Morning Coffee: Two bets to consider for Monday’s Super Wild Card Weekend games

​It’s called the NFL Super Wild Card Weekend for a reason.

So far, the games have lived up to that billing.

As is the case with most of the reaction this morning, we’ll begin this column with the Dallas Cowboys.

Entering the playoffs, the Cowboys had won 16 straight home games, including an 8-0 record this season.

Dallas closed -7 versus the Green Bay Packers at FanDuel.

They trailed by as many as 27 points in a 48-32 loss.

The Cowboys have won 36 regular season games since the start of the 2021 season.

That’s the most regular season wins over a three-year span without reaching the conference championship game once by any team in NFL history.

Where does the organization go from here?

There will be plenty of speculation about what’s next in the coming days, but Sunday’s no-show against the Packers has to begin and end with the coaching staff.

Meanwhile, thanks to some brutal weather in Buffalo, we have two Wild Card games on today’s schedule to take a closer look at in this column.

Let’s lock in a pair of FanDuel Best Bets and try to end the week off on a winning note.

This is the Morning Coffee for Monday January 15^th, 2024.

A FanDuel Best Bet For Steelers, Bills

The Buffalo Bills enter the postseason as the hottest team in the NFL after winning five straight games and clinching the AFC East title in the final game of the regular season.

Buffalo is 23-5 in December and January games since 2020, averaging 29.4 points per game with a +9.6 average point differential in those contests.

Josh Allen is 3-0 in the Wild Card round since 2020.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers needed three straight wins to sneak into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed.

However, Pittsburgh hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016, and has been a double-digit underdog at FanDuel for most of the week.

The Steelers will be without Defensive Player of the Year candidate T.J. Watt, which is a significant loss for a defence that will be tasked with slowing down Allen and a talented Buffalo offence.

On the other side of the football, Mason Rudolph will make his first career playoff start.

The Bills are currently a 10-point favourite at FanDuel.

While that’s a lot of points to lay in a playoff game with a team that has struggled to cover the number, Buffalo will win this game.

In terms of a player prop, I’m targeting Khalil Shakir 25+ receiving yards.

Shakir has at least 39 receiving yards in three straight games, including six catches for 105 yards in last week’s win over the Miami Dolphins.

While the Pittsburgh defence has been good against the pass, they won’t have Watt in the line-up, and the Steelers rank 30^th in the NFL with an average of 9.5 yards per target allowed to receivers this season.

Shakir should be able to take advantage with at least two catches for 25 or more yards in this contest.

I’ll lock in a Same Game Parlay with Shakir 2+ receptions, 25+ receiving yards and Bills moneyline at -120 as my FanDuel Best Bet for the early game.

A FanDuel Best Bet For Eagles, Bucs

While the Bills enter the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles are among the coldest.

Philadelphia lost five of its final six games to miss out on an NFC East title and a home playoff game.

Instead, the Eagles have been forced to travel for a date with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Philadelphia has hovered around -3 at FanDuel all week.

For as terrible as the Eagles looked down the stretch, I still believe they are the better team.

With A.J. Brown out and DeVonta Smith commanding the bulk of the attention from the Tampa Bay defence, Jalen Hurts will turn to his tight end to move the ball through the air.

When these teams met back in Week 3, Goedert had five catches for 41 yards in a 25-11 win.

The Bucs defence has allowed 6.0 receptions per game to opposing tight ends, which ranks 30^th in the NFL.

I’ll bank on Goedert to finish with 25 or more receiving yards in this contest.

A Same Game Parlay with the Eagles to win and Goedert to finish with 25 or more receiving yards gets me +100 odds at FanDuel.

I’ll lock that in as my FanDuel Best Bet for tonight’s game.