Our NFL Divisional Round betting preview: Our against the spread picks & bonus bet to make

Wild Card weekend for this NFL postseason should be renamed “blowout” weekend as five of the six games were decided by two scores or more.

The lone exception was the thrilling back-and-forth between the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night that saw Detroit end a 32-year drought as the franchise won its first playoff game since Jan. 5, 1992.

Of the four matchups in this weekend's Divisional Round, there will be three rematches from the regular season. The only two teams who didn’t play each other this season are the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, but they will face off in an NFL record 10th time in the postseason.

My bets were red-hot over the weekend, as it was a clean 6-0 sweep of the board for the Wild Card round. It was capped off by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were a field-goal underdog at the beginning of last week, pulling off the upset in dominant fashion, with a 32-9 victory over the Eagles on Monday night.

Here’s my record for the postseason as we head into the second weekend of the playoffs:

Playoff record: 6-0

Against the spread: 5-0

Bonus Bets: 1-0

Let's keep the undefeated train rolling as here my best bets against the spread and a bonus over/under to wager on for the Divisional Round:

Green Bay Packers (+10) vs. San Francisco 49ers 

The biggest spread of the upcoming weekend is in the Bay Area as Green Bay is still a double-digit road underdog despite its 48-32 win over the Cowboys.

Packers QB Jordan Love carried his second-half regular season success into his postseason debut as he threw for 272 yards and three touchdowns.

Green Bay has covered three straight games against the spread (ATS) and is 5-5 ATS on the road.

On the other side, the 49ers are well rested after a bye week since earning the top-seed in the NFC.

However, San Francisco has failed to cover in five straight games at Levi’s Stadium, with three of those games coming against playoff opponents (Rams, Ravens and Buccaneers).

The key to this matchup will be whether the 49ers’ vaunted defensive line, which finished tied for seventh in the NFL with 48 sacks this year, get to Love? The former first-round pick was barely touched and not sacked once in Green Bay’s blowout win over Dallas.

I expect the Packers will have a tougher time offensively on Saturday night, but ultimately cover this large number.

Caesars Sportsbook is the only betting site that still offers Green Bay as double-digit underdogs with a price of -110 (Bet $110 to win $100).

Detroit Lions (-6) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Prior to the season, many football fanatics would not believe you if you said these two teams would meet for a spot in the NFC Championship game.

The Lions were hyped up this offseason as everyone’s pick to make some noise in the NFC, which they’ve lived up to and then some.

However, the Buccaneers were beginning their first season without future Hall of Famer QB Tom Brady under center and started 3-5.

In their Week 5 meeting, Detroit didn’t have rookie sensation RB Jahmyr GIbbs, and starting RB David Montgomery left halfway through the second quarter with a rib injury.

Still, the Lions were in full control from start to finish as QB Jared Goff had 353 passing yards and threw for a pair of touchdowns.

The big difference maker came on third down when Detroit converted on 56 percent of its opportunities, while Tampa was a woeful 2-for-12. This led to a massive advantage in time of possession for the Lions as they had the ball for 36 minutes to the Buccaneers 23 minutes.

Tampa Bay is an impressive 8-1 against the spread on the road this season with its lone blemish coming in Week 12 at the Colts.

Now facing the issue of a tough road matchup on a short week against one of the best running back duos in the league, I believe it’ll be a long day for the Buccaneers as the Lions advance to their first NFC Championship appearance in 33 years.

PointsBet and Caesars Sportsbook are the only options to get the Lions to cover the near touchdown spread with a -110 price.

Buffalo Bills (-2.5) vs. Kansas City Chiefs

The Divisional Round comes to an end Sunday night in what could be an all-time classic matchup between the Bills and Chiefs at Orchard Park.

Not only is this a rematch from Week 14, but this game will almost be exactly two years to the day when these two AFC powerhouses met in one of the most exciting back-and-forth contests in recent playoff history in the Chiefs’ 45-42 overtime victory at Arrowhead Stadium.

While the Chiefs offense is different than it was two years ago with the subtraction of WR Tyreek Hill, the team was still able to take care of the Hill-led Dolphins, 26-7, in the freezing cold last Saturday night in Kansas City.

The Bills took care of business in a 31-17 win over the Steelers on Monday. Despite the Bills' two-score victory, Pittsburgh battled back from a 21-0 first half deficit to make it a seven-point game early in the fourth quarter, but that was the closest it got.

Since their memorable playoff battle, Buffalo has won in Kansas City in back-to-back seasons and will be hosting the Chiefs for the first time since Oct. 19, 2020.

If the Bills are to beat K.C. for a third consecutive time, I believe they’re going to need to make this “track meet” as I don’t see the Chiefs offense able to keep up on the road versus a banged-up Buffalo defense that has not surrendered more than 22 points since Week 12.

Kansas City was able to have one of its best offensive performances in recent weeks in the Wild Card round. However, that was at home against a beat up Dolphins’ defense that was missing a handful of its best defenders.

Now on the road in one of the loudest, most hostile environments in the NFL, the Bills will move on to their first AFC Championship game in 31 years, while the Chiefs fail to advance past the Divisional Round for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era.

PointsBet has the best available price of -115 (Bet $115 to win $100) for the Bills to cover the near field goal spread.

Bonus Bet: Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans UNDER 45 points (-110)

These two teams met all the way back in Week 1 when there were only 34 combined points in early September.

While there likely will be more than that number on Saturday afternoon, I’m still on the under in this one.

Both organizations rank top-11 in scoring defense and have combined to allow more than 21 points in just one of their previous nine contests.

The Texans have gone below this line in five of their last seven games and travel to face a defense in Baltimore that ranked best in the league in sacks, points against, QB rating, yards per attempt and yards per completion.

This is the lowest total of the four-game slate this weekend but I’d still bet on there being 44 or fewer points being scored in this one.

Caesars Sportsbook is the only option that has this over/under at a line of 45 points with a current price of -110.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NFL playoffs Divisional Round against spread betting picks