Falcons-Packers total is highest ever for an NFL playoff game
A week after the Patriots covered one of the largest point spreads in NFL postseason history, the Falcons and Packers are expected to light up the scoreboard in an NFC Championship game featuring what is believed to be the highest playoff total ever.
The total is as high as 61½ points at Las Vegas sports books, which have taken a beating in the NFL playoffs as the public is 8-0 on sides and 5-3 on totals. Including the college football national title game, the public is 9-0 and 6-3.
“We’re tired of rooting for unders,” Red Rock Resort sports book director Jason McCormick said. “Even 61 was a shocker to me. I thought 57 or 58 or something like that would be as high as it would go.”
The highest previous total for an NFL playoff game was 60 in 2012, when the Saints whipped the Lions 45-28. The highest total for a regular-season game was 63 in 2000, when the Rams beat the 49ers 34-24.
“I don’t ever remember posting an NFL total that high, especially in the playoffs,” Westgate sports book director Jay Kornegay said. “No matter who’s in there, it looks like it will be one of the highest totals ever for a Super Bowl.”
Once the Cowboys and Chiefs were eliminated from the playoffs Sunday, the total on Super Bowl LI climbed to 54½ at the Westgate and 54 at Station Casinos as both books increased the number by 3½ points.
“From a totals standpoint, it’s becoming a much more popular bet,” McCormick said. “I don’t know what it is about today’s NFL, but the totals are so much more than they’ve been in years past.
“The books are looking for more unders because the public tends to throw their overs in their parlays.”
The over is 14-2-1 in Falcons games this season and the Packers have gone over in their last six games and 10 of 12. Atlanta beat Green Bay 33-32 in Week 8 at the Georgia Dome and the books expect a similar result on championship Sunday.
“These teams have shown they can go up and down the field,” McCormick said. “(Aaron) Rodgers is as sharp as he’s ever been his entire career and the Falcons are just nonstop, spread five wide and go, go, go and attack, attack.”
The total is 51½ for the AFC title game between New England and Pittsburgh.
“Even the Patriots-Steelers total is a lot of points for two good defensive teams,” McCormick said. “But you have (quarterbacks Tom) Brady and (Ben) Roethlisberger going head to head and back and forth.”
GO, GRANNY, GO
Grandma’s parlay. That’s what McCormick calls a favorite-and-over two-teamer, which has hit on four of the eight playoff games and buried bookmakers this season.
“It’s just been that kind of run in the NFL this year,” he said. “I haven’t seen a run like this in my 20 years in the business. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Neither has Treasure Island sports book director Tony Nevill, who has worked in the industry since the early 1980s.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen,” he said. “I’m envisioning everybody to go over and over (Sunday) and then pick a team. The trends have been so strong this year. The parlays have been hitting like crazy and this weekend was the same thing.”
On another black Sunday for the books, William Hill reported losses of more than $1 million for the second time in seven days in what it tweeted was the “Biggest day ever for our customers!”
Kornegay joked on Twitter that he “may have to start charging for golf pencils.”
FALCONS AT 100-1
Shortly before the season started, the Falcons were 100-1 at the Westgate to win the Super Bowl and Kornegay said one bettor has a $1,000 ticket on Atlanta to win $100,000.
“We’d still do really well with them winning,” he said. “Because no one bets the Falcons.”
They do now.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
