NFL betting tips: Wild Card Weekend preview and best bets

NFL betting tips: Wild Card Weekend

2pts Saquon Barkley 100+ rushing yards & anytime touchdown at 6/4 (Sky Bet)

2pts Philadelphia Eagles (-5.5) to beat the Green Bay Packers at 10/11 (General)

2pts Bucky Irving 100+ rushing yards & anytime touchdown at 9/4 (bet365)

1.5pts Jayden Daniels 50+ rushing yards at 10/11 (Sky Bet)

1.5pts over 49.5 total match points in Commanders @ Buccaneers at 5/6 (General)

2pts Los Angeles Rams to beat Minnesota Vikings at 6/5 (General)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Green Bay Packers @ Philadelphia Eagles

• Kick-off time: Sunday 21:30 GMT
• TV: Sky Sports NFL
• Spread: Eagles -5.5 @ 10/11
• Total: Over 45.0 @ 10/11

The playoffs in the NFC kicks off with the Packers travelling to Philadelphia to face the Eagles, the Packers having finished the season with disappointing losses to the Vikings and then a shock defeat to their arch-rivals Chicago. They come into this matchup as five-point underdogs, and injuries play a big part in this.

Jordan Love had to exit last Sunday with an elbow injury, while speedy wide receiver Christian Watson suffered an ACL injury. Love is expected to play, but losing Watson is a big loss for the Packers – as of late he’d been the reliable receiver for Love. Jayden Reed started the year off as the top option for Green Bay, but down the stretch he’s been a missing man, only clearing 50+ receiving yards once in his last eight games. Watson is the WR who can take the top off, and shred man coverage – his loss will be felt even more so against the Eagles, who have allowed the fewest receptions of 20+ yards in the entire NFL.

However, speaking of injuries – Jalen Hurts is returning from concussion protocol. He’s expected to play but his loss would be a massive factor for the Eagles. And perhaps they will proceed with caution. It will be a tough matchup – the Packers are having their best defensive season since their 2010 Super Bowl winning season – but one man has routinely had their number.

SAQUON BARKLEY has three straight games against the Pack with 100+ scrimmage yards and a touchdown, tied for the longest streak by any player against Green Bay. When these teams met in week one, it was Barkley’s coming out party with the Eagles – going off for 132 total yards and three touchdowns. He’s hit 100+ rushing yards in nine out of his last 11 games.

• CLICK HERE to back Barkley 100+ rushing yards and TD with Sky Bet

Barkley is the heartbeat of the offence and the Eagles will continue to lead with him.

The Packers boast an 11-6 record, but just three of their wins came against teams with winning records, and they went 1-5 in their division. They are a good team but lack substance when matched with great teams. The Eagles are 7-1 at home this season and have one of the most complete rosters in the league. Back them to cover the spread.

Washington Commanders @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Kick-off time: Monday 01:00 GMT
• TV: Sky Sports NFL
• Spread: Buccaneers -3 @ 10/11
• Total: Over 49.5 @ 5/6

This is another matchup of two teams who met in the season opener, where the Buccaneers stormed to a 37-20 victory, but a lot has changed since then. Jayden Daniels has been a revelation – breaking the rookie records for completion percentage and rushing yards. The Commanders have exceeded pre-season expectations and then some with a 12-5 record – but the underlying metrics for the Commanders aren’t as promising.

For all the points they’ve posted, they rank just 15th in EPA per play – and particularly their rushing defence has been woeful. They rank 30th against the run, allowing 137.5 rushing yards per game, and to RBs specifically they’ve conceded 1,935 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Enter BUCKY IRVING. The rookie RB has been electric down the stretch for the Bucs – he’s cleared the 100+ rushing yards mark three times in his last six games and he’s averaging a huge 5.4 yards per carry. This could be the game that Irving enters the national discussion as one of the best young RBs in the league.

On top of Bucky’s breakout, Tampa has the resurging Baker Mayfield. His play has been quietly elite this season, setting new career highs in passing yards and touchdowns. Tampa boasts serious firepower on offence and for Washington to keep pace, they’ll need to rely on Daniels – and especially his rushing ability – and this could be a plus spot for the rookie.

Todd Bowles loves to blitz on defence, brining an extra rusher 36% of the time, and no quarterback in the league scrambles at a higher rate against the blitz than Daniels. His average yardage on scrambles jumps from 7.2 to 10.7 when facing the blitz. Just two weeks ago we saw him take over with a 127-yard rushing game against the Falcons – and he’s had eight games this season with 50+ rushing yards.

Picking a winner is difficult in this one, with so many similarities. I’d sway towards Tampa, thanks to the emergence of Irving down the stretch combined with Washington’s lacklustre run defence – but I feel more confident in the total points over. The over has hit in four straight games for Tampa and they are 12-5 this season. Both these teams score points at will, and this is primed to be a shootout.

• CLICK HERE to back over 49.5 total match points with Sky Bet

Minnesota Vikings @ Los Angeles Rams

• Kick-off time: Tuesday 01:00 GMT
• TV: Sky Sports NFL
• Spread: Los Angeles Rams +2.5 @ 10/11
• Total: Over 48.0 @ 10/11

This is the matchup of the master against the apprentice, as Sean McVay faces his old offensive coordinator, Kevin O’Connell. The Vikings have surpassed expectations; with Sam Darnold at the helm they’ve stormed to a hugely impressive 14-3 record. The Rams by contrast are the only team in the playoffs with a negative points differential, thanks to an extremely slow start to the season.

It took until after their bye for things to kick into gear – largely thanks in part to the return of star WRs Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. In fact, Puka Nacua’s return came in week 8, when the Rams trounced the Vikings 30-20. This game was quite the anomaly for the Vikings – Matthew Stafford posted an 87.7 QBR, the highest of any QB against the Vikings this season, while being pressured on just 8% of his drop backs that game, the lowest mark for Minnesota all season.

Something the Rams boast that the Vikings simply do not is championship pedigree. There is still a core group here from their Super Bowl-winning team. McVay is one of the best coaches in the NFL. Stafford is arguably the best pure passer in the league, and he elevates his play in the playoffs – with an NFL record 307.9 passing yards per game in the postseason.

The Vikings do not have this experience – back in O’Connell’s first year with Minnesota they won the NFC North with a 13-4 record, but then were embarrassingly bumped in the first round of the playoffs against the lowly Giants. And whilst this is very much a different team, we saw a similarly dismal performance last week against the Lions – in a must win game for the #1 seed in the NFC.

Darnold’s story has been quite something for the Vikes, but who do you trust more with the game on the line, Stafford or Darnold? This may be the Rams' last real year of relevancy with Stafford at the helm and don’t expect them to go quietly – this could be quite the postseason run.

• CLICK HERE to back the LA Rams with Sky Bet

Posted at 1900 GMT on 10/01/25

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