Here's something that feels unusual to type: There has been a power blackout delay in Super Bowl history yet never a punt return touchdown or a team being shut out. Could one or both happen in Sunday's Super Bowl 55 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Either would pay out huge as a long-shot prop bet at William Hill Sportsbook. The Chiefs remain 3-point favorites.
Punt return touchdowns are even rarer than a safety in the NFL. While around half the teams in the 2020 regular season had a safety, just eight players had a punt return touchdown: Kansas City's Mecole Hardman, Denver's Diontae Spencer, Philadelphia's Jalen Reagor, New England's Gunner Olszewski, Buffalo's Isaiah McKenzie, Miami's Jakeem Grant, Jacksonville's Keelan Cole and Detroit's Jamal Agnew.
Hardman is given an Over/Under of 7.5 yards for his longest punt return Sunday. The Over/Under for total punts in the game is 6.5 with the Bucs are -135 favorites to punt first and -140 to have the most punts overall.
A total of 10 players have returned kickoff returns for touchdowns in Super Bowl history, most recently Seattle's Percy Harvin in a SB 48 blowout of Denver, but no one has managed the punt return TD trick yet. The longest punt return in Super Bowl history was 61 yards by Denver's Jordan Norwood in the Broncos' Super Bowl 50 upset of Carolina; Norwood was tackled around the Panthers' 15.
Because a punt return TD is so unlikely, William Hill instead is offering a prop that there will be a kickoff OR punt return touchdown with yes at +900 and no at -1800. Interestingly, yes has taken the third-most action in terms of tickets sold of all the Super Bowl 55 general props at the book, behind only yes at +370 that both teams will score in every quarter, and that the opening coin toss will be tails at -105. The kickoff/punt return prop has garnered more tickets sold than even the coin toss being heads (-105).
As for a team being shut out, the fewest points scored in a Super Bowl is three: By the Dolphins in a 24-3 loss to the Cowboys in SB 6 and by the Rams in a 13-3 loss to Tom Brady's Patriots in SB 53 two years ago. That was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever and was Brady's last in a New England uniform.
A Brady-led team hasn't been shut out since New England lost 21-0 loss at Miami on Dec. 10, 2006. The Patriots did lose 16-0 at home to Buffalo in Week 4 of the 2016 season, but Brady was out due to his Deflategate suspension. He has never been blanked in the playoffs. Counterpart Patrick Mahomes has never been held to zero points in his career.
Because a shutout is so unlikely that's not an individual prop at William Hill. Instead, the Chiefs scoring exactly zero points is priced at +50000 and the Bucs being blanked at +40000.
Which Super Bowl prop bets are a must-bet? And which prop pays a colossal 7-1? Join SportsLine now to see the top Super Bowl 55 prop bets, all from the model that's up almost $7,900 on top-rated NFL picks.
