With the college football season coming to a close, the Mississippi State-Illinois ReliaQuest Bowl handed bettors one last bad beat to send the college football season off with a bang. Anyone still watching the game on its final play was left with one question: what just happened?
All-time great cover by Mississippi State (-3). pic.twitter.com/gvdgPjKJRY
— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) January 2, 2023
Mississippi State Hands Bettors Bad Beat in ReliaQuest Bowl
The Mississippi State Bulldogs hit a go-ahead field goal with less than five seconds remaining to bring the score to 13-10. That left the Illinois Fighting Illini to try a last-ditch lateral play to pull off a miracle. The play actually looked pretty successful for a while. Speedy receiver Isaiah Williams got the ball in his hands and picked up yards down the sidelines. After a few more laterals, quarterback Tommy DeVito got the ball back.
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DeVito tried to lateral back to Williams, but Bulldog defenders converged on him, and the ball ended up in the hands of Mississippi State defensive back Marcus Banks. Instead of just going down to end the game, Banks decided to run it 60 yards the other way to score Mississippi State a nine-point win. Mississippi State closed as a 3.5-point favorite over Illinois, per DraftKings Sportsbook.
Tempers flared after Banks opted to take it the distance, but cooler head eventually prevailed and both teams went back to their respective locker rooms without too much of a confrontation.
Mississippi State bettors scored one of the greatest covers of the season. Only Max Duggan’s fourth-down hail mary against West Virginia truly compares to the absurd ending of this year’s ReliaQuest Bowl. Illinois backers, like those who ed West Virginia, might want to take a break from the sports betting game for a while after such a bad beat.
Monday’s win proved an emotional victory for Mississippi State in their first game since the ing of their legendary head coach, Mike Leach.
“I definitely wanted to win this game for coach. I think we all did,” quarterback Will Rogers said after the game, per Yahoo Sports. “If we came out here and lost the game, I don’t think coach would have been too happy with us.”
Mississippi State will this particular win for a long time, and bettors will certainly Marcus Banks‘ decision on the final play of this year’s ReliaQuest Bowl.
