NFL Who’s Hot and Who’s Not – Divisional Round Playoffs

The Wild Card Round of this season’s NFL playoffs is in the books and it is pretty obvious that home favorites had the hot hand when it came to closing betting lines at BetAnySports. With the home team favored in all four of this weekend’s games in the Divisional Round, it will be interesting to see if these early betting trends continue.

All four home favorites covered the spread with ease in last weekend’s games starting with Houston’s 27-14 victory against Oakland as a four-point favorite at home. Seattle knocked Detroit out of the playoffs with a 20-point win as a nine-point home favorite and Pittsburgh made short work of Miami in a 30-12 romp as an 11.5-point favorite at home. Last week’s playoff action capped things off with Green Bay sending the New York Giants packing with a 38-13 victory as a five-point home favorite. The results on the total line for the weekend were evenly split 2-2.

Two of the most dangerous teams to emerge from last week’s games are also two of the hottest betting teams left in the field of eight. The Steelers are currently riding a straight-up eight-game winning streak into Sunday’s showdown against Kansas City. Pittsburgh has gone a highly profitable 6-1-1 against the spread during this run and it comes into Arrowhead as a two-point underdog on BetAnySports current betting spread. The total line for that game has been set at 44.5. The Chiefs won the AFC West with a SU record of 12-4 (9-7 ATS), but they were just 3-5 ATS at home this season.

Green Bay is listed as a 4.5-point road underdog in a late Sunday afternoon start at Dallas. The total line for this NFC clash has been set at 52 by BetAnySports. The Packers are riding a SU seven-game winning streak while going 6-1 ATS. The Cowboys had the best SU record in the conference at 13-3 and they were 10-5-1 ATS. However, they did fail to cover in four of their last five games.

The hottest playoff team coming off a bye week would be the New England Patriots. They won their final seven regular-season games SU with a 6-1 record ATS. BetAnySports has the Patriots listed as prohibitive 16-point home favorites for Saturday night’s game against the Texans. The total line for that AFC tilt has been set at 44.5.

Earlier in the day, the Seahawks will go on the road to the Georgia Dome to face the Atlanta Falcons as 4.5-point underdogs. The betting line for the total in that NFC showdown has been set at 51.5.