The road teams ruled the wild card round. Home teams came back with a vengeance in the divisionals.
It was a four-game sweep, with Tony and John hitting them all.
Anthony hit three of four. Andy foolishly thought the road dominance would continue. He was 1-3. Here are the standings:
| Last week | Playoffs | |
| John Vomhof Jr | 4-0 | 7-1 |
| Tony | 4-0 | 6-2 |
| Maggio | 3-1 | 6-2 |
| Andy | 1-3 | 5-3 |
And here’s who we think is winning this weekend: (more…)
The wild card weekend home teams fall out of the running. We’re down to eight.
John Vomhof Jr. again attempts to break down the rankings of the rest of the best. Let us know if you agree or disagree.
| Prior Rank | Team | Record | Comments |
| 1 | Carolina Panthers | 15-1 | Cam Newton and the Panthers enjoyed a first-round bye after turning in a near-perfect regular season. They’re still the team to beat this postseason, but the Seahawks are an awfully tough draw. |
| 2 | Seattle Seahawks | 10-6 | The Seahawks barely advanced out of the Wild Card round, but they’ll need more than an Angels in the Outfield-style miracle to get past the Panthers. Still, they’ve been to back-to-back Super Bowls, and they ended the regular season red-hot. |
| 4 | Arizona Cardinals | 13-3 | The Cardinals won nine straight before dropping the season finale to Seattle, and now they draw a mediocre Packers squad. Carson Palmer and the Cards pounded the Packers 38-8 last time around, and it could be more of the same this time around. |
| 3 | New England Patriots | 12-4 | Although the Patriots limped into the postseason, it’s really hard to bet against Belichick and Brady at this time of the year. Kansas City will be a tough test, but the Pats should be able to sneak by. |
| 5 | Denver Broncos | 12-4 | Denver’s defense is capable of carrying this club deep into the postseason, and they lucked out by drawing a battered Steelers team this week. The only question is whether Peyton Manning can hold up. |
| 6 | Kansas City Chiefs | 11-5 | The Chiefs are the NFL’s hottest team, winning 11 straight games, including last week’s Wild Card romp of the Texans. They should be able to give the struggling Pats a run for their money. |
| 12 | Green Bay Packers | 10-6 | The Packers beat up on the Redskins last week, but they’ll have to play even better to get past Arizona. I’m not sure they have it in them this year. |
| 7 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 10-6 | Unfortunately, the Steelers are just a shell of themselves at this point, with Antonio Brown out and Ben Roethlisberger ailing. It’s hard to see them pulling off the upset shorthanded. |
The Wild Card round went much as I expected, with five and six seeds in both conferences proving to be superior to the third- and fourth-seeded division winners.
That meant for a solid round of picks. It didn’t translate to bets, however, as the point spreads in Vegas proved to be as difficult to manipulate as ever.
I did go 2-2, hitting two bets on over/under numbers. They’ve come in handy all season – I haven’t been able to get spreads right, but the numbers have been slightly easier.
So here’s where I stand (Tony, as you may recall, is in hiding, trying to avoid more hypothetical broken bones over losing twice his allotted bankroll for the season).
| Starting $$ | Wild card record | Wild card $$ | Current $$ | |
| Andy | $11,568 | 2-2 | – $96 | $11,472 |
The games get a bit tougher this week. I doubt I go undefeated in picks. Bets … who the hell knows. But here goes: (more…)
The regular season champ ran into some difficulty last week with his picks. Tony went just 2-2, due in large part to his faith in Cincinnati.
Everyone else sensed the Bengals’ meltdown coming. Andy nailed the Green Bay win over Washington, to finish with the week’s only perfect record.
| Wild card round | Record |
| Andy | 4-0 |
| Maggio | 3-1 |
| Vomhof | 3-1 |
| Tony | 2-2 |
Where the road teams swept last week, most expect a resurgence of home team dominance in the divisional round.
Here’s who we’re picking. (more…)
Tony fell into an even deeper hole when his two big bets didn’t hit last week, so he’s gone into pretend hiding for the 
offseason as he attempts to avoid having his legs broken by his hypothetical guy.
His rough season came to an end with a loss of more than $20,000.
My bets weren’t exactly stellar throughout the year – more on this in a later post – but a solid finish to the season put me up a little over $1,000 for the season.
With Tony suddenly MIA, I’ll be going solo on the bets throughout the playoffs. Here’s where we stand right now.
| Last week | Last week $ | Overall | Overall $ | Bankroll | |
| Andy | 3-1 | + $2,809 | 32-35-1 | + $2,809 | $11,568 |
| Tony | 2-2 | – $6,548 | 29-38-1 | – $27,343 | – $17,343 |
There are four really interesting games on slate for this weekend. Here’s how I see them playing out:
Ok, it’s been 17 weeks and the riffraff has been eliminated. It’s down to 12. And this week’s wild card round has four solid, interesting games on the slate. Tony won the regular season pick segment. Can he keep it up in the playoffs?
Here’s who we think wins this weekend:
| Andy | Tony | John | Maggio | |
| Saturday, January 9 | ||||
| Kansas City at Houston | Kansas City | Kansas City | Kansas City | Kansas City |
| Pittsburgh at Cincinnati | Pittsburgh | Cincinnati | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh |
| Sunday, January 10 | ||||
| Seattle at Minnesota | Seattle | Seattle | Seattle | Seattle |
| Green Bay at Washington | Green Bay | Washington | Washington | Washington |
Maggio’s Take: There’s not a game here I’m not excited to watch for various reasons. Even the teams that “snuck” (more…)
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