LAS VEGAS -- These are ESPN Chalk's weekly NFL betting recaps for every Week 14 game -- with an emphasis on the word "betting."
Sometimes it's clear from the opening kickoff that a team is going to win and/or cover the spread. Other times it looks as if one team is going to coast to victory, but the other rallies, causing bettors to wonder how they could have possibly lost and leading to them cry "Bad beat!" Of course, there are also the back-and-forth, 50-50 games that are virtual coin flips.
This new column, which also will include my takeaways from each game, will separate the different kinds of point-spread results from each week and is intended to be a quick overview for those who have to work on NFL Sundays or otherwise aren't able to watch all the games.
So let's run down Sunday's Week 14 action (plus Thursday's game). We'll also incorporate Rufus Peabody's numbers to give an analytical look at which teams should have covered.
Note: We'll point out crazy over/under results, but this is primarily a recap of the against-the-spread results.
Bad beats (clearly wrong sides)
San Francisco (-3) in 23-17 overtime home loss to New York Jets
It's kind of hard to call it a bad beat when the 49ers came in with 11 straight losses, but they actually had this one well in hand and their backers had to feel they had the right side.