For the second straight week in the NFL, a player dropped the ball on purpose an instant before running into the end zone and ultimately cost his team a win.
The inexplicable blunder by Cardinals running back Emari Demercado in Sunday’s 22-21 loss to the Titans also dealt bettors a brutal bad beat and caused carnage in high-stakes Survivor contests.
Arizona, a 7½-point home favorite over Tennessee, led 21-6 in the fourth quarter when Demercado broke loose for what appeared to be a 72-yard touchdown run that would seal the victory. But a week after Colts wideout Adonai Mitchell dropped the ball before crossing the goal line in a loss to the Rams, Demercado did the same thing.
The play was ruled a fumble out of the back of the end zone for a touchback. Tennessee capitalized with a touchdown to make it 21-12 and took advantage of more miscues by the Cardinals en route to one of five Week 5 wins by underdogs who trailed by double digits.
“It’s unfathomable how plays like that can happen,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “You go from being up 28-6 and comfortably ahead to only 21-6, and you give the other team the ball back and change all the momentum in the game.”
Arizona appeared to bail out bettors when Dadrion Taylor-Demerson intercepted Cam Ward’s pass with less than five minutes left. But he fumbled the ball, which was recovered in the end zone by Titans wideout Tyler Lockett for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 21-19.
The Cardinals still had a chance to close out the game, but ran the ball on third-and-8 before punting with two minutes left. Tennessee then drove 71 yards to set up Joey Slye’s game-winning 29-yard field goal.
I won’t survive
Arizona’s meltdown eliminated 3,152 Circa Survivor entries ($1,000 each) who were in the hunt for an $18.7 million prize; 20 Circa Grandissimo entries ($100,000 each) vying for a $6.9 million prize; and 24 SuperBook Survivor ($5,000 each) contestants competing for a $555,000 prize.
“I don’t know how they lost that game. It was almost like they were trying to lose,” Westgate vice president of race and sports John Murray said. “Why those players continue to drop the ball at the goal line, I’ll never understand it. It makes no sense. The game would’ve almost surely been over there had he just not dropped the ball on purpose.
“As much as it hurt Survivor, the Cardinals got exactly what they deserved. Stupid bonehead plays and terrible coaching decisions. They deserved to lose.”
The starting Circa Survivor field of 18,718 entered Week 5 with 12,404 entries. That number was cut by more than half by the Cardinals and Rams, who knocked out 3,524 contestants when they were upset Thursday as 8-point favorites by the 49ers in a 26-23 overtime loss.
Los Angeles was poised to score a go-ahead touchdown with 1:07 left when running back Kyren Williams fumbled the ball at the 1-yard line. Williams was stopped on fourth-and-1 at the 11-yard line in overtime to end it.
Only 16 Grandissimo entries remain from a field of 69, and only 27 of 111 entries are left in SuperContest Survivor.
‘Comeback Sunday’
Week 5 underdogs went 8-5 against the spread with eight outright wins after the Patriots (+7½) stunned the Bills 23-20 on “Sunday Night Football.”
Here are the other upsets:
■ The Panthers (+1) trailed 17-0 in a 27-24 win over the Dolphins.
■ The Cowboys (+1½) crushed the Jets 37-22.
■ The Broncos (+4) trailed 17-3 in a 21-17 triumph over the Eagles.
■ The Commanders (+3) trailed 10-0 in a 27-10 victory over the Chargers.
■ The Buccaneers (+3½) trailed 35-28 in the final minutes of a 38-35 win over the Seahawks.
“It was a really good day for us. It was one of the biggest comeback Sundays I can remember in a long time,” Esposito said. “Those were all really, really good scores.”
Biff’s big day
Besides the Cowboys, the best games for the betting public were the Colts (-7), who crushed the Raiders 40-6; Lions (-9½), who beat the Bengals 37-24; and Vikings (-3½), who beat the Browns 21-17 in London on Carson Wentz’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Addison with 25 seconds left.
Caesars Sportsbook head of football Joey Feazel joked that one customer must’ve had Biff Tannen’s Grays Sports Almanac with all the winners from the movie “Back to the Future Part II.”
“One customer had a hell of a day as his loan of Biff’s Almanac came good,” Feazel said in an email.
The bettor won almost $1 million after winning wagers of $316,000 on the Vikings (-3½, -102), $300,000 on the Cowboys money line (+100) and $330,000 on the Titans (+7½).
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at [tdewey@reviewjournal.com](mailto:tdewey@reviewjournal.com). Follow [@tdewey33](https://x.com/tdewey33) on X.