Devlin 'Duck' Hodges is the hero we need and deserve

Every NFL Sunday there are players who capture and break hearts across America. BetAmerica’s weekly Heroes and Villains feature highlights the players who made and lost money for NFL bettors.

Villain: Eddy Piñeiro

This column could exclusively dedicate itself to inconsistent kickers each week. The plague continues to spread around the NFL. This week it returned to Chicago.

Piñeiro has been persona non grata in Chicago for quite some time. At least this week he didn’t look as bad as his counterpart. The Giants’ Aldrick Rosas missed two field goals. Piñeiro buried two kicks from inside 30 yards, which gave Chicago enough juice to win, but he missed an extra point. That point was the difference, as the Bears won 19-14, but failed to cover the six-point spread.

Hero: Eastern Standard Time

It always feels good to see a cliché hold firm.

“Never trust a west coast team heading east,” certainly applied to the Oakland Raiders, who lost 34-3 to the New York Jets as 3.5-point favorites. The Seahawks (-1.5) covered in Philadelphia, but they didn’t score a lot of points in the process. Unders were the play all day on the East Coast.

In Philly the under hit with 20 points to spare, the Jets and Raiders were eight points away from the total, the Broncos only scored three points in Buffalo for the under to hit by two scores and in New England the rain stalled each offense and came in 22 points under the total.

Villain: Jeff Driskel

The Lions, favored by four points, had multiple chances in the fourth quarter to get a victory over the one-win Redskins. Driskel eliminated those chances with two of his three interceptions in the final period, one of which set up Dwayne Haskins’ first game-winning drive with less than a minute to play.

Without Matt Stafford, Detroit is up a creek without a paddle. Do the right thing and plan your Thanksgiving nap around the Lions’ game Thursday afternoon.

Hero: Devlin “Duck” Hodges

In a duel between backup quarterbacks, the backup’s backup saved the day. The winless Bengals are in the process of locking up the No. 1 pick, but they’ve hung tough in most of their games. The six-point underdogs actually had a four-point lead at halftime, thanks to a Tyler Boyd touchdown reception.

Uninspired by Mason Rudolph’s play, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin called in Hodges. The gunslinger from Samford ripped a 79-yard touchdown to James Washington and provided the spark the Steelers needed.