Wildcard Weekend

Wild Card Weekend matchups are set for Saturday and Sunday this week, with the Seahawks, Chiefs, Redskins and Steelers opening odds favorites.

The Seattle Seahawks crushed the Minnesota Vikings when those NFC teams met back in Week 13. The Seahawks will get a chance to beat the Vikings in Minnesota for a second time this season as a road betting favorite when the teams do battle on Wild Card Weekend.

The Seahawks are a 5.5 point favorite against the Vikings for their Wild Card matchup, with Seattle having topped Minnesota 38-7 and easily covering the 3-point spread on the road when they met in early December. Seattle is also coming off a blowout victory, knocking off the Cardinals in Arizona by a 36-6 score to close out their regular season schedule on Sunday afternoon.

The Seattle at Minnesota matchup will kick off at 1:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, with the Green Bay at Washington matchup then getting underway at 4:40 p.m. ET. The Carolina Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals have first-round NFC playoff byes and await the winners.

In the AFC the Cincinnati Bengals will play host to the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers in a Wild Card Weekend matchup, with the Bengals having lost 33-20 at home to the Steelers as a 1.5-point favorite when they last met in Week 14. Cincinnati topped the Steelers 16-10 as a 1.5-point underdog at Pittsburgh in the Week 8 battle between the two teams at Heinz Field.

The Steelers are favored this time by 2.5 points for their matchup on Saturday night, while the other AFC contest for Wild Card Weekend has the Kansas City Chiefs the  3.5 point favorite on the road against the Houston Texans – who were left standing as the AFC South champions for this season. The Texans fell 27-20 to the Chiefs back in Week 1, losing that game as a 1.5-point home underdog.

The Kansas City at Houston matchup kicks off Wild Card Weekend at 4:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, with the Pittsburgh at Cincinnati matchup following at 8:15 p.m. ET. The Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots will have the two first-round byes in the AFC.

Swami League Spreads for this weekends games are:

Kansas City 3.5 favorites over Houston

Pittsburgh 2.5 favorites over Cincinnati

Seattle 5.5 favorites over Minnesota

Washington 1.5 favorites over Green Bay