Two wild card games down, two to go. In Game 1 Saturday, the Redskins and Bucs met for the second time this year, but it wasn’t a repeat of their Week 10 meeting. 71 points were scored (TB won 36-35) and the two teams combined. for 729 yards in that regular-season game. However, in yesterday’s wild card contest, the teams combined for 27 points (Wash won 17-10) and just 363 yards! In Saturday’s Cup, the Pats defeated the Jags 28-3. It was their 10th straight playoff win.
Since 1990, when the league adopted its 12-team playoff format, home teams have dominated this wild-card round, going 43-17 SU. As for the distribution of points, it has been broken down like this. Home favorites are 28-23-3 ATS with home ‘dogs’ going 5-1. Only once, in 2000, have all four home teams won and just last year, THREE of the four visiting teams were able to break through with victories (Indy’s 49-24 win over Denver was the only win for a home team).
My free play for college basketball on Sunday is Southern Illinois over Bradley at 3:00 ET. I won my 20* GOY Wild Card very easily on Saturday with New England and in Sunday’s NFL playoff action I featured one of my exclusive LEGEND Plays. Regular visitors know my FB ’05 LEGEND plays are a remarkable 13-2 or 86.7% ATS! Do not miss it!
Washington beat Tampa Bay despite gaining only 120 total yards, the lowest yardage total ever, for a playoff-winning team. AMAZING, Washington’s 25 net passing yards weren’t the lowest total by a winning playoff team! In fact, according to postgame reports, TWO teams have won playoff games with fewer net passing yards than the Redskins. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be interested to know who those teams were!
Joe Gibbs earned his 17th career playoff win (he has five losses), 13 years after his last. He now follows only Don Shula (19) and Tom Landry (20), of all time. While the Redskins have now won and covered SIX straight games, Gibbs may have some trouble getting his 18th playoff win as the Redskins play Seattle next Saturday. The first line is Seattle for 8 1/2 with a total of 41.
Tom Brady improved his career playoff record to 10-0 as the Pats easily defeated the Jags, 28-3. With the win, Bill Belichick moved to 11–1 all-time in the playoffs, giving him the best winning percentage of any NFL head coach in playoff history at .917. New England’s 10th straight postseason win is also a new record, breaking a tie with the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay won NINE consecutive playoff games during FIVE playoff seasons (1961, 1962 and 1965-67). How times have changed!
Sunday’s games are Carolina at the New York Giants and Pittsburgh at Cincinnati. With the two home teams going 1-1 yesterday, the home teams are now 44-18 since 1990. However, both home teams on Sunday will be starting quarterbacks making their playoff debuts. Eli Manning for the Giants and Carson Palmer for the Bengals. The playoff ‘virgins’ did not fare well yesterday as Tampa Bay (Chris Simms) and Jacksonville (Leftwich) both lost, scoring a combined total of just 13 points!
The Giants are three-point favorites over the Panthers with a total of 43 1/2, while the Steelers are three-point favorites on the road against the Bengals (46 1/2 total).
college hoops
Seven schools started this week still undefeated but three have lost, two yesterday. U Conn suffered its first loss of the year Tuesday at Marquette (94-79), while Illinois and Ohio State lost their first games this year yesterday. The Illini were beaten at Iowa 63-48, while the Buckeyes lost at Indiana, 81-79.
Florida, now 14-0, won Georgia on Saturday, 90-72. No. 1 Duke (13-0) is at Wake Forest on Sunday and the Blue Devils are listed as eight-point favorites. No. 3 Villanova (10-0) hosts West Va and opened as a 12 1/2-point pick. No. 22 Pittsburgh (12-0), the fourth remaining undefeated team in the nation, doesn’t play until next Thursday, when the Panthers host DePaul.
While Illinois lost for the first time this year (after a 15-0 start), Illinois is still tied with Gonzaga for the longest current home winning streak in the nation (both schools have won 30 straight home games). ). I bring this up because Southern Illinois will try to unite those two schools on Sunday. The Salukis put their 29-game winning streak on the line at home against Bradley, a game in which they are 3 1/2-point favorites.