The Bucs Will Defeat the Saints Again
Nosotros're used to seeing the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and New Orleans Saints at this circular in the playoffs. Not so much with the Cleveland Browns or Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Buccaneers are in the divisional circular for the first time since 2002 afterwards winning their showtime playoff game since beating the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII. The Browns accept never been this far, at least in the current version of the franchise that came into the NFL in 1999. Last week's win over the Pittsburgh Steelers was the first playoff win ever for the new Browns.
There'south some new blood in the divisional round but some old faces too. The meeting between Tom Brady and Drew Brees will be the offset for two 40-twelvemonth-one-time quarterbacks in a playoff game. It should be a fun Sunday of football.
Hither are the picks for the Sunday bounded round games, with spreads from BetMGM (the Saturday picks are here):
Browns (+x) over Chiefs
This might be blasphemy, only is it possible the Chiefs aren't as dominant as nosotros have been led to believe?
The Chiefs have been living off ane-score wins for two months. Since chirapsia the Jets 35-ix on Nov. 1, here are the margins of victory for the Chiefs through Week xvi: ii, 4, 3, 6, 3, 3. The Chiefs did non cover the spread one time in that stretch. For comparing, the Bills won vii of their final eight regular-season games and every win was by double digits. The Ravens won their last five regular-season games and four were by double digits.
Double-digit wins are not the merely sign of a good team. But usually, dominant teams aren't playing nothing but one-possession games. The Chiefs were just 6th in Football game Outsiders' DVOA. We have heard practically all season that the Chiefs are smashing and perchance unbeatable, but there are reasons to believe they're a little more than vulnerable than y'all've been hearing. Bettors know this already.
The Browns come into this game with some confidence. They just slayed a few dragons, winning a road playoff game without head coach Kevin Stefanski, who was back at home due to COVID-19. The Browns have flaws. They rank 18th in FO's DVOA, mostly due to a bad defense force and poor special teams. Simply they have won a lot of games and can score, and they seem to exist playing their best football.
It wouldn't exist a surprise if the Chiefs flipped a switch in the playoffs and put a huge number up on a questionable Browns defence. Information technology's possible they've been on cruise control for the second one-half of the regular flavour. We all know they have the talent to look great for the side by side iii games. But it has been a while since we've seen the Chiefs truly blow someone out, and the Browns are getting a lot of points.
Saints (-3) over Buccaneers
Let's become this out of the way: The aphorism that it's hard to trounce a team iii times in an NFL season is fake. According to Football Perspective, since 1970 there have been 21 instances of a team sweeping another in the regular season and having a third meeting in the playoffs. The team that swept in the regular season is 14-vii.
When a team beats the other twice in the regular flavour, there'due south usually a expert reason. And the Saints had two dominant wins over Tampa Bay.
In Calendar week one, the Saints went out to a 24-7 atomic number 82 over the Bucs and ended up with a 34-23 win. The rematch in Week 9 was one of the about shocking games of the flavor. On "Sunday Night Football," the Saints led 31-0 at halftime. New Orleans let up in the second half and won 38-7, but anyone who saw the first half knew how 1-sided it was.
Has that much changed? Antonio Brown has come up live for the Buccaneers, and that is a factor. Drew Brees missed fourth dimension with 11 broken ribs and it'southward off-white to wonder if he's truly 100 percent, but later a bad outset game back his numbers look like to his production pre-injury. Michael Thomas is back for the Saints. Alvin Kamara is still smashing. The Saints defense is underrated and matches up well against the Buccaneers.
The third meeting could be different. Tom Brady is having a fantastic season, they take seemingly endless playmakers on offense and the defense force tin get a rush on Brees. The Bucs have won five in a row and the law-breaking has been great.
But these teams aren't fundamentally much different than they were the first two times they met. And each fourth dimension, the Saints were too much for the Buccaneers. And as we know, it'south really non that hard to beat a team three times in a flavour.
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Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-divisional-round-sunday-picks-saints-try-to-beat-the-buccaneers-again-162926175.html
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