We did it folks! We beat Covid! It’s an absolute miracle, no NFL players will test positive the rest of the year!
Anyway,
Bengals (-5.5) vs Raiders: The first wildcard game is usually a dud, because it usually involves like the texans or…uh…the bengals, but this year the game is at least somewhat interesting! The raiders just barely made the playoffs by winning a bunch of close/overtime games this year, while the bengals somehow were the only afc north team to not completely shit themselves this year. The strain of all the extra play/shit that happened off the field for the raiders finally catches up to them as they can’t stop the bengals offense. Bengals win and cover (i kinda like the over 48.5 here)
Bills (-4.5) vs Patriots: Mac Jones has not looked great the last few weeks, and their win earlier in the year over the Bills was more due to shit weather than anything else (and people act like that game was a blowout for some reason). McCorkle has also gone on record that he doesn’t like playing in the cold, so, have fun. The pats won’t be able to just run the ball here, and josh allen and the bills defense will do enough to win comfortably. Bills win and cover. (i kinda like the under 44 here)
Eagles (+8.5) vs Bucs: Eagles lost to the Bucs by 6 (back door cover) earlier in the year when they were considerably worse, and the Bucs were considerably better. Eagles only real chance to win is to control the game with the run and hit brady, which has basically been the blueprint to beat any shitass bardy team ever. the eagles have the tools to do so, but they also have literally no answer for gronk, and their pass defense has been mostly atrocious. game is closer than people think but the refs bail out shitass at some point with a questionable roughing the passer penalty. Bucs win, eagles with the points.
Cowboys (-3) vs. 49ers: only McCarthy can screw this up for the cowboys. Jimmy G is banged up, and the 49ers offense is limited to kittle and samuel against parsons and diggs. Cowboys are still fresh from playing their starters in the last week of the year and are a little healthier. surprisingly, the cowboys ended the year as the #1 team in DVOA, having a top 10 team on both offense and defense. i would like the line better if it was still at the original -3.5, but the cowboys are simply the better team playing at home. Cowboys win and cover.
Chiefs (-12.5) over Steelers: this is apparently the largest spread in wildcard round history, and the previous three teams that were favored by 11 or more all won and covered. Put simply, when a shit team (the Steelers) goes against a good team (the chiefs) early in the playoffs, it ain’t pretty. The chiefs just beat the Steelers a few weeks ago by 26. Big Ben sucks. The chiefs will pull ahead early and coast. Chiefs win and cover.
Rams (-3.5) over cardinals: late season collapses continues for kingsbury. cards did not look great playing their starters against the bad seahawks last week. rams defense is too talented, even if their offense is pedestrian; the cardinals defense will have problems with cupp, obj, et all. Rams win and cover.
this is a fairly chalk group of picks by me, but whatever
edit: copy/paste missed a game