What a Wildcard Round we saw last week!
Just eight teams remain in the hunt for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and they will all do battle across four games this weekend.
We saw a couple of surprise upsets last week, CJ Stroud and the Texans sent the Browns home and the resurgence of Baker Mayfield with the Buccaneers ended both the Eagles’ season and the career of all time great human being Jason Kelce.
There’s four massive games this weekend including the first playoff appearances of the season for our highest seeded teams from each division, the Ravens and 49ers.
I’ve done a deep dive into the markets to see if we can get a few green ticks this weekend.
Here is my preview of the Divisional Round!
Sunday morning is when we will get our first NFL action this week.
Rookie of the Year (that’s right I’m calling it early) CJ Stroud and his very exciting Texans team will travel to Baltimore to take on MVP front runner Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens.
The early money is with Baltimore in this one, they are at $1.19 to win over Houston’s $4.75 and I truly think the Texans are not getting the respect from the bookies here that they deserve.
These teams met in Week 1 of the regular season and it was a 25-9 blow out in Baltimore’s way but look at how much the Texans have improved this year.
The massive line is what I’m really interested in. The Texans are out to +9.5 for this game and I think that a play on Houston to cover looks like my best of the weekend.
The Ravens defence has been massive of late and have a huge role in shutting out some big teams (33-19 Week 15 vs 49ers, 56-19 Week 17 vs Dolphins) but from what I’ve seen from Stroud this season, especially against the Browns defence last week is that he has it in him to make this at least close.
Will the Texans win? I don’t think so but I think they’ll be within 10 points of Baltimore.
My Bets
- Texans +9.5 @ $1.90
SGM: $4.69
- Lamar Jackson 225+ Passing Yards @ $1.75
- Zay Flowers Over 52.5 Receiving Yards @ $1.88
- Zay Flowers Anytime Touchdown @ $2.45
Jordan Love and the Packers will now attempt to upset the 49ers after putting the Cowboys to the sword in Wild Card Weekend.
Love is hands down my most improved player this year, supported by his young and exciting WR room GB have been putting massive points and yardage on teams to finish the year.
They are $4.75 underdogs in this game against San Fran and this game could be a massive shootout.
The 49ers have a million ways to slice you up, whether it’s McCaffrey, Deebo, Aiyuk or Kittle there are so many weapons on the park that give defensive coordinators headaches when it comes to figuring out how to stop this team.
A play on the Packers +9.5 looks conservative here as well.
They’ve shown in the last two months that they deserve to be here and the 49ers showed in that game against Baltimore that they are in fact beatable and Green Bay’s defence could really feast on Brock Purdy here.
I know I’ve just talked up the pass yards a heap here but I think the ground game is where my multi will be.
Aaron Jones has gone over 100 rushing yards in his last four games and we know that CMC will get his too.
My Bets
Packers +9.5 @ $1.90
SGM $6.80
- Aaron Jones 80+ Rushing Yards @ $2.15
- Christian McCaffrey 80+ Rushing Yards @ $1.44
- Brandon Aiyuk Over 68.5 Receiving Yards @ $1.88
Even as a neutral fan, you have to be proud of these two sides.
The Lions have had some big expectations on them this year but how good have the Buccaneers been?!
Baker played one of the best games of his career last week and silenced a lot of his critics (not me), leading his team to a win over the Eagles was massive and should guarantee that he is a Buccaneer for at least the next two years.
Detroit are $1.32 favourites for this one and while I’ve enjoyed Baker’s comeback I think this might be where they bow out.
The Lions have way too much fire power on both sides of the ball and I think we could see them run away with this one easily.
I’ll be taking the Lions receiving game pretty heavily in this match up.
My Bets
- Lions -6.5 @ $1.90
SGM $4.67
- Amon-Ra St Brown 75+ Receiving Yards @ $1.33
- Sam LaPorta Over 35.5 Receiving Yards @ $1.88
- Sam LaPorta Anytime Touchdown Scorer @ $2.45
For a spot in the AFC Championship game we have the biggest rivalry in the modern NFL, Josh Allen v Patrick Mahomes.
These sides seem to always end up meeting each other in the postseason and it never disappoints.
For the first time ever these two will be meeting in Buffalo for Mahomes’ first ever road play off game.
The Chiefs are $2.30 underdogs to the Bills $1.64 and I’m not willing to bet against Playoff Patty.
I’ve been saying it all season, the Chiefs just needed to get into the postseason and then they would turn it on and we saw that last week in a 26-7 dismantling of the Dolphins.
Give me Rashee Rice and Isiah Pacheco in this game, I have enjoyed the Bills this year but I think KC run away with this.
My Bets
- Chiefs H2H @ $2.30
SGM $5.69
- Isiah Pacheco 60+ Rushing Yards @ $1.68
- Rashee Rice Over 70.5 Receiving Yards @ $1.88
- Rashee Rice Anytime Touchdown @ $2.15