Justin Herbert's scoreless night made history, and it was a coup for sportsbooks
Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert made history on Monday night, and not the good kind.
Out of his 57 pass attempts against the Denver Broncos, not a single one resulted in a touchdown. According to ESPN’s Stats & Info, it’s the most pass attempts without a touchdown by a winning quarterback in NFL history.
It had to be the must frustrating thing to watch for bettors, who had good reason to believe Herbert would throw at least one touchdown. He had done so in 36 of 37 starts before Monday’s game. And so they took the bait.
At BetMGM, 65% of bets were on Herbert to throw more than 1.5 touchdowns. DraftKings boosted Herbert’s odds to throw a touchdown from -800 to +100.
If it seemed to good to be true, that’s because it was.
Justin Herbert 1+ Passing TD is being boosted from -800 to +100 @DKSportsbook tonight…
Let me say that again…
JUSTIN HERBERT 1+ PASS TD IS BEING BOOSTED FROM -800 to +100 @DKSportsbook TONIGHT pic.twitter.com/JGrRSZooSt
— br_betting (@br_betting) October 17, 2022
Justin Herbert threw 0 TD on 57 passes Monday. It's the 2nd time this season a player threw at least 57 passes and no TD (Kyler Murray).
Prior to this season it hadn't happened since 2005 (Brett Favre). pic.twitter.com/4D3YAbWJco
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 18, 2022
That is just an incredibly tough loss to swallow for anyone who jumped on those boosted odds. And there were plenty of people who did, based on social media reaction.
Some people even cried for a refund, a request without merit because, well, you didn’t have to make that bet.
The DK Herbert 1+ TD boost was a sucker bet and I am a sucker.
— Brady Fred (@Brady_Fred) October 18, 2022
There was also enough evidence to suggest Herbert could struggle to find the end zone against Denver. The Broncos had allowed just one passing touchdown since Week 2 and only three all season.