BAD BEATS: NFL WEEK 18 – The Heartbreaking Beat Cometh

BY ADAM GREENE

It is only fitting that the last week of the 2021-22 season, one in which so many games were absolutely meaningless to the standings (less so to bettors), that the NFL schedule did not hand us a single Bad Beat.

Even the upsets, if you can even call them that when half of them were played by reserves, never reached Bad Beat status.

What we did have multiple examples of, was the Heartbreaking Beat. In this, I am certainly a victim.

While the Los Angeles Rams 27-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers didn’t affect their playoff hopes, only knock them down to the No. 4 seed, it did feel really bad. As a Rams fan (and bettor), it hurt my feelings.

What makes it Heartbreaking is the way they lost, not by Matthew Stafford turnovers, although they were there. Matt Stafford was the only thing working on offense Sunday afternoon. No, it was a complete defensive collapse at the end of the second quarter and the last 1:30 of the fourth, with Aaron Donald, Von Miller and Jalen Ramsey all on the field, that lost this game.

Los Angeles led 24-17 with 1:27 to go. The Niners had no time outs and I, a moneyline bettor and, again Rams fan, was feeling great. I have no metric to give you here other than the fact that I’ve watched nearly every Rams game played over the last two decades plus and, in the Sean McVay era, they’ve never once that I can recall, relinquished a lead in the final minute. Not against Russell Wilson. Not against Patrick Mahomes. Not against Tom Brady.

But Jimmy Garoppolo Sunday night, he was the guy that did it. Not only that, he ended McVay’s 45 game win streak after taking a lead at halftime. Every time I watch a Rams game where they lead, the broadcast team and Twitter can’t wait to mention it and, every time I cringe knowing they’re going to eventually jinx it completely.

“Eventually” happened Sunday against the 49ers. So not only did I lose money, I lost heart. I lost that McVay streak. The Rams lost six a row to San Francisco and I lost my will to get out of a chair for a good 10 minutes.

But, hey, the playoffs are here and everyone is 0-0. The Rams are still in it. So are the 49ers and that sucks, but, it’s unlikely they’ll play each other again unless they both make it to the NFC Championship game.

Such is not the case for every Heartbreaking Beat Sunday. And we’ll start with the real shocker to everyone that doesn’t read my stuff. I detailed exactly every reason you should be wary of the Indianapolis Colts at Jacksonville Jaguars, specifically that the Colts had not beaten the Jags on the road since 2014.

And while I did pick Indy to win straight up, there was no way they were going to cover -16 and were a prime candidate for a Crazy Parlay upset.

While the Rams led by 14 at the half and seven with a little over a minute to go, Indianapolis, in a must-win game, was never in it at all. They trailed 13-3 at the half. 23-3 after the third quarter. Carson Wentz, again, just a week after catching a deadly disease and getting the worst of it thanks to his unvaccinated status, played like complete garbage. He was sacked six times. By the Jaguars.

By the time the Jags were up 26-3 with just eight minutes to go in the game, I was already preparing myself for the most hilarious episode of Hard Knocks in human history.

If you thought it was a mistake for Jim Irsay and Frank Reich to agree to do an in-season Hard Knocks, and I certainly did, you can be assured now that no franchise is ever agreeing to do one again. Because, if you watched it, then you know that Reich, especially, was just convinced the regular season was a speedbump on the way to the playoffs. They led the league in Pro Bowlers.

NFL Films has won many an Emmy for its football coverage, but this could be their first Best Comedy Award. And it’ll be deserved.

Lastly, we might have the most Heartbreaking Beat of all — Las Vegas Raiders 35, Los Angeles Chargers 32.

With the Colts loss, the math in this one had gotten very interesting. A tie, as unlikely as it seemed, would put both teams in the postseason as Wild Cards. But that’s exactly what we got thanks to a 15 point fourth quarter from the Chargers that evened the game up at 29-29.

Each team drove down and kicked field goals in the extra period to keep it knotted up and with the ball and 4:30 left, the Raiders started driving. The clock wasn’t their enemy. They had the ball and all they had to do was keep it and they were dancing. All LA had to do was keep them from scoring. Everyone there knew what would happen if they ended in a tie.

And the Raiders, apparently, were cool with that. They were ready to tie and head to the playoffs. Los Angeles was not, and after a Josh Jacobs run on second and 11 that left a third and four, the Chargers called a time out in an attempt to get the ball back.

Vegas took offense at that. At the notion that LA would attempt to still win this game and knock them out, so they called another play, a Jacobs run that picked up 10 yards and, with two seconds left in overtime, kicked the gamewinning field goal that sent the Pittsburgh Steelers to the playoffs and the Chargers to their Barcaloungers.

How do I know this is what happened?

Because Derek Carr said the time out changed their “mindset” and apparently Raiders longsnapper Trent Sieg spilled the beans to LA running back Austin Ekeler after the game. Brandon Staley’s time out, in an attempt to punch out Vegas in spite of the long odds and time left, cost his team a playoff spot.

That one hurts to even write out and I’m not a Chargers fan. The Heartbreaking Beat ruled the final day of the 2021-22 regular season.

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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