NFL Wild Card 2018: Picks, predictions and more

Buffalo surrendered 22 rushing touchdowns this season, easily the most in the NFL.

Welcome friends! We have made it to the Wild Card round of the playoffs and while I’ve nixed the cash game article, the DraftKings GPP Guide will continue throughout the playoffs. Here we are in the wild card round, and Dareus’ Jaguars are hosting the Bills in the playoffs. They are almost matched by the Kansas City Chiefs, who face the Tennessee Titans in the weekend’s first contest. The Chiefs have the better all-around team and coach, and it will show in a never-in-doubt win.

Every division victor is a pretty significant favorite at home. While their issues haven’t been as severe as they have been for the Chargers, the Rams have had a rough time cultivating a home field advantage in their new city. With the limited number of games in the playoffs, the pool of players available is much smaller.

SAINTS -6.5 over Panthers A few weeks ago, before the Saints’ and Falcons’ second meeting of the season, I said on my radio show that the victor of that game, who would become the chalk at that time to win the NFC South, would be the NFC representative in the Super Bowl. Tennessee won a thriller at KC previous year, 19-17, but it’s hard to see this being close.

Look for all four home teams to advance, but will they all cover? The total has gone under in five of the Steelers’ last seven games in Week 16. As for the Panthers, they bounced back from a 6-10 last season, but the third time is not the charm for Carolina, as Cam Newton struggles with two turnovers. The key is to focus on Atlanta’s offense as it propels the team either to a victory or a high-scoring back-and-forth affair.

Priced at $9,700 and $10K, in DraftKings and FanDuel, respectively, Gurley should be a cornerstone of any lineup and well worth every cent during Wild Card Weekend. It all begins Saturday afternoon from Kansas City with the Chiefs as 9-point home favorites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com over the Tennessee Titans, who are in the postseason for the first time since 2008. Luke Kuechly and the Carolina defense also have something to prove after allowing 30-plus points in the previous two games against the Saints.

Falcons at Rams (-7): The Rams have a better roster, however, as we noted in our Hierarchy/Obituary earlier this week, in 2016 the Falcons played the Rams in LA, and blew them out, 42-14. The Bills are likely to try to keep the game manageable, and the Jags have been too often content to play around with their opponents, mostly because Blake Bortles always seems to be able to make the bad play on top of the good. As a result, the victor could be whichever team is able to take a lead into the second half and chew up clock with its run game. It’s happened six times overall, five of which came between 1998 and 2011. In the last 20 match-ups between teams in this situation, the two-time winners are still 13-7, and though that’s not as good as the 40-0 in the regular season, it’s still good. Both the Bills and Titans are extreme long shots with 100/1 odds.

Can the Falcons make it back to the Super Bowl?

If a wild-card team is going to make the Super Bowl, it probably won’t come out of the AFC. The NFC is wide open because of the injury to Carson Wentz. Plus, given the scripted routes that allow Goff to get the ball out quickly to running back Todd Gurley in space, the quarterback can pick up free numbers on basic throws to the flat.

Despite the discouraging odds, the National Football League postseason is usually good for a few upsets, and any wins by the road teams this weekend would qualify as such.