Life is very nice this time of year. There aren’t any other plans outside of watching football. The wild-card round was a marvel to watch, and the rest of the postseason figures just the same.
After a long Sunday of football betting on favorites, we quickly learned that this is not the regular season anymore. Somebody fed these underdogs something really tasty Sunday, as in all cases, it was the ‘dog covering the spread. Let’s take a quick look back to Sunday, and perhaps one might rethink rolling with the favorites.
Buffalo Barely Survives
In the first game of the Sunday slate, Buffalo was favored by right around two touchdowns at home against Miami. This was the third time these AFC East rivals squared off this season, but it was the largest spread of the wild-card round.
Against the Dolphins and quarterback Skylar Thompson. Buffalo had a quick lead at 17-0, and their live odds were at -25½ early in the second quarter. Oddsmakers were in love with the Bills, but Thompson and company eventually found a grove..
Buffalo did advance with a difficult 34-31 victory, but not before Miami led, 24-20, in the third quarter. The Dolphins easily covered the spread.
Giant Victimize Vikings
Game two of Sunday’s slate found the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings in a rematch. Minnesota was a field-goal favorite in a game between two teams who had negative point differentials during the regular season.
Early in the game, Minnesota was well on its way to easily covering the spread, scoring a touchdown on the initial drive. Then, the Vikings’ defense accommodated the opposition as it so often did during the season. New York answered with a touchdown to even the game.
The next Minnesota possession started off well. It was third and one when Minny decided some trickery was in order. A Kirk Cousins toss to Justin Jefferson, who then fired across the field to Cousins. A bad idea, a loss of a couple of yards and a punt.
Any shot at momentum seemed to be lost at this point.
It was a game that went back and forth, but abysmal Viking defense did them in. Credit to Giants’ quarterback Daniel Jones and his incredible performance (24-of-35, 301 yards, two touchdowns, 78 rushing yards) in the 31-24 victory. So, not only did the Giants cover as outright winners, they now advance to the divisional round as a 7½-point underdog against the top-seeded Eagles at Philadelphia. That’s according to BetUS sportsbook NFL odds.
Ravens Had Their Shot
The final Sunday game, and no way the underdog would cover again, right?
It was an AFC North battle as the Baltimore Ravens visited the Cincinnati Bengals.
With a spread hovering around 8-10 points during the week. Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson didn’t play. Coach John Harbaugh of the Ravens said Tyler Huntley would get the nod.
It was a gritty and low-scoring game at first, but what else would you expect with the AFC North? Cincinnati had an early field goal, taking the lead.
In the second quarter, Ja’Marr Chase caught the first touchdown of the game, making it 9-0 in favor of the home team. A missed extra point by Evan McPherson would affect the mechanism.
Let us fast forward to the final quarter, where it seemed the Ravens would win this game.
Huntley did attempt to jump across the plain of the goal line to score. He didn’t get there. Instead, the ball was knocked into the hands of Sam Hubbard, taking it the other way on a 98-yard touchdown ”lumber” to completely flip the script. What a swing, as the score went to 24-17 in favor of Cincinnati with 11:39 left in the game.
The final 11 minutes saw neither team score. It ended 24-17. Win by Cincy, cover by Baltimore.
Sunday’s underdogs were hungry.
With the Bills and Bengals joining the top-seed Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC divisional round, that conference is odds-on to win the title, as per Super Bowl odds.
