For many football fans making NFL picks and predictions, the Divisional Round is the best part of the playoffs.
Gone are the scrappy contenders of the Wild Card Weekend, leaving us with the NFL’s version of the Elite Eight. We don’t get the high stakes of the conference championships or the pageantry of the Super Bowl, but we have four solid NFL betting options on the board to keep us busy Saturday and Sunday.
Of course, this being a column titled NFL Underdogs (in which I can only make picks getting the points), we have to size up just how pups do at this point in the postseason.
Long-term, Divisional Round dogs have been pretty good at 47-35-1 against the spread since 2000-01 (57%). But while those underdogs went 3-1 ATS in last year’s Divisional Round matchups, teams getting the points have lost a little bite in recent postseasons, with a 13-14-1 ATS count for Divisional Round dogs since 2015.
Not exactly the 67% windfall for underdogs in the Wild Card Round we’ve seen over the past six years.
So, like Indiana Jones combing through dusty cups in search of the Holy Grail, we “must choose but choose wisely” when it comes to making our NFL underdog picks and predictions in the Divisional Round.
Here’s to fortune and glory.
