NFL Wild Card Weekend

Arguably the most exciting weekend in the NFL is upon us and undoubtedly the vast majority of you will watch all four playoff games this weekend. As much as I love football, I love betting on football even more so I'm going to quickly analyze each game and give you my pick of who to bet on against the spread. I'll give you Saturday's games today, and Sunday's games tomorrow.

1/8 4:30pm ET: New Orleans (-10.5) @ Seattle

I still say that a 7-9 team has no business hosting a playoff game and that if a division winner comes in with a losing record, they should award home field to the wild-card team. But that's a story for another day. I wouldn't underestimate Seattle's chances in this game. Even though they are going up against the defending Super Bowl champs, the Saints have shown that they are certainly not the team they were last year. With Thomas and Ivory gone for the Saints, Brees will be forced to throw, throw, and throw some more and with 22 INTs this year, Brees isn't as a sure thing as he once was. If Seattle's defense can force Brees into a mistake, and their offense can run the ball and limit the number of possessions the Saints get, the Seahawks could hang around in this one. That being said, while I still like the Saints to win this game, I don't see them covering the 10.5 against the Seahawks. The Saints are 1-8 in their last 9 games against the spread when playing teams with a losing record.

Pick: Take the Seahawks +10.5

1/8 8:05 pm ET: New York Jets (+2.5) @ Indianapolis

This one is going to come down to the play of the quarterbacks and whichever team scores last will likely win the game. Mark Sanchez has at times looked great, particularly early in the season, and other times looked like the Mark Sanchez of 2009. One way for the Jets to take some pressure off Sanchez is to feed the ball to L.T. and Shonn Green. Together they combined for over 1600 yards rushing in the regular season. This will also help to control Dwight Freeney who always seems to make a key-play at the right time against turnover prone quarterbacks. Payton Manning has had his worst year passer rating wise since 2002 however that can certainly be attributed to many of his weapons (particularly Dallas Clark) and some of his O-line going down with injuries for extended periods of time. Even though Manning is having a down year, I find it very difficult to go against him come playoff time.

Pick: Go with the Colts -2.5, even though these aren't Colts of 2005-2009, they're still one of the most dangerous teams in the AFC during the post season. Vinny, I know you're reading this and I'm sorry to say Rex Ryan will be rubbing Mark Sanchez's feet on a couch come Divisional Weekend.

Tomorrow I break down and pick Baltimore @ Kansas City and Green Bay @ Philadelphia