{"id":127796,"date":"2022-01-10T10:45:20","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T15:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=127796"},"modified":"2022-01-10T07:05:15","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T12:05:15","slug":"nfl-playoff-predictions-nfc-wild-card-round-spreads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/01\/10\/nfl-playoff-predictions-nfc-wild-card-round-spreads\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Playoff Predictions: NFC Wild Card Round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NFL regular season is over, which means it\u2019s time for playoff predictions. The postseason officially kicks off on Saturday, and betting sites have already released the opening spreads. Due to there being six games, I have broken this article into two pieces. This section will cover the upcoming slate of NFC games in the Wild Card Round.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;18589&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h2><strong>NFC Wild Card Round Predictions and Spreads<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-9) vs Philadelphia Eagles<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nobody thought the Philadelphia Eagles would make it this far. After <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/02\/18\/carson-wentz-traded-to-the\/\" target=\"_self\">trading away Carson Wentz<\/a> in the offseason, Jalen Hurts proved to be an actual upgrade, as his playmaking ability combined with an elite offensive line and an opportunistic defense led the Eagles to an unlikely postseason run.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on a different level. Even though the defense hasn\u2019t played all that well this year, you cannot bet against this offense. Tom Brady is in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/12\/26\/an-mvp-for-every-nfc-team-for-the-2021-season\/\" target=\"_self\">thick of the MVP race<\/a> and, even without Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown, still has Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski. This defense will not be able to slow down this passing attack, and Jalen Hurts probably isn\u2019t ready to keep up in a shootout with the greatest to ever do it. He can, however, keep it close, and that\u2019s all that matters when the spread is this large.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prediction: Buccaneers win, don\u2019t cover spread<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomBrady?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TomBrady<\/a> just set a new career-high in passing yards (5,245)&#8230; at age 44. \ud83d\udc10 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AXxEVbVOrT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/AXxEVbVOrT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL\/status\/1480325137723322368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Dallas Cowboys (-3) vs San Francisco 49ers<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 49ers took a while to find their stride in 2022, but it\u2019s hard to find a team that played better football down the stretch. Jimmy Garoppolo isn\u2019t a world beater, but he\u2019s capable of leading a high-octane offense when he\u2019s healthy. He started slowly in Week 18 but looked like he knocked off the rust by the end of the game. Kyle Shanahan is one of the best offensive minds in the game, and the trio of George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and Brandon Aiyuk are nearly unstoppable when everything is clicking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cowboys, meanwhile, haven\u2019t looked like their old selves in quite some time. And no, I\u2019m not including Week 18\u2019s blowout victory against a Philadelphia Eagles team that didn\u2019t play their starters. The talent is obviously there, but Dak Prescott and company need to prove that they can still move the ball against a strong defense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This game is going to go down to the wire and could easily go either way. However, I believe the 49ers offense is a little more reliable right now, and the defenses are fairly equal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prediction: 49ers win<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">DEEBO SAMUEL IS THROWING TOUCHDOWNS.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve got a tie game in LA folks. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FTTB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#FTTB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SFvsLAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SFvsLAR<\/a> on FOX<br \/>\ud83d\udcf1: NFL app <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fvEMU3T29k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fvEMU3T29k<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL\/status\/1480317229057118209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Los Angeles Rams (-4.5) vs Arizona Cardinals<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These two teams have a lot in common. These NFC West foes both started the season on an absolute tear before returning to mortality in the back half of the year. This is an old refrain for both teams, as this trend has happened throughout the duration of Sean McVay and Kliff Kingsbury\u2019s time with their respective teams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rams, however, have been playing much better football of late. Matthew Stafford\u2019s showing the slightest bit of decline, but he\u2019s still an above-average quarterback in a phenomenal scheme. Kyler Murray, meanwhile, just hasn\u2019t looked the same since coming back from his midseason injury. The Cardinals have dropped four of their last five and weren\u2019t particularly competitive in any of the losses. Unless Arizona figures out something fast, the Rams should win this one comfortably.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prediction: Rams win, cover spread<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"tOoWNHTGThNoiGKkBY8CfA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1359577597\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'tOoWNHTGThNoiGKkBY8CfA',sig:'cCsbxAxnxJ7tZqW6XizeVY9uQfsspcoTPTlhK5vC3As=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1359577597',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NFC Wild Card Round Predictions and Spreads: With the postseason schedule set, let&#8217;s take a look at the upcoming slate of NFC contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":127797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,19,34,21,31,29],"tags":[7801,7422,7473,970,7393,7325,7331],"class_list":["post-127796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardinals","category-cowboys","category-rams","category-eagles","category-49ers","category-buccaneers","tag-arizona-cardinals-news","tag-dallas-cowboys-news","tag-los-angeles-rams-news","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-philadelphia-eagles-news","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers-news"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}