The road to Super Bowl LVII begins now. The opening round of the NFL playoffs has kicked off, and it’ll now be a mad dash to Glendale, Arizona in February. As we look at the Super Wild Card Weekend slate, each of these teams is going to be quite familiar with one another. Each game features a rematch from the regular season, marking just the fifth time this has occurred since the 1970 merger. That should add even more spice to an already exciting weekend.
As we do every week, we’ve collected all of the best picks and gambling content from CBSSports.com and SportsLine and put them in one place, so you can get picks against the spread from our CBS Sports experts as well as additional feature content for each game, including plays from top SportsLine experts and the SportsLine Projection Model, best bets from our staff, survivor picks and more. Ready? Let’s jump in.
All NFL odds via Caesars Sportsbook.
Time/TV: Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET (Fox), stream on fuboTV (try for free)
Open: Vikings -3
Featured Game | Minnesota Vikings vs. New York Giants
R.J. White, a Fantasy and gambling editor for CBS Sports, is routinely among the sharpest that SportsLine has to offer. He went 445-378-24 on his ATS picks from 2017-21, which returned $2,542 to $100 players. White’s also an incredible 38-19 on his last 57 picks involving the Giants, returning $1,679 for $100 bettors. For this playoff matchup, White is leaning Over the total, but has also uncovered a key angle for this game that makes one side of the spread a must-back. To see what that is, go check out SportsLine.
“The Giants and Vikings gave us an entertaining game in Week 16, with Greg Joseph hitting a 61-yard game-winning field goal late in the fourth quarter. Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson exploded, combining for 242 receiving yards and three touchdowns. However, it’s noteworthy that Adoree’ Jackson and Xavier McKinney missed that game.
“The Giants are my upset pick this week. I predict the Minnesota defense will make the New York offense look better than it is, as the Vikings defense ranks bottom five in points per game (25.1), yards per game (388.7) and yards per play (5.9) allowed this season. I also believe the Giants pass rush will have more success this time around. This will be a close matchup, but the Giants were the best NFL team to bet on in the regular season, as they posted a 13-4 ATS record.” — CBS Sports NFL writer Jordan Dajani on why he is rolling with the Giatns to not only cover the field goal, but pull off the upset. To see all of his picks, click here.
Which picks can you make with confidence during Super Wild Card Weekend? And which Super Bowl contender goes down hard? Visit SportsLine, as its incredible model simulates every NFL game 10,000 times and is up almost $7,000 for $100 players on top-rated NFL picks since its inception.
Time/TV: Sunday, 8:15 p.m. ET (NBC), stream on fuboTV (try for free)
Open: Bengals -6.5
Featured Game | Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens
“Lamar Jackson won’t play on Sunday and Tyler Huntley isn’t 100 percent, so the Bengals will win this game. They have momentum, while the Ravens do not. Cincinnati just defeated Baltimore 27-16 last week, and I like that this game is again in the Queen City. Another reason you should consider laying the points with the Bengals is because they went 4-0 ATS in the postseason last year — even covering the number in the Super Bowl loss. The Bengals are actually 20-4 ATS in their past 24 games, including playoffs. That’s tied for the best ATS record by any team in a 24-game span.” — CBS Sports NFL writer Jordan Dajani on why he is laying the points with the Bengals over Baltimore. To see all of his picks, click here.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NFL game 10,000 times and is up well over $7,000 for $100 players on top-rated NFL picks since its inception. It also enters Super Wild Card Weekend on an incredible 161-113 run on top-rated NFL picks that dates back to the 2017 season. For this game, we can tell you the model is leaning Over the total, but it also has one side of the spread that cashes in over 50% of simulations. To see which side that is, go check out SportsLine.
Time/TV: Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET (ESPN), stream on fuboTV (try for free)
Open: Cowboys -3
Featured Game | Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Dallas Cowboys
If you’re looking to wager in Cowboys-Bucs, you’re best served seeing what SportsLine senior analyst Larry Hartstein thinks of the matchup. On top of entering the 2022 NFL season 427-344 all-time on NFL side picks (plus $3,764 for $100 players), Hartstein is 15-3 (+1170) on his last 18 picks involving the Cowboys, meaning he’s uniquely qualified to make this pick. We can tell you he’s leaning Over on the total, but to see his pick against the spread you’ll have to go to SportsLine.
“The Cowboys usually wait until the postseason to fall apart, but this year, it seems they’ve started things a little bit early. Dallas lost two of its final four regular-season games and big reason that happened is because Dak Prescott has apparently forgotten how to play football.
“Since returning from his right thumb injury in Week 7, Prescott just hasn’t been the same quarterback and although you’d think he would be slowly improving each week, that simply hasn’t been the case. Since Week 12, Prescott has thrown 11 interceptions, which is more than any other QB in the NFL over that span.
“Thanks to those 11 interceptions, Prescott finished tied for the NFL lead with 15 picks on the season, which I’m only pointing out because it makes him the FIRST QB IN NFL HISTORY to miss at least five games and STILL lead the league interceptions. That’s up there with “who can eat the most tubs of butter in 90 seconds” on the list of records you don’t ever want to break.
“Basically, on one side of this game, you have a quarterback who can’t stop throwing interceptions and on the other side, you have the most successful NFL quarterback of all-time: Tom Brady. If Brady could have hand-picked his opponent for the wild-card round, I’m guessing he would have picked the Cowboys and that’s mainly because if there’s one team the Bucs will be extremely confident in beating, it’s Dallas. For one, the Buccaneers already beat the Cowboys this season, and two, Brady has NEVER LOST TO THE COWBOYS IN HIS CAREER (7-0).
“Also, this game is being played in Tampa Bay, which is notable, because they have a grass field in Tampa and Dallas tends to struggle on grass for some reason. The Cowboys have played five games on grass this season and they’ve gone 1-4 in those games. They lost to the Eagles, Commanders, Jaguars and Packers, and their only win came against a Titans team that was forced to start a quarterback (Josh Dobbs) who had only been on the roster for nine days. Even then, the Cowboys still had trouble putting Tennessee away (The game was 17-13 in the fourth quarter). From a defensive standpoint, the Cowboys surrendered an average of 27.2 points in their five games played on grass. In the 12 games that weren’t played on grass, the Cowboys surrendered just 17.1 points per game, which is a huge 10.1-point difference.
“On paper, this game feels like a mismatch, but Tom Brady doesn’t believe in paper so I’m going to ignore the talent disparity and just go with the team that I trust more right now and that’s the Buccaneers.” — CBS Sports NFL writer John Breech on why he likes the Bucs to upset the Cowboys, 20-17. To see all of his picks for Super Wild Card Weekend, click here.
