Wild-Card betting marks the beginning of the NFL playoffs as the two Wild-Card teams from each conference meet the two division winners that did not receive byes. Wild-Card odds for games on Saturday, January 3rd and Sunday, January 4th have all four road teams favored.
Wild-Card where all four home teams are underdogs is extremely rare but this year it happened. Wild-Card almost always have the home teams favored in every game. In the past two years of Wild-Card betting, only one team out of eight was favored on the road. That happened last season as Jacksonville was favored over Pittsburgh in Wild-Card betting odds. The Jaguars lost that game outright in Wild-Card betting.
Wild-Card teams can be good teams to wager on throughout the NFL playoffs. The New York Giants took the Wild-Card route last year all the way to a Super Bowl title and they are not the first team to do it. The Patriots and Steelers in recent seasons also took the Wild-Card route to Super Bowl glory. Since the Wild-Card system began in 1970 only nine teams have made it all the way to the Super Bowl with five teams winning the title.
Wild-Card is where gamblers begin to look at which teams can ultimately win a Super Bowl. Normally in football betting and with Wild-Card wagering we begin with looking at the home teams. As we said earlier, normally the home teams are favored in Wild-Card but that is not the case this season. The playoffs were restructured in 2002 and that meant eight division winners instead of six. It is now possible for a relatively weak team to get a home playoff game in Wild-Card betting.
Wild-Card is different than regular season NFL betting. Many of the stats and trends you used during the regular season can be thrown out. Travel is not a factor, letdowns are not a factor, looking ahead is not a factor, and teams letting off the gas late in the game is not a factor. It’s win-or-go-home, and normally you get a team’s best shot in the Wild-Card betting round.
To recap, Wild-Card lines for this weekend’s action have the Atlanta Falcons favored on the road against the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday. Also on Saturday it is the Indianapolis Colts favored in Wild-Card odds at San Diego. On Sunday in Wild-Card it is Philadelphia favored at Minnesota and Baltimore is favored in Wild-Card odds at Miami.
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