field, so he figured they might as well kick.
“I knew it was going to look stupid, like you couldn’t figure out why we were doing it,” Carroll said. “…But there was a clear thought of what we were trying to get down there, just to take it down to the very last click. That might not be good enough for you, I understand that, but I think you can see what we were trying to do, but it just didn’t work out.”
Image credit: All-Pro Reels
