NFL Wild-Card Preview

The NFL regular season is over and 14 teams remain in the hunt to win the Super Bowl as the playoffs begin this weekend, with six Wild-Card games from Saturday to Monday. The playoff action will all be televised on Sky Sports NFL in the UK.

Setting The Scene

The Week 18 NFL action saw the Carolina Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers secure the final two places in the playoffs at the expense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Baltimore Ravens. At the top of the standings, the Denver Broncos claimed the top seeding for the AFC playoffs by having the best regular-season record in their conference at 14-3, while the Seattle Seahawks (14-3) did the same in the NFC, with both teams earning the right to sit out the first round of the playoffs and rest up ahead of the divisional round next week.

The wild-card action brings three games in which the lower-seeded road teams have better records than the higher-seeded division winners they are travelling to, which should make for some interesting match-ups. Two AFC games get the action started on Saturday night, while there are three games on Sunday before the Texans and Steelers bring the round to a close on Monday night.

NFL Wild-Card Playoffs schedule (all times GMT):

Saturday

• Rams @ Panthers, 9.30pm
• Packers @ Bears, 1am

Sunday

• Bills @ Jaguars, 6pm
• 49ers @ Eagles, 9.30pm 
• Chargers @ Patriots, 1am 

Monday

• Texans @ Steelers, 1.15am 

NFL Wild-Card Tip 1: Buffalo Bills to beat Jacksonville Jaguars @ 5/6 with bet365

The Buffalo Bills did not quite live up to expectations in the regular season but they at least made the playoffs, unlike some other pre-season favourites including the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and the Detroit Lions. Sean McDermott’s team finished the year strongly with five wins in their last six games and they are worth backing as only marginal favourites for their road game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

The home side finished the season on a real tear with eight successive wins, but they were barely tested by a high-powered offence in the second half of the campaign and the Bills, with Josh Allen at quarterback and James Cook at running back, could expose the flaws in their defence.

NFL Wild-Card Tip 2: Under 46.0 points in Los Angeles Chargers at New England Patriots @ 10/11 with bet365

Two teams hoping that the old adage that defence wins championships proves to be true meet at Gillette Stadium on Sunday night and the result could be a low-scoring affair in potentially cold and wet conditions. Both teams’ defences ranked in the top 10 in the league for yards and points allowed per game this season, while the Chargers limited their last six opponents to no more than 20 points despite facing three playoff qualifiers in that time.

The Patriots benefited from one of the softest schedules in the league but only just missed out on the AFC number one seed with a 14-3 record and they limited their last two opponents to just 10 points each.

NFL Wild-Card Tip 3: Houston Texans -3.5 vs Pittsburgh Steelers @ 20/21 with bet365

One of the wild-card games in which the team with the superior record is playing on the road comes at the Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, where the 12-5 Houston Texans visit the 10-7 Pittsburgh Steelers. A missed field goal on the final play of the regular season by Baltimore’s Tyler Loop handed the Steelers the AFC North title, but finishing the campaign with nine consecutive wins wasn’t quite enough for the Texans to win the AFC South after their 0-3 start.

The Texans’ rampaging defence looks capable of handling the mediocre Pittsburgh offence, even though the Steelers get their top wide receiver DK Metcalf back after a two-game suspension, while the varied Houston offence has a number of ways to attack the Steelers defence, which ranked only 26th of the 32 teams in yards allowed per game.