Week 15’s gonna be a weird one.
Part of this was planned; this weekend ushered in the start of Saturday NFL football to fill the void left behind by the college game, so we’ll get to watch the New England Patriots before SNL.
Part of it was not; a long list of COVID-19 absences as the league works through another round of backup plans thanks to another winter flare-up.
Several teams will limp through the weekend with depleted rosters thanks to the ongoing pandemic. It’s a problem that threatens the health of players and staff, the momentum behind late playoff pushes, and the sanity of bettors. The Washington Football Team were a slight underdog against the Philadelphia Eagles before protocols took out the bulk of their offensive line. Now Philly is nearly a 10-point favorite.
The Cleveland Browns swung from full touchdown favorites to slight underdog against the hapless Las Vegas Raiders when testing cost them their head coach, starting quarterback, backup quarterback, top wideout, and a significant chunk of their offensive line. The Jacksonville Jaguars are also down a head coach, but that’s because of a whole different thing. It’s also probably going to make them better, or at least that’s what bettors think.
That, along with the playoff implications that come with entering the final 22.5 percent of the season (the math was a lot cleaner in a 16-game schedule), makes this a tough weekend for predictions. Will healthy underdogs stand in the way of a team’s postseason push? Will Sunday’s outcomes cast some clarity over the tangled races for the AFC and NFC’s Wild Card spots? Will the Texans heartily paste the Jags again?
Let’s talk about it. All odds via Tipico.