The playoff hunt is now officially in high gear, and races are tightening up in both conferences. There’s a massive matchup in the NFC East, while the Jaguars may have to protect their slim lead without their starting quarterback. And for whatever reason, there are two Monday night games.
This week’s games; all lines taken from Draft Kings:
Cowboys/Eagles is the obvious headliner game, and the Eagles are once again the underdogs. The Bucs at 5-7 are just a game behind the 6-6 Falcons in the rugged NFC South. There are 4 7-5 teams in the AFC and 3 more at 6-6. Trevor Lawrence may or may not play in Cleveland, and Von Miller has been cleared to play in Arrowhead. The Chiefs line opened at -3.5 and is now down to -1.5 and may get even closer by kickoff. Steelers-Pats over/under is 30, which is the lowest o/u in 30 years. In the last 3 games, Patriots have scored 6, 7, and 0, while the Steelers have scored 10, 16, and 10. Kenny Pickett is officially out, so Mitch Trubisky will be under center for Pittsburgh. One more reason to bet the under, perhaps?
Every game this weekend has playoff implications; which ones will you be watching? Got any slam-dunk bets that you’d care to share with the rest of us suckers? Let’s hear from you!
When the Colts lost Anthony Richardson for the season, I thought we were toast. At that point, it was “tank for Marvin Harrison Jr.” level. The fact that we’re in the playoff race this late in the season is a pleasant surprise.
I have this unpleasant feeling the Bears are going to upset the Lions this week.
I’ll be pulling for the Pats to upset the Steelers in a competition between two dismal offenses. It would be funny if Belichick finds the magic one time just to needle their old rival.
Seems like only so very recently ago when Patriots vs. Steelers would have been the marquee matchup for the weekend, probably on Sunday Night Football, possibly with the two teams being No. 1 and No. 2 in the AFC. How the mighty have fallen…
Game four of the Packers Revenge Tour goes to the Meadowlands on Monday. Can Green Bay continue their hot streak and move one step closer to the playoffs?
Vegas, the money, and my gut all say yes. So Packers lose by a couple touchdowns.
Two weeks after benching QB Zach Wilson, and demoting him to third string, and a day after Aaron Rodgers came to Wilson’s defense over media leaks suggesting that Wilson didn’t want to return to play for the Jets, coach Robert Salah has once again named Wilson the team’s starter for this weekend’s game.
For the past two weeks, Tim Boyle had started for the team, and played ineffectually; the Jets cut him yesterday. Trevor Siemien had replaced Boyle during last week’s game, but he, too, played poorly.
Steelers are now 7-6, and almost certainly will need 3 wins to make the playoffs. Their remaining schedule includes the Colts, Bengals, Seahawks, and Ravens. Gonna be tough to win 3 of those games.
Backups galore, mostly matched against each other:
Patriots @ Steelers
Colts @ Bengals
Jaguars(?) @ Browns
Vikings @ Raiders
Will Hurts play Hurt? Gotta go with Dallas; home, strong momentum, banged up Eagles on a losing streak. Therefore - time for a Cowboy swoon. I will not touch this game even just wagering internet bucks.
Rams streak get stopped by the Ravens.
Seahawks should cover the spread.
I’m going with the Bucs and Atlanta being a tie. Seem to be having a few in recent memory.
Vocabulary defines streak, in this sense, as ‘an unbroken series of events’. I don’t think that one of anything is a series. Would anyone refer to the Patriots as now being on a winning streak?
For anyone who has not been watching Patriots games lately, that was a shockingly good performance from them, particularly since they were without their two best remaining offensive players in LT Trent Brown and RB Rhamondre Stevenson. The offense looked … decent! … for the first half. It’s sad that one half of decent football is such a glaring improvement, but there it is! The second half was dismal offensively (again), but the defense continues to do a great job for the most part, despite missing key players like Matthew Judon, and kept the Steelers from coming back.
Special teams continues to be a weakness, despite the fact that Belichick emphasizes it so much. No improvement there last night.
If they can build on this, then maybe they’ll only lose 45-17 to the Chiefs next week instead of 56-3!
I suspect it’ll be another low scoring affair. Probably 24-9 or something like that. Both teams’ strength is currently their D, though having Patrick Mahomes means the KC offense can never be that bad.
Basically, betting the under might a good idea even if the Steelers and Patriots somehow managed to score more than 30 between them last night
Arrrgghh, my bad on a streak. I was thinking more along the line of a string of really close games they should have been more dominant. A win is a win though.
