It was clearly the tale of two days in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, as both of our picks lost on Saturday, while both won on Sunday. But that’s the short-sighted view of it.
The reality is that we saw four of the best finishes we could imagine for a bundle of playoff games, and it’s all that anyone has been discussing for weeks. The obvious question is, “What happens next?”
Let’s think about it as we do with everything in sports: through the lens of practical expectations. Those games had amazing finishes, and all four of them happened in the same weekend. That can’t be sustainable. They could have been played at any time and produced the same result — none of them were dependent upon the result of another — but that’s like asking a coin to land on “tails” in four consecutive flips. It can happen, but it doesn’t mean it will continue.
Therein lies the overall theme for Sunday’s Conference Championship Games. We know it’s unlikely to have two more great finishes, but will we have competitive games? That doesn’t even mean that we’re questioning if the favorites will run away and hide. It’s possible that both underdogs win by double-digits.
After all, it’s the Conference Championships. The final four teams that have survived the gauntlet to play for the right to go to the Super Bowl.
Below are predictions for each game against the spread. Spreads have been taken from various websites and are subject to change. The spread in parenthesis denotes the selected team. Spread is listed as advertised number and odds at either DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, Caesars Sportsbook, or SugarHouse Sportsbook. All efforts were made to provide picks at -110 or better, with some stretching to a -125 if no reasonable advertised spread was found.
*Confidence Picks – 2021 Season: 55-50 (Last Week: 1-1)
(2020 Season: 53-42-3) (2019 Season: 57-43-3) (2018 Season: 63-48-4) (2017 Season: 53-48-4) (2016 Season: 53-67-3) (2015 Season: 69-45-2) (2014 Season: 61-46-2)
(7-Year Total: 409-339-21)
All Picks Against Spread – 2021 Season: 157-124-2 (Last Week: 2-2)
(2020 Season: 132-128-7) (2019 Season: 142-118-7) (2018 Season: 137-118-12) (2017 Season: 137-119-11) (2016 Season: 123-136-8) (2015 Season: 143-117-7) (2014 Season: 149-114-4)
(7-Year Total: 963-850-56)
Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs
Where else can we begin this week’s article other than the impossible performance by the Kansas City Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes? We all watched it. We all paid attention. We all sat on the edge of our seats as, with thirteen seconds left and a three-point deficit, we knew that a comeback was possible.
Imagine the power in that knowledge. No, we didn’t know that it would happen. We just knew that it could. To then watch it unfold and see the Chiefs actually complete another comeback with less than two minutes left in an already-thrilling game was simply magical.
And now