Sunday afternoon against the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions running back David “Knuckles” Montgomery would play his last snap of the season after suffering a season-ending MCL injury. Although this injury devastates the Lions fanbase, it may be even worse for casual bettors who participated in the popular player props before the season started. Vegas oddsmaker can be ridiculously accurate to the point where ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt had a segment of “bad beats” on their flagship show, SportsCenter. Due to the injury to Montgomery, this may go down as one of the worst beats of all time, depending on which side of the coin you laid your money on.
Montgomery Making Bettors Money All Season
David Montgomery was having a great season in bettors’ eyes. Whether it was with his anytime touchdown player props, which he had scored in 10 different games, or betting a same-game parlay with teammates Amon-ra St. Brown and fellow running back Jahmyr Gibbs. The trio scored in the same game a record 8 times this season, cleaning up for fans across the betting world.
Sportsbooks like MGM had removed the option to bet all three in the same game parlay because it hit and paid off way too often. Betting Lions fans would also add Montgomery as a first touchdown scorer on multiple occasions. The Lions’ philosophy was to pound the rock on the opening drive with Knuckles to physically wear down the defense early and often.
Knuckles season ended in week 15 after suffering a torn MCL. He is added to the long list of Detroit’s version of “Elf on the Shelf,” being the most injury-prone team in the league this season. What makes this injury more fascinating than others is what his season total rushing yards ended with. The preseason oddsmakers in Vegas had David Montgomery sitting at 775.5 rushing yards as his season over/under total. He entered Week 15 five yards short of that total. You could imagine bettors who took the over line waiting to cash their tickets and the ones who took the under ripping up those same tickets.
To everyone’s surprise, Knuckles would only gain four yards on five attempts in the loss against Buffalo before suffering a season-ending knee injury. With no more possible running attempts this season, Knuckles will finish his season with 775 yards, 1 yard short of the over. So, depending on which side of the coin you were on as far as taking the over or the under on Montgomery, you could be thrilled you were on an under that had no chance of hitting without injury or royally pissed that the running back couldn’t get one more yard on the ground.
Final Thoughts
As a veteran bettor myself, I love season-long bets; whether it’s player props or season win totals, it makes it fun to root for the investment the entire season. David Montgomery was on pace to shatter his over/under prop of 775.5 yards this season until the injury bug struck again in Detroit. He needed five yards going into Week 15 against the Bills. Then, the worst thing that could happen to a bettor happened. People who took the under witnessed a Christmas miracle, and the ones who took the over got a big ole lump of coal.
This is the perfect example of not counting your chickens too early. I can only imagine what those bettors expected to spend their winnings on. Montgomery entered the Buffalo game needing five yards with four games remaining. I’m pretty sure everyone would bet their life savings on a running back averaging 1.25 yards a game for four games. They say football is a game of inches. Well, this betting game was a game of three feet!
