Divisional Round Weekend:

Five of the six NFL playoff games for the Wild Card Round are in the books and we have some early numbers on both Divisional Round games in the AFC and will wait to see what happens on Monday Night Football between the Rams and Vikings to see what the NFC has in store for both games.

With the playoff field cut down from 14 to 8, we just have two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday, as the bye week teams get back to business and the other hopefuls look to make it two in a row in the postseason.

 

***Top NFL Resources***

*Join thousands of other sports bettors and unlock access to picks, public betting splits data, & the VSiN live video broadcast by upgrading to VSiN Pro. Grab your first month for less than $10.*

Here is the Divisional Round Weekend NFL Odds Report:

Five of the six NFL playoff games for the Wild Card Round are in the books and we have some early numbers on both Divisional Round games in the AFC and will wait to see what happens on Monday Night Football between the Rams and Vikings to see what the NFC has in store for both games.

With the playoff field cut down from 14 to 8, we just have two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday, as the bye week teams get back to business and the other hopefuls look to make it two in a row in the postseason.

Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs (-8, 42)

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET

Well, it wasn’t 45-14, but history did repeat itself for the Texans, who blew out the Chargers by 20 points to advance in the face of disrespect from the betting market for the second straight year. Houston was the 10-6 AFC South Division champ last year hosting the 11-6 Browns and took Cleveland to the woodshed to advance to the Divisional Round.

Last season, the Texans ran into the top-seeded Ravens and lost 34-10, with the Ravens putting 17 points on the board in the fourth quarter. So, we’ll see if history repeats itself here, too, as the Chiefs lay north of a TD as the No. 1 seed following an all-chalk Wild Card Weekend. Houston actually closed a 10-point underdog going into that game last season. The Chiefs went 15-2, but only had a +59 point differential, which was worse than the two teams within their division that made the playoffs, as well as the Bills and Ravens. 

The initial movement on this game was towards the Under, which opened as high as 43 and sat as low as 41.5 at Circa at time of publish. The side hadn’t really moved much at all, but it will be interesting to see if it does, as the books are going to be inundated with Chiefs teaser money.

Washington Commanders at Detroit Lions (-8.5, 55.5)

Saturday, 8 p.m. ET

It took a while, but we got our first upset of the Wild Card Round on Sunday night with the No. 6 Commanders over the No. 3 Buccaneers. The sensational rookie season for Jayden Daniels may very well be capped off by being the first rookie QB to win a road playoff start since Russell Wilson in 2012, as his Commanders face some fairly long odds against the top-seeded Lions. Then again, there is no reason to count him and his team out after their first playoff win in 20 years.

Detroit is off of the bye, perhaps a much-needed one at that, after a pretty grueling end-of-season schedule with some tough divisional opponents and a trip to California. Meanwhile, the Commanders got shafted a bit by playing on Sunday night with the turnaround to Saturday, but it’s the playoffs and they’ll all get over it.

Superbook opened quickly after the game, hanging Lions -10.5 and a total of 56. DraftKings opened much lower at 7.5, with the total at 55.5. They quickly moved to 8.5. BetMGM popped it on the board at 10 and 54.5. Talk about a major difference of opinion.

Circa posted 8.5 as the dust settled elsewhere and that’s the prevailing number in the market now. Remember, limits are lower earlier in the week, and especially on these initial lines, as it’s something of a fact-finding mission for the sportsbooks in the early going. Ultimately, this one should hang somewhere between 7.5 and 10 throughout the week.

Los Angeles Rams at Philadelphia Eagles (-6, 43.5)

Sunday, 3 p.m. ET

There is making a quarterback’s life hell and then there’s whatever we want to call what the Rams did to the Vikings on Monday night. The Eagles opened anywhere from 5.5 to 6.5 and we’ve pretty much settled in on 6 now across the board. A little bit of Under money seemed to be popular as books felt around for the right total.

It’ll be interesting to see where this line goes. Obviously the Rams deserve some respect for what they did to Minnesota, but the narrative is running wildly that Sam Darnold was awful, not that the Rams were big contributors as to why Darnold was awful. It is also worth noting that the Rams, who are 11-7 now including the Wild Card win, are now 9-4 with Cooper Kupp in the lineup and 9-3 with both Kupp and Puka Nacua.

But, it is also worth noting that the Eagles had the best defense in the NFL in the second half of the season and boast the dynamic duo of Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley on offense. This line is more likely to go up to 6.5 and maybe touch 7 in my estimation than it is to go down, especially with the Rams making the long trek to play in cooler weather, as the early forecast is calling for a bit of a heat wave with a high of 43 and a wind chill in the upper 30s.

Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills (-1, 51.5)

Sunday, 6:30 p.m. ET

We have a rematch of Week 4 between the Ravens and the Bills in the other AFC matchup. Baltimore really put it on Buffalo all the way back in Week 4, winning a clear-cut 35-10 decision in a game where Derrick Henry fell three feet shy of rushing for 200 yards. Lamar Jackson was only 13-of-18 for 156 yards in that game, but he didn’t need to do more than that thanks to the running game. Josh Allen was held to 180 yards on just 16-of-29 passing and the Bills mustered just 81 yards on 23 carries.

So, we’ll see how the betting market treats this game with one resounding data point to reference. Both teams have changed a lot since that game, but one of the biggest changes has been Baltimore’s pass defense, which is way better now than it was early in the season. Pittsburgh failed to have a red-zone opportunity on Wild Card Weekend against the Ravens defense. Buffalo had five red-zone opportunities against Denver, but only converted one touchdown.

This is a change of venue from the first meeting, in which the Ravens were favored by 2.5 with extra juice with a total of 47.5. Obviously we see a much higher total this time around, but keep a close eye on that, as we are talking about the weather in Buffalo on January 19.

Bookmark the NFL Divisional Round Weekend Hub to get all of this week’s NFL betting content!

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR