The National Football League wrapped up its regular season on Sunday and now there are 12 teams left with a chance to win the Super Bowl while the other 20 teams get ready for the draft.
With college football also done the NFL will take over all of next weekend. There will be two games on Saturday, three games on Sunday and things wrap up with a Monday night game.
Here’s the schedule. Wild card weekend or Super wild card weekend as I heard it referred to starts with the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Seattle Seahawks. Fox is televising this game and it has a 3:30 p.m. start time. The second game on Saturday has the Los Angeles Chargers visiting the Jacksonville Jaquars. This game will be on NBC and has a start time of 7:15 p.m. On Sunday the playoffs kickoff with the Buffalo Bills hosting the Miami Dolphins. CBS will be showing this game and it has a scheduled start time of Noon. The second game on Sunday has the Minnesota Vikings hosting the New York Giants. This game is on Fox and has a scheduled 3:30 p.m. start time. The final Sunday game is on NBC, and it features the Cincinnati Bengals hosting the Baltimore ravens and the listed start time is 7:15 p.m. Just like during the season ESPN will be showing the Monday night playoff game, but I believe that the game will also be shown on ABC. On Monday the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be hosting the Dallas Cowboys and the game is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m.
I decided that I’ll make my picks for the Saturday games now, but I’m going to wait and pick the remaining games in the Sunday blog. I must warn you that I am terrible at picking games and you’re much better off following someone else’s advice if you’re going to bet on the games.
I believe that San Francisco will beat Seattle in the playoff opener on Saturday, but I’m not sold that the 49ers will be able to cover the spread which is currently 10 points. That’s a big number for a playoff game and these are two teams that like to run the football, so that make keep scoring down a little and make the game closer. So, I’m going with San Francisco to win the game, but Seattle to cover the spread.
In the Saturday nightcap the Chargers are currently favored by 1 point against Jacksonville. this is a tough game to pick since I haven’t gotten to see much of the Chargers this season. This is Jacksonville’s first time in the playoffs since 2017 and I don’t think that any of the players from that team are currently on the Jaguars. I do think that the Chargers are going to win this game and one point isn’t very much to give, so I’m going to take the Chargers not only to win, but to cover.
Okay just to recap I have San Francisco and Los Angeles winning the Saturday games straight up. With the point spread I’m taking Seattle and the 10 points, but I’ll give the point and take the Chargers in the second game.
As I like to do let me know who you’re taking not only to win the game, but with the spread.
Going into Sunday’s games there are some quarterback questions that need to be answer before making picks. It’s currently unclear if Tua Tagovailoa is going to play for the Dolphins and we’re also waiting on work if Lamar Jackson will play for the Ravens this coming weekend.
No one is really sure what will happen with either quarterback, but most people seem to believe that Jackson will play against Cincinnati. In Tagovailoa’s case most people seem to think that he won’t be playing against the Bills this coming weekend, but there’s still some time and will have to wait and see what happens officially with both players.
Both of these quarterbacks’ health could have a big impact on if their teams can get past the wild card round. It’s shown that Miami is a much better team with Tagovailoa under center than with either Teddy Bridgewater or Skylar Thompson at quarterback. The same can be said about Baltimore being better with Jackson at quarterback than Tyler Huntley or Anthony Brown however Huntley did go 2-2 in his four starts this season. The Dolphins on the other hand went 1-3 in games not started by Tagovailoa.
Don’t forget to leave me your picks for the Saturday games and as always remember to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.
I’m not all that interested in the Saturday games but I think both of your bets are spot on.
Things will get a lot more exciting with the Sunday battles.
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