Do you want to brighten up a Sunday?
Try placing one of the largest bets ever reported on an NFL regular season game. Then watch as your pick, an overwhelming favorite, falls close to home in the final moments of the fourth quarter.
That was the experience of one Kentucky bettor, who gambled $3.1 million on the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the lowly Carolina Panthers at Circa Sports. reported by ESPN. At -700 odds, this person could win approximately $442,800 on the moneyline with an Eagles victory.
But despite being a 12.5-point underdog at FanDuel, the Panthers played more like a team with playoff seeding on the line.
A rejuvenated Bryce Young bravely moved the Panthers into Eagles territory on the final drive. He completed a 13-yard pass on fourth down that took the ball to the 38, and a second-down pass to Xavier Legette gave the Eagles — and the unnamed punter — a brief scare when the receiver finally appeared to clear the ball to have. zone.
He didn’t. Young dodged a pass rush on fourth down, but his final attempt was incomplete, resulting in a 22–16 win for Philadelphia.
Xavier Legette fails to catch a long pass for Eagles safety CJ Gardner-Johnson
Legette gave the Eagles a scare when the receiver appeared to have the ball in the end zone
“The gambler lost years of his life,” ESPN joked after the game against X, “but he cashed in.”
“The friend’s life flashed before his eyes when Bryce threw that pass to Legette,” one commenter added.
Another commentator had a similar thought: “That deep ball from Legette made his heart skip a beat.”
Luckily for the punter, the Eagles have Saquon Barkley, who rushed for 124 yards to break the Eagles’ season rushing record on Sunday. Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score as Philadelphia won its ninth straight game over the struggling Panthers.
The Eagles (11-2) maintained their position as the No. 2 team in the NFC, behind Detroit (12-1), after a mostly lethargic effort against the Panthers (3-10).
Barkley added another milestone to his MVP push when he used a 9-yard run in the fourth quarter to surpass LeSean McCoy’s 2013 Eagles record of 1,607 yards. Barkley now has 1,623 yards with four games remaining.
Hurts’ passing numbers were a pedestrian 14 of 21 for 108 yards. He hit Grant Calcaterra on a four-yard TD pass and Barkley ran in the 2-point conversion for a 22-16 lead early in the fourth.
Young finished 19 of 34 for 191 yards.
Chuba Hubbard, who topped 1,000 yards rushing on the season, made it 16-14 in the third quarter on a 1-yard run. Eddy Pineiro, who made a 38-yard field goal in the first quarter, missed the extra point.
Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was previously examined for a concussion, changed the game late in the second quarter when he picked off Young’s deep pass at Philadelphia’s 41. Hurts scrambled 15 yards on the next drive and capped it off with a 4-yard TD pass to DeVonta Smith for a 14-10 lead.