NFL Week 5 Heroes and Villains

Every NFL Sunday there are players who capture and break hearts across America. BetAmerica's weekly Heroes and Villains feature will highlight the players who made and lost money for NFL bettors. Let's take a look at Week 5.

Villain: Walt Anderson

Walt Anderson is by no means a household name in the NFL, but every Pittsburgh Steelers’ bettor learned how to curse his name after Sunday’s controversial call.

Entering the game as home underdogs (+3), the Steelers needed one stop to secure the win, the cover and the under. With three minutes to play on second and 8, Lamar Jackson dropped back to pass. The Ravens’ quarterback was hit by Olasunkanmi Adeniyi as he released the ball. The play looked clean, but Anderson threw a flag for roughing the passer.

Eight plays later Justin Tucker sent the game into overtime with a 48-yard field goal. A few minutes later Tucker drilled a game-winning, 46-yard kick, which gave the Ravens a win and a push against the number.

Hero: Reggie Bonnafon

Christian McCaffrey typically grabs all of the headlines, but his backup was the one who delivered a crushing blow Sunday afternoon.

Reggie Bonnafon entered the NFL as an unsigned free agent. His greatest college achievement came as a quarterback, when he led the Louisville Cardinals to a 31-28 victory at Notre Dame Stadium in 2014. Entering Saturday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he only had two carries in his NFL career. When his number was called in the fourth quarter, however, No. 39 delivered.

The 59-yard touchdown run sealed Carolina's first win over a divisional foe in 2019 and covered the 3-point spread.

Villain: Zane Gonzalez

The matchup between the winless Cardinals and Bengals should have come with a warning for viewers. An ugly affair in the rain, the script was flipped in the fourth quarter.

Favored by three points, Cincinnati bettors were prepared to trash their tickets after a Chase Edmonds 37-yard touchdown run gave Arizona a 14-point lead with just seven minutes to play. But Andy Dalton led the Bengals to consecutive touchdown drives, capped off by Tyler Boyd’s game-tying 42-yard touchdown with 1:41 to play. The Bengals could have covered in overtime, but Zane Gonzalez had different plans. He drilled a 31-yard kick as time expired—his fourth field goal of the day—to give the Cardinals their first win of the season.

Villain: Sophie Turner

The first London game of the NFL season featured a cameo from one of the world’s biggest stars. Unfortunately Sansa Stark brought her fictitious family’s bad luck to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The actress known for her roles in the X-Men and Games of Thrones franchises was clad in Chicago gear from head to toe. A public favorite—the line jumped from 4.5 to 6.5 before it closed—the Bears dropped the ball. After they trailed 17-0 at half, the Bears clawed back to take a late third-quarter lead, but it wasn’t enough for the win. The Raiders’ Josh Jacobs punched in a game-winning 2-yard touchdown with less than two minutes to play, but at least the Over hit for the Queen in the North.

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We don't know who the heroes and villains will be for Week 6 of the NFL yet, but try to catch the right side at BetAmerica!