Notes: Lions’ backdoor cover vs. 49ers in the running for ‘Bad Beat of the Year’

While the Detroit Lions’ fight to stay in the game Sunday may have been exciting for fans, many sports bettors were likely pretty peeved.

Perhaps it’s because it just recently became legal in Michigan, but sports betting seems to be all the rage right now. Every other commercial is a sportsbook ad. So, naturally, when it comes to the Lions and their unpredictability, they’ve already made things weird for some folks.

CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan says in his opinion, the Lions’ backdoor cover Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers have already put them in the running for “Bad Beat of the Year” and it’s only Week 1.

In case you’re not a big bettor, that’s when an underdog is trailing by more than the point spread but scores virtually meaningless points late in the game to cover the spread. By “meaningless” it just means the points didn’t change the outcome of the game - the Lions didn’t win. But it’s meaningful to a sports bettor and these are often considered some of the biggest and most frustrating beats. I did a quick Twitter search and folks aren’t pleased.

The odds were against the Lions from the start, naturally. Sullivan explains that any sports bettors who had the 49ers at -9.5, the number it closed at, were feeling fine as they finished the half 31-10. Detroit was nowhere near covering.

But soon in the second half, the Lions would absolutely RALLY and score 23 second-half points, finishing 41-33. Just like that, those that took San Francisco when the spread closed at 49ers -9.5 were outta luck.

“At Caesars Sportsbook, the spread was 49ers -7.5 as recently as last Thursday. If you got your bet in prior to then, you were still able to cash. If the wager was anytime beyond that point, you either pushed or were given a humbling loss to begin the 2021 NFL season. Welcome back,” Sullivan wrote.

And onto the rest of your notes.

• The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner and Chris Burke offers his thoughts on pretty much every position’s performance, including Jared Goff: “his decision-making in the first half was too slow, too conservative, too reactionary and too costly for the Lions.” (Subscription required.)

• The real stars were in the house at Ford Field on Sunday - the LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!

• The Detroit Free Press’s Carlos Monarrez is high on the Lions running crew - could this be the run game fans have been waiting for?

• Penei Sewell makes NFL history:

• Speaking of history. Remember when Jalen Ramsey once said Matthew Stafford wasn’t “the best quarterback out there”? Apparently he’s changed his tune (I’m sure he had before this), saying last night his debut “should go down in history.”