NFL Week 7 Bad Beats

You’d think that it might be difficult each week to decide on a Bad Beat, specifically, who lost you money in the most egregious way. It never is. No, the Bad Beat sticks out like the proverbial redheaded stepchild’s sore thumb and Week 7 is no exception.

BAD BEATS: NFL WEEK 7
BY ADAM GREENE

You, and your bank account, already know who we’re looking at here; San Francisco 49ers 9, Washington Redskins 0.

How bad was it? The 49ers were -9.5 favorites and they held Washington without a point. And they still didn’t cover.

It was slow, it was boring, it was methodical and if you’d predicted this exact score at the beginning of the game, you would have been smacked open-handed across the face.

You see, San Francisco has been one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL to open the season. They were averaging nearly 30 points a game coming into Sunday’s contest and had just taken control of the NFC West after a 20-7 beat-down of the Los Angeles Rams. This was a team riding the wave. Flying high. Ready to assert itself as the top team in the NFC.

The Redskins have done none of that. They fired their head coach, Jay Gruden, and have shuffled through every quarterback on the roster. Their interim head coach, Bill Callahan, did such a horrible job coaching the Oakland Raiders in their Super Bowl loss that his own players accused him of throwing the game.

That -9.5 was probably too low, you thought. So you took the money you’d set aside for that Dewalt Atomic 20-Volt Max Lithium Ion Brushless Cordless Compact Drill/Impact Combo Kit with Circular Saw and you bought your ticket, confident that you could not only buy the combo kit Monday morning, but splurge on the 24-month protection plan and maybe have enough left over for that Gladiator Bamboo Premier Series Adjustable Workbench your wife keeps catching you looking at online when you’re supposed to be watching porn.

You had no way of expecting that the game would be played in a downpour, but that shouldn’t have mattered. The 49ers can run the ball just about better than everyone in the league. The Redskins, on the other hand, well, I’m sure some of them are good people.

On SF’s second possession they strung together a 13-play, six-minute drive that should have been capped by a 45-yard Robbie Gould field goal. You remember Gould, the kicker that was so good that the team hit him with the franchise tag this offseason and there was a protracted negotiation and holdout after, where Gould demanded a trade before the final deal was done.

Well, he missed it.

Finally, with 5:28 left in the third, the Niners got on the board with a 28-yard field goal from Gould.

You had to feel better at that point, getting your hand ready for the molded grip mount on that circular saw. Thinking about all the screws you’d be tightening. Lathing. Oh, the lathing.

All you needed now was Case Keenum to toss your defense the ball or a Redskin player to cough it up and, guess what, it happened. Running back Adrian Peterson served up the ball on a silver platter with a side salad and loaded baked potato.

The 49ers got the ball all the way down to the Washington 2-yard-line and on third and goal, when they could have punched in and covered with 9:48 left in the game, Kyle Shanahan decided to get cute and run an end-around to George Kittle that lost two yards.

Another kick, it was good, but now you’re sweating a little. A 6-0 lead is worrisome when you need 9.5 to cover.

None to fear, the Redskins went 3-and-out and now your team, the high-scoring 49ers, were going to punch it in for the insurance TD and all would be well.

Again they made it inside the Washington redzone, but you weren’t feeling good about it. The smart play for Shanahan and the 49ers was to run it three times and kick the field goal and get out of there with the dub. The Sean Payton play would be to throw it because you could and try to get a TD. It’s what cost the Saints a Super Bowl berth, not a missed pass interference call.

But Shanahan was done outsmarting himself. He ran it three times and kicked the field goal to put the game far out of reach with 23 seconds to go.

There would be no new bamboo workbench, no circular saw, no 20-volt lithium ion brushless cordless drill. You’re stuck with that Drill Master from Walmart for at least another year and using your mom’s old dining room table as a workbench.

Tim Taylor wept.

Get the latest NFL football odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter!

BetOnline.ag on Instagram–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!