NFL Wild Card Weekend: Betting Odds, Predictions and Picks

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The 17-week NFL regular season has come to a close. Although it was just a few months ago that fans of every team were filled with optimism about the 2016 season — or optimistic pessimism in the case of Browns fans whose team secured the hoped-for top pick in the draft — only 12 teams now remain in contention.

They’ll play out the remaining games in the familiar single-elimination playoff format, starting with this weekend’s Wild Card round. That will see the top two teams in each conference sit on the sidelines while the lower-seeded teams battle it out for the right to hit the road on for the Divisional Round next week.

Here, we’ll look over the betting odds and matchups for the four Wild Card games and try to pick out some bets that might bear fruit for those looking to get a monetary sweat on the games.

Saturday, Jan. 7 Oakland Raiders at Houston Texans (-3.5) — O/U 37

A battle of two bad QBs will commence in Houston when Connor Cook, a rookie with all of 21 NFL passes under his belt, leads the Raiders against the Texans and Brock Osweiler, who was benched in favor of a QB who didn’t throw a pass last season.

These teams actually already met this season, on Nov. 21 in Mexico City. The Raiders beat the Texans 27-20 on the neutral field but are now decent-sized underdogs on the road. That’s likely because the loss of star QB Derek Carr is rightly seen as much more difficult to overcome than the loss of a former fourth-round no-namer in Tom Savage. Further driving public perception to the Texans is Oakland’s horrific showing against Denver in Week 17. In their first game without Carr, the Raiders put up a pathetic 4.4 yards per play.

However, keep in mind that game came against the top-rated defense in the NFL. The Broncos also grabbed an early lead that forced Oakland to pass. That’s probably not going to be the case in a game with a total of 37 here. Oakland has a decent running game, rated 15th overall and gaining 4.4 yards per rush, and they’ll need to utilize their stable of backs and excellent offensive line to keep Cook out of trouble. The Texans have Jadeveon Clowney, who has been a monster on the defensive line, and solid corners, so minimizing their impact will be key.

Osweiler led the Texans to a piddling 5.6 YPP in their November loss to Oakland. The Raiders defense has been a punching bag for much of the season but improved from historically awful to just pretty bad by year’s end. Further muddying things for Houston is the status of Lamar Miller, the RB who has been their best offensive weapon. He’s going to play, but how healthy is he?

Best Bet: Raiders +3.5

Detroit Lions at Seattle Seahawks (-8) — O/U 42.5

The Lions stumbled into the playoffs at 9-7 after dropping their last three games, all by decisive margins, causing them to fall to the sixth seed for a road date with the …

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