Welcome to the Wild Card Weekend edition of The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview, by Rich Hribar.
What is The Worksheet from Rich Hribar?
The Worksheet is a comprehensive weekly fantasy football preview for each NFL game. Rich Hribar analyzes the matchup for every notable fantasy player for every game every week of the NFL season.
For those who are new to this article, just because the fantasy regular season has ended doesn’t mean that fantasy football stops.
The fantasy playoffs offer a host of new opportunities for playoff leagues, props, betting, and daily fantasy games.
272 NFL games are down and 13 remain.
Some quick Wild Card Round odds and trends:
Since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002, home teams have a 49-41 record but are 41-48-1 against the spread.
Three years ago, the NFL expanded to seven playoff teams.
Over that span, home teams are 11-7 straight up and an even 9-9 against the spread.
Favorites are 57-33 overall with a 40-49-1 record against the spread.
Over the past three years with the playoffs expanded, favorites are 13-5 straight up and an equal 9-9 against the spread.
Home favorites have a 43-27 record overall (31-39 ATS) while home underdogs are 6-14 (10-9-1 ATS).
We have a pair of home underdogs in the Buccaneers and the Texans this weekend.
Since the NFL expanded out to seven playoff teams, No. 7 seeds are 0-6 (2-4 ATS) with none of those games having a point spread below a touchdown.
That is the case again this season as both the Packers and Steelers are underdogs by more than a touchdown.
The Wild Card Round has also skewed heavily towards the under when talking game totals.
Since that 32-team expansion, the under is 51-39.
The over has gone 12-6 since the recent seven-team playoff expansion, with five of the six games last season going over the game total.
This article will be updated throughout the week to reflect major news or injury implications.
I encourage you to use the game-by-game tables and data points here in conjunction with the player rankings that will be available each Thursday and enjoy the games.
Click the matchups below for the individual game previews.
