Anyone who thought that a wild year of NFL betting was going to stop in the Wild Card round had another thing coming to them.
Amid the shock of the Houston Texans – who have a rookie head coach, rookie offensive coordinator, and rookie quarterback – annihilating the Cleveland Browns and the Dallas Cowboys losing their undefeated home streak in historic fashion to the Green Bay Packers were some major betting surprises.
$7,505 on a two-leg $5 parlay
One of the craziest wins of the weekend at a major sportsbook was one DraftKings bettor winning $7,505 on a two-leg $5 parlay.
The bet included both Packers running back Aaron Jones and Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson scoring 3+ touchdowns in the same game, a feat they’d only accomplished three times across their entire careers (and not since September 2020).
Jones finished the game with 118 yards and three TDs on the ground on 21 carries, while Ferguson caught 10 balls for 93 yards and three scores. Ferguson scored twice in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, cementing the ticket as a winner after he scored on a 14-yard pass with 3:25 remaining.
While Jones and the Packers enjoyed the spoils of Sunday’s win against Dallas, top wide receiver Jayden Reed dropped a giant goose egg.
The 23-year-old caught 64 passes for 793 yards and eight TDs during the regular season, but did not manage to come down with a catch on three targets on Sunday.
Reed posted on X (formerly Twitter) after the game and jokingly apologized for ruining his fans’ parlays but also shared his excitement for advancing in the playoffs.
Green Bay became both the first seven seed to win a game in the newly expanded NFL Wild Card format and a betting hero. The Packers were around +285 on the moneyline at kickoff, but showed no mercy to a Dallas team that was 8-0 at home with an average scoring margin of +21.5.
Meanwhile, the Texans’ Super Bowl odds shrank from +6000 to as low as +1700 at DraftKings following their upset win over the Browns.