Here we are, at the end of a long road, staring down the most unpredictable week of the NFL campaign.
The league’s first 18-week regular season has gone about as well as expected in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. Injuries cropped up at what feels like a regular rate and a slew of mid-season upsets has given way to a chalky finish and a bunch of powers maintaining their grasp on the postseason. Only two of last season’s division champions have been eliminated from the playoff race with one game to go. One of them is Washington, which stood atop the 2020 NFC East while the division spent roughly four months crashing like your grandma’s desktop rebooting after years in storage.
That’s created a fairly drama-free finale. The good news is we get the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders in primetime in a game that may decide the final AFC playoff participant. The better news is both teams could opt to stare each other down and play for a tie if the Indianapolis Colts somehow lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars — both teams would make the postseason if they came out of the final regular season game of 2021 deadlocked.
The bad news is that’s only one of three games featuring two teams with the power to change their postseason destiny. Another one of those games is Steelers-Ravens, which barely counts.
So, we’re left with a schedule of missing stars, low-effort tackling and players just trying to get to vacation with minimal injuries. That’s gonna make things tough in both DFS and betting this weekend.
Let’s talk about it. All odds via Tipico.