We’ve reached Week 17! This is the final…well, the final nothing!
It’s the preview of the final week. The game before the game.
All season long, I have written about how this year, by virtue of the additional week — and the seventh Wild Card spot installed last season — has allowed teams to stay alive in the fight for a little longer than usual. We are absolutely seeing this in the AFC, as we enter Sunday with only one team officially in the postseason.
As always, we have to separate the storylines that matter from those that don’t. This usually applies to teams that need certain outcomes in order to finalize playoff positioning, but I am curious to see how it’s handled with two weeks left in the fight. Obviously, everyone would like to take care of business as early as possible, but “like” and “will” have two different meanings.
The good news is that this gives us something on which we can focus our attention over the final two-week stretch of the year.
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, Caesar’s 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: 47-42 (Last Week: 2-4)
(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: 136-102-2 (Last Week: 7-9)
(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)
Atlanta Falcons at Buffalo Bills
I purposely don’t look for a trend or pattern in a given week until I have started to write some of my picks. More often than not, if there is some sort of consistency between games, it will appear naturally.
The “trend,” if we will call it that, for Week 17 is quite easy to find. That is, there are massive spreads for some games, and those games have playoff implications. Therefore, we not only have the large numbers but clear-cut reasons behind them.
Let’s do a little math before we continue.
There are four teams with absolutely massive odds to win their respective games.