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They’re not supposed to be here.
After all, the Houston Texans were a +650 bet to just make the playoffs at in the preseason, the second-highest odds on the board behind the +1000 Arizona Cardinals. Houston was coming off a 3-13 campaign, had its fifth head coach in four seasons and was starting a rookie quarterback behind center. The Texans’ odds to win the Super Bowl in August were a laughable +20000.
So, no, the Texans are not supposed to be here, certainly not in the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs — where the dynamic young team visits the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens for the right to reach the AFC Championship Game. The Texans remain a long shot — their +3300 odds of winning the Super Bowl are tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for last among the eight remaining teams in the Super Bowl odds — but they’re now just three wins away from engineering one of the biggest upsets in NFL history.
Check that — make that the biggest upset in NFL history. No champion has claimed the title with higher preseason odds on the Super Bowl betting sites than the Texans, according to Sports Odds History. Their season win total was just 5.5 on the NFL betting apps, a figure they shattered with a 10-7 campaign that continued last week with a wild-card rout of the favored Browns.
So, what type of company would the Texans join should they win it all? Here are the five biggest long shots ever to win the Super Bowl.
The “Greatest Show on Turf” was born out of 4-12 season in 1998, the Rams’ worst since relocating to St. Louis. No wonder, then, their odds of winning the Super Bowl the following year were tied for fourth-highest in the league. But the Rams had suffered six losses by a touchdown or less, and had a roster sprinkled with the likes of Kurt Warner, Ricky Proehl, Orlando Pace and Todd Lyght. They added Mike Martz as offensive coordinator, traded for Marshall Faulk, drafted Torry Holt — and the rest is history.
Tom Brady’s New England career began with similarly low expectations, after the Patriots went 5-11 in his rookie campaign of 2000. Twenty-four NFL teams began the 2001 season with better Super Bowl odds than the Patriots, who seemed in real trouble when starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe was lost with an injury. In came Brady, who went 14-3 the rest of the way and claimed his first Lombardi Trophy. The legend was born.
Everybody remembers “the Catch,” the Dwight Clark grab that won the NFC title over the Cowboys. Nobody remembers the 6-10 mark of the previous season, when coach Bill Walsh replaced Steve DeBerg with second-year quarterback Joe Montana. The 49ers failed to make the playoffs for an eighth consecutive year, and in 1981 it looked like more of the same when the 49ers dropped two of three to start the season. But then they won 12 of their last 13, unleashing a juggernaut that would dominate the NFC.
In the summer of 2017, it had been nearly a decade since the Eagles had won a playoff game, much less contended for a Super Bowl berth. The previous year they had finished 7-9, losing 11 of their last 14. But things were immediately different once the 2017 campaign began, and head coach Doug Pedersen’s team won 10 of its first 11. In March, the Eagles had signed backup quarterback Nick Foles — a move that proved fortuitous after starter Carson Wentz tore his ACL late in the regular season. A Philly special, indeed.
Washington had missed the playoffs for five straight seasons entering the 1982 campaign but had also been stocking up on talent like Russ Grimm, Dexter Manley and Charlie Brown. Washington went 8-1 in a strike-shortened year and dominated the playoffs by an average of 19 points per game. In 1980, the Raiders were coming off two straight years of missing the playoffs. Jim Plunkett replaced Dan Pastorini as quarterback in the second game of the season, and the Raiders just won, baby.
Are the Texans next? No matter who makes the big game, look for Super Bowl betting promos that will offer new users bonus bets they can then use to wager on the NFL title clash, in addition to Super Bowl prop bets by the dozen.
But details of how to bet on the Super Bowl can wait a few weeks. This weekend means the divisional round and the Texans traveling to Baltimore — where they’ll try to take another step toward the most unlikely title in NFL history.
There are plenty of sportsbook promo codes available to help new customers get a piece of the NFL’s ultimate underdog through bonus bets and other first-bet offers. Check them out below, but remember bettors must be at least 21 and physically within a state with legal mobile betting to participate.
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