What’s My Line? Patriots-Bills took bettors to brink and beyond

Friday, Dec. 4, 1998 | 11:33 a.m.

Sal DeFilippo's pro football picks column appears Friday. Reach him at sal@lasvegassun.com or 259-4076.

When you make a bet on anything -- especially a professional football game -- you have to be ready to accept defeat. Take it from someone who has turned defeat into an art form.

Sometimes you lose early and painlessly, the victim of a point-spread rout where you simply were on the wrong side, never with a chance to cover the spread.

Some games are tooth-and-nail affairs, where a trip to the cashier's window still hangs in the balance in the final minutes of play. Those are the games where you can feel the adrenaline rush -- the ones where you swear to correct every unappealing vice you have, just for that one win. Then, of course, you un-swear them off until the next game.

On these occasions you can usually envision the good or bad development, depending on which side you are on. A good example this season would be Doug Flutie's bootleg on the final play to beat Jacksonville.

But a few wins and losses require truly remarkable circumstances, beyond the foreseeable. These are the ones that happen once in a lifetime, forever unforgotten because you could never have imagined them in the first place.

For some bettors, Sunday's Bills-Patriots game was one of those.

The Las Vegas Hilton SuperBook had New England as a 3-point favorite when it opened the line on Tuesday, and bettors moved it to 3 1/2 points, according to sports book manager Chuck Esposito.

"Because of the holiday, we set the number at 3 and 3 1/2 on our parlay cards," Esposito said. "Then there was question of whether Drew Bledsoe would play and it started getting bet down. But a lot of people had Buffalo plus three (points) and plus 3 1/2."

The Patriots jumped to a 14-point lead before Buffalo rallied. A touchdown pass from Flutie to Andre Reed gave the Bills a 21-17 lead with 6:14 remaining. Buffalo missed a two-point conversion attempt.

After an exchange of punts, New England mounted a final drive, needing a touchdown for victory. Bettors with the Bills, plus the three points, could seemingly do no worse than a tie, and that's only if New England could score a touchdown and kick the extra point.

With six seconds remaining, Bledsoe threw a fourth-down pass that Shawn Jefferson hauled in, though replays showed he appeared to be out of bounds. On the ensuing snap, Bledsoe lofted a pass into the end zone as time expired. It was incomplete, but a debatable pass interference penalty gave New England another chance. Bledsoe found Ben Coates in the back of the end zone and the Patriots pulled out the controversial victory.

The way it seemed, if Coates had dropped the ball, the referees would have thrown a flag for "illegal road victory."

But home-friendly calls and all, that finish wasn't beyond conceivability. In fact, Bledsoe engineered a similar rally to beat Miami six days prior.

The remarkable came afterward. In protest of the series of questionable calls, Buffalo coach Wade Phillips sent his team into the locker room. He refused to field a team for the unnecessary, but mandated by the rules (and very important to some bettors) extra point attempt.

The Patriots lined up in the standard kicking formation, but pulled a trick play -- handing the ball instead to kicker Adam Vinatieri, who ran it in for the two-point conversion. This play was made easier, of course, by the lack of any defensive players on the field, but you have to hand it to New England for flawlessly executing such gadgetry. Vinatieri read his blocks perfectly, kept his balance, and avoided coming too close to the sideline. It wasn't as flashy as a Garo Yepremian pass, mind you, but it counted and gave some bettors a story for the ages.

Last week

Best bet San Francisco covered the number handily. The overall mark for the week was a mediocre 6-6-1.

For the season

Top of the line: 6-7

Spread: 74-98-5, .433

Over/Unders: 85-91-1, .483

Straight-up: 102-75, .576

Top of the line

The Oilers suffered a tough defeat at Seattle last week, something the Ravens haven't experienced much this year -- they usually get beat pretty handily.

Tennessee 30, Baltimore 19.

Other games

The tragic injury to Bryant Young coupled with the shorter week for the 49ers, who played Monday night, work in the Panthers' favor, but not enough to win at 3Com.

San Francisco 24, Carolina 17.

In a swift rule change obviously spurred on by Jerome Bettis, the NFL now will ask the visiting captain to clearly call "heads" or "tails" before tossing the deaf referee in the air. New England seems to get all the calls these days, anyway.

New England 26, Pittsburgh 16.

This resurgent Detroit team isn't as tough away from the Lions' den, but the Jaguars won't feel at home offensively without their biggest cat, Tony Boselli, to protect Mark Brunell.

Jacksonville 34, Detroit 29.

With little fanfare, a former Super Bowl MVP re-signed this week, with the club where he played when he won the award. Dallas welcomes back Larry Brown, but only out of desperation, proving that Deion Sanders' injury must be worse than advertised.

New Orleans 16, Dallas 13.

Bill Parcells opened his Jets coaching career with a convincing 41-3 win over these same Dennis Erickson-led Seahawks last season, when Neil O'Donnell beat John Friesz. Of course, O'Donnell yielded to Glenn Foley who yielded to Vinny Testaverde while Friesz yielded to Warren Moon who yielded to Jon Kitna. But as long as Parcells and Erickson are there, the surrounding cast will yield a similar result.

New York Jets 41, Seattle 3.

The Bills, continuing their protest of last week's loss, refuse to come out of the locker room for the first half. The Bengals still punt a few times, however, and Buffalo rallies when its players return.

Buffalo 27, Cincinnati 20.

Expecting things to go smoothly in Washington again this week would be, at the very least, politically incorrect.

San Diego 20, Washington 17.

It's the first weekend of the month, which means Chris Chandler should be just healthy enough to start again, which ought to be enough.

Atlanta 31, Indianapolis 19.

Despite Eric Swann's dive into season-ending surgery, the Cards should have little trouble with this.

Arizona 24, New York Giants 13.

It's safe to say the members of the unbeaten 1972 Dolphins squad will be ready to show a little hometown support when the Dolphins host Denver on Monday Night in a few weeks. Until then, the machine keeps rolling.

Denver 37, Kansas City 17.

The Dolphins are only 7-17-1 against the Raiders, including playoff games. Mystique? No, but I'll take the trend.

Oakland 17, Miami 12.

A line this high might seem like a Bear trip, but there's no catch here.

Minnesota 26, Chicago 14.

Aside from potentially playing without Antonio Freeman and Robert Brooks, the Packers will have a rookie trying to block Warren Sapp. The Bucs need this one to keep any playoff hopes alive.

Tampa Bay 16, Green Bay 15.