‘Did that just happen?’ Wild Alamo Bowl bad for books as Baylor pulls off late cover

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, lover of all things bad beat, tweeted out what everybody with a Washington +10.5 ticket was thinking late in Thursday’s Alamo Bowl.

“Tragic bad beat coming,” Van Pelt tweeted.

Washington had been in control for much of the game, taking a 35-24 lead into halftime and then extending the advantage to 42-24 early in the third quarter. When Keith Price scored on an 8-yard touchdown run to put the Huskies ahead 56-53 with 9:40 left, Washington bettors felt safe — or about as safe as you can possibly feel in a game that ultimately finished with 123 points.

Baylor, of course, responded with a touchdown less than two minutes later. Then, improbably, the Bears forced a turnover on downs and took over possession at their own 40-yard line with 3 ½ minutes left.

That’s when Van Pelt got involved in a little foreshadowing, as the rest of us Huskies bettors played a fun game of, “OK, so Washington only has two timeouts, and with this amount of time left, Baylor would need just two first downs before they ice the …”

And that’s precisely when Terrance Ganaway ripped off a 43-yard TD run up the middle to give Baylor a 67-56 win — covering the spread by a measly half point as “Just kicked the dog” tweets filled up my timeline.

Dozens of my followers claimed that they smacked themselves in the face with a shoe, and one guy, I think, smacked himself in the face with an iron. Or maybe it was a soccer cleat. In any case, it was pretty bloody out there.

But as I kept telling everybody: “Hey, at least you saw history!”

Not only was this the highest-scoring bowl game in college football history, but Washington also became the first double digit dog to score 56 points and fail to cover.

More I think about it, I couldn’t be happier.

Oh, shoot. Baylor just scored again.