Matthew Ross
We had the road teams hang in there and compete in each and every game this past weekend. In fact, two of them came away with victories. I don’t think we’ll see a repeat of that this weekend, but nevertheless there were some interesting nuggets we can extract from this first round of football betting in the playoffs.
2018 NFL Wildcard Weekend Betting Recap
AFC
–The Jaguars are a flawed team, mainly because they simply don’t have the cerebral quarterback required to go deep in the postseason. They have the pressure defense, the offensive line and running game, and decent special teams. But that QB Bortles is simply not good enough. He missed on all sorts of passes and open receivers, including even running backs out in the flat! Bortles finally began scrambling to save face and get his team just enough points to win. But he stinks.
–Tennessee is void of playoff experience, but the Chiefs were void of winning playoff experience. I have said it all year; the Titans win ugly. Well, they’ll have to muck it up once again in New England to have any kind of chance. They missed tackles, they missed open receivers and they failed to play 60 minutes. But they did win as a road dog and are up for a fight. I just think the mountain is too tall to climb.
NFC
–The Falcons turned back the clock and looked like last year’s team on Saturday in Los Angeles. I don’t see many weaknesses with this team, as long as this playoff switch that they seemed to have flipped stays in the ON mode. Experience matters and Atlanta proved it in round one. Now they play yet another inexperienced team (well, for the most part). Hmm….
-Man, the Saints look good, damn good. They were really playoff tested against a more experienced Panthers team. New Orleans also did the impossible: beat the same team three teams in one season. Sure, the Saints D is prone to giving up chunks of yardage. But they’re decent. And as long as Drew Brees lights it up with a top notch running game and deep receiving corps, this team can more than compete this weekend in Minnesota. Indeed, the Vikings D is good, but the Saints have multiple ways in which they can score points. Plus, by virtue of this win over Carolina, they now have more postseason experience than most Minny players. It should be a good one.
Matthew Ross is a sports commentator and a radio host on TSN 690 Radio in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Follow him @MatthewWords.
