Baker Mayfield, Rams Complete Insane Comeback Over Raiders

On Tuesday, Baker Mayfield played for the Carolina Panthers. On Thursday, he led the Los Angeles Rams on a 98-yard game-winning touchdown drive to defeat the Las Vegas Raiders.

It’s hard to get more improbable than what Mayfield did on “Thursday Night Football.” After entering the game as a backup, Mayfield was thrown into the fire by head coach Sean McVay after the Rams’ first offensive series. Things started out fine, but didn’t lead to many points over the first three quarters.

Entering the fourth quarter down 13-3, it looked like Los Angeles’ lost season was on track to continue. Then Mayfield did the impossible, leading a pair of touchdown drives to escape with a 17-16 victory over the Raiders. The first drive was relatively ho-hum, as the Rams stumbled down the field, chewing up clock, before finally getting into the end zone on a Cam Akers rush. The second was anything but, as Mayfield led the Rams 98 yards in 1:35 seconds. There were unnecessary roughness penalties, defensive pass interference penalties, a Ben Skowronek high-point, and a perfectly placed touchdown pass to Van Jefferson — all leading to the most improbable comeback of the NFL season.

As they usually do, this comeback had repercussions in the betting world.

The Rams (4-9) entered this matchup as seven-point underdogs to the Raiders (5-8), possessing +240 odds to take home the win. The betting public at DraftKings Sportsbook didn’t have much faith in Los Angeles, placing 81% of their moneyline bets on Las Vegas. A tough scene for those folks, who were left wondering what the heck just happened.

“Baker Mayfield just happened,” Jefferson said postgame, per Jason B. Hirschhorn of The Leap.