Bad Beat Illinois Fighting Illini at Iowa Hawkeyes -12.5

Saturday, November 20, 2021

I feel like these bad beats have just been getting more and more soul crushing lately. This is a rough one. Our bad beat of the week is Iowa (-12.5) letting Illinois score a garbage time touchdown to back door cover. This one is horrific. Reader discretion is advised.

Betting on Iowa is always a grind and this was no different. Bettors probably thought the spread was dead early into this one. Illinois jumped out to a 10 point lead in the first quarter. The Fighting Illini are no strangers to winning against big spreads. They dominated Minnesota earlier in the year as a 14.5 point underdog. However, Iowa was able to erase that deficit with two unanswered touchdowns. One late in the first and the other early in the second. Iowa led the rest of the way but Illinois was never truly out of it.

In true Big 10 fashion, the two teams exchanged punts and field goals until the 1:55 mark of the fourth quarter when the Hawkeyes were finally able to get two unanswered field goals to get a 26-16 lead. Finally a double-digit lead, but they were only up by 10, so they were still three points from covering. And with less than two minutes to go, things were not looking good. But then a miracle happened.

Hawkeye linebacker Jack Campbell intercepted QB Brandon Peters and took it back 32 yards for a touchdown to make the score 33-16. A prayer answered for Iowa bettors and absolute heartbreak for bettors on the other side. But that was not the only miracle that happened in the last two minutes.

Illinois got the ball with 1:05 left. They got a holding call on the first play which backed them up 10 yards. Then, on 2nd and 20, Peters connected with freshman receiver Patrick Bryant for a 45 yard pass down to the Iowa 40 yard line. The next pass fell incomplete, but the next play was another big one. Peters found Tip Reiman to get the ball to the Hawkeyes 16 with just 41 seconds left. 

Heartbreak came for Iowa backers on the next play when Peters fired one into the endzone to Isaiah Williams for the garbage-time score. Iowa was now leading 33-23 and that would be the final miracle of the day. 

The emotional rollercoaster that saw Iowa losing, then leading but not covering until the 1:55 mark, then letting it slip away in just over a minute was finally over. A miracle for one side and tragedy for another. As an unbiased third party, the Hawkeyes not covering that spread should be illegal. My condolences, Iowa bettors. I would have taken a long walk offa  short pier if i were in your shoes.

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* All odds provided by Action247 Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
**All views expressed are my own. My picks are my own and are not a guarantee, bet at your own risk.