The Sweep, October 25 — The Public Was on the Giants and Got Paid, Circa Loses 615 Entries, the 49ers Lose for the First Time, and Jokic Disinvites the Booers

Sunday, October 25. The Giants won 27-21 in overtime in Houston as 10.5-point underdogs, and the betting public was on them. Covers reported on Friday that the Giants had 78 percent of spread bets and 89 percent of spread handle at DraftKings, and 76 percent of bets at BetMGM, where they were the most-bet moneyline underdog at +360. Despite all that, the line went the other way: Houston opened -9.5 and closed -10.5. Making his first Giants start, J.J. McCarthy went 20 of 28 for 252 yards. Cam Skattebo, who did not touch the ball in Week 6, ran for 124, and former Texan Devin Singletary ended it with a 30-yard run on a three-play, 81-yard overtime drive. New York outgained Houston 420 to 237 and goes into the bye at 4-2-1. The line moved against 89 percent of the money and the public won outright. That is one result. It is not evidence that the public was sharp, but it is the week books will remember when the public wants the dog again.

Sunday, October 25. The Texans were also the second-most popular pick in Circa Survivor, and 303 entries went out with them. The Dolphins' win over the Jets eliminated 256 more and Tampa Bay's rout of Carolina another 54. Covers counts 615 of the 1,275 entries that started the week now gone. In the Grandissimo, Singletary's touchdown cut the field from six to three. Survivor pickers backed Houston to win, and the spread bettors backed the Giants to cover, which is not a contradiction. A -520 favourite still loses about one week in six, and this was that week. Week 6 took out about half the field, and Week 7 took out nearly half of what was left.

Sunday, October 25. Miami 28, Jets 25, the Dolphins' first win of the season, which drops the Jets to 2-5. In the fourth quarter CBS cameras caught Garrett Wilson yelling on the bench in Geno Smith's direction. "I don't even think I was talking to Geno," Wilson said afterward. "I think we were both heated, but not at each other at all." Smith said: "He might have been yelling, but I don't think he was yelling at me." ESPN says the target appeared to be passing-game coordinator Seth Ryan, sitting next to Smith, and that the two players talked quietly in the locker room afterward. Wilson said they were working through red-zone play calls and were both frustrated. A 2-5 team arguing about red-zone calls on the bench has a bigger problem than which way the receiver was facing.

Sunday, October 25. Falcons 29, 49ers 20. San Francisco is no longer unbeaten: four turnovers, no takeaways, an 11-point lead given away and a fourth missed extra point of the season for Eddy Pineiro. "Anytime you have four turnovers like that and you get zero, it's real tough to win," Kyle Shanahan said. Fred Warner: "Unfortunately, we're not going undefeated this year." Six days ago we wrote about the 49ers as Super Bowl favourites at +580. Friday's Covers splits had 79 percent of DraftKings spread bets on San Francisco -2.5 and 55 percent of the money on Atlanta. The money beat the tickets in two games in one afternoon.

Saturday, October 24. The Nuggets trailed the Pelicans by 23 in their home opener, were booed in the first half, trailed 73-57 at the break, and won 141-135 in overtime. Nikola Jokic had 35, 15 and 10 and Jamal Murray had 42. Then Jokic said: "We got booed at our first home game, and I think those fans who booed us, they don't need to come anymore. … So if they ask me, they are not welcome anymore." Denver was missing Cam Johnson, Alpha Diallo, Julian Strawther and Spencer Jones. Jokic has earned the right to be annoyed. Telling ticket buyers to stay home is still a line the front office will not repeat, and ESPN's report carried no comment from the team.

Saturday, October 24. Jaylen Brown scored 27 in Philadelphia's 127-116 win over Milwaukee to go 3-0, then said there was no beef with Jayson Tatum, "but there might be a little lamb chops and some gravy." He said Tatum has a "hell of a PR team." The dispute began with a blue-hat emoji Brown posted under a Tatum video in which Tatum said the trade surprised him. On Friday Tatum said "drama gets clicks and views." That is true, and Brown is making sure of it.

Sunday, October 25. The NFL and NFLPA said they are jointly reviewing how Jalen Hurts' blood clot was handled. Hurts took a cleat to the calf against the Rams on October 4, told the medical staff on October 8, flew to London, and was diagnosed there with a superficial vein thrombosis before playing the Jaguars on October 11. The Eagles later announced deep vein thrombosis and bilateral pulmonary emboli. He is on injured reserve, on blood thinners and expected to miss the season. On Wednesday Roger Goodell called the protocols "incredibly good." Four days later the league agreed to review them, which is the more honest assessment.

Thursday, October 22. In the federal gambling case in Brooklyn, Terry Rozier's lawyers filed a text they say they recently found, sent by co-defendant Deniro Laster on March 29, 2023: "Don't tell chum bout the bet." The defence says "chum" is Rozier and that the message, sent six days after the game at issue, shows he did not know about the scheme. Both sides have asked Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall for separate trials, and prosecutors oppose it. Trial is set for February 8, 2027. A text from a co-defendant is evidence. It is not yet an acquittal, and we will treat it as neither.

Thursday, October 22. Three New Orleans bettors filed a class action against FanDuel, DraftKings and two casino licensees, alleging the apps are defectively designed. Our lead argues the "product" claim faces a statute Louisiana declined to amend last year, and that the refund claim is the dangerous one. Elsewhere today: why the Brewers' -750 is fair and "Brewers in five" is not, and the Miami gap between the exchanges and FanDuel.

What we are not running, and why

"Malik Beasley pleads guilty." Friday's docket notice and the request to schedule a change-of-plea hearing were in yesterday's Sweep. When we searched for an update on Sunday, the "Beasley pleads guilty" results were all from his 2020 case in Minnesota. Until a plea is entered in Brooklyn, there is no new item.

"Kalshi and Polymarket set a $2.7 billion weekly crypto-volume record." The figure comes from one aggregator citing TradingView data, and we could not check it against either exchange's own numbers. It is also about Bitcoin contracts, not sports.

Prediction-market odds on Brazil's presidential runoff. We saw the prices only in a search-engine summary, and it is not a sports story.

Chiefs-Seahawks. Sunday Night Football was still in progress when we went to press. A score we have not seen does not go in this column.

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