SI

Texans’ Last-Second TD Leads to Miracle Cover for Some Bettors, Bad Beat for Others

The gambling gods ruled in favor of the Houston Texans on Sunday.

Tyler Lauletta

Houston Texans defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins and cornerback Kamari Lassiter celebrate after a play.
Houston Texans defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins and cornerback Kamari Lassiter celebrate after a play. / Sean Thomas-Imagn Images
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The Jaguars’ slow collapse on Sunday against the Texans was tough to watch. Jacksonville held a 29–10 heading into the fourth quarter and were facing a Houston side led by backup quarterback Davis Mills. It felt like cruise control could get the Jags to victory from there.

Instead, Mills and the Texans scored three straight touchdowns to take a 30–29 lead with just 30 seconds left in the game. When the Jags got the ball back, Trevor Lawrence tried to make a play to get his team into field goal range, but was tripped up. The ball flopped out of his hands and straight into the arms of Texans defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, who ran it back for another touchdown.

Final score: Texans 36–Jaguars 29.

For most NFL fans, Rankins’s late score was just a fitting end to a dreadful performance for the Jaguars. Who doesn’t love a big-man touchdown? But for the a few fans who had bet on the Texans to win and cover the spread, Rankins’s emerged as a hero.

Heading into Week 10, the Texans were listed as 1.5-point favorites over the Jaguars at many sportsbooks, meaning that they would have to win by at least two points for bettors to cash their tickets.

At the start of the fourth quarter, no one would have faulted those that had backed Houston for tearing up their ticket, thinking the game was settled. Even if they didn’t, then they surely had to believe their bet was dead after the Texans came all the way back but failed to convert the two-point conversion that would have put them up by three with 30 seconds to play.

Instead, Rankins’s became a hero to some, and a villain to others.

The lesson, as always—there’s no such thing as a safe bet.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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