NFL

Cook’s 2022 NFL Gambling Picks: Divisional Playoffs Round

It’s time for the NFL Divisional Playoffs! Eight teams remain–four will advance! Steve Cook has your winners –for entertainment purposes, of course.

Published

2 months ago

January 20, 2023

Steve Cook

It’s time for the NFL Divisional Playoffs! Eight teams remain–four will advance! Steve Cook has your stone cold lock winners for this weekend’s games, for entertainment purposes, of course.

Hi, hello & welcome to the Divisional Round! Somewhat lame name aside, this is thought of by many to be the best weekend of NFL action every year. Two games on Saturday, two games on Sunday, all with teams that matter. No having to deal with the likes of the Bears, Texans, Colts & other teams that could be in this spot in a couple of years, but currently serve as punchlines. Heck, looking at some of these teams here tells me that you could see the Bears, Texans and/or Colts here next year. That’s the NFL for ya.

Most of the expected suspects are still with us. The Chiefs & Bills were the most talked about AFC contenders heading into the season. The Bengals were defending AFC Champions, and while many experts wanted to cast them aside, they couldn’t quite do that. San Francisco was expected to do big things. Maybe the NFC East teams weren’t considered contenders by most, but we love talking about them anyway. I don’t think anybody saw the Jags coming…but nobody saw the Bengals coming last year, so that’s their spot.

People thought last week’s slate of games wouldn’t deliver. They were wrong. Don’t even try to act like this week’s slate won’t be a good time. Let’s get to the picks!

Saturday, January 21

Jacksonville at Kansas City (-8.5)

this year will be the 6th straight year that either the Jaguars or Chiefs are in the AFC Championship

kings of the conference if you ask me

— Adam Stites (@AdamStites_) January 18, 2023

Most teams that use the “NOBODY BELIEVED IN US” philosophy use it in spite of what the reality is. The Patriots used it for years after winning a ton of Super Bowls, even though almost everybody was picking them. They’d find the one poor schmuck that thought that somebody might beat Belichick & Brady, then use them as proof that nobody believed.

Back when these two teams faced off in Week 10, the Jacksonville Jaguars were 4-5. They’d won their first three, lost their next three, and seemed well on pace to a forgettable, mediocre season. Which still would have been a big step up for Doug Pederson’s first season and a sign of hope for the future. KC won that game 27-17, then moved on with their lives, surely confident that they wouldn’t be seeing Trevor Lawrence & company again. A funny thing happened: Jacksonville won some games, Tennessee lost a bunch of games, and somehow the Jags ended up in the playoffs. Then they were supposed to lose to the Chargers, as football experts keep telling me that Justin Herbert is the best quarterback in football. The Jags didn’t lose to the Chargers, even though they were down 27-0 and making my Jags moneyline bet look pretty darn silly. Now I only wish I’d made the bet at halftime instead of pregame.

The Jags got something going. Now, it’s completely possible that the Chiefs snuff it out since they’re the Chiefs and that’s what they do. Given the NFL booking team’s inclination towards close games these days, I’m thinking the Jaguars keep things within a touchdown and make Chiefs fans sweat. Maybe rob a bank or two, whatever they do when times are stressful.

NY Giants at Philadelphia (-7.5)

There's a guy walking around Pattison Avenue near the NovaCare Complex with this pic.twitter.com/9jKIytkiO8

— Chris Franklin (@cfranklinnews) January 17, 2023

The Eagles have already defeated the Giants twice this season, with neither game ending up all that close. In fairness to the Giants, they were resting most of their players for that Week 18 game since they already had the 6 seed wrapped up. Can they make things closer this time?

Absolutely. For one thing, Daniel Jones is playing as well as we’ve ever seen him play. Saquon Barkley is doing his typical thing of running all over everybody. The Eagles were dominant for most of the regular season, but Jalen Hurts’ shoulder injury put a bit of a damper on that. He’s expected to play this week, but it’s thought that the shoulder will still be a problem for him. Not ideal. I’m expecting one of those nose-busting divisional round games that will be decided late, so take the Giants and the points you get with them.

Sunday, January 22

Cincinnati at Buffalo (-5.5)

Mercedes-Benz Stadium is already selling tickets to the potential Chiefs and Bills game. I would be offended as a ⁦@Bengals⁩ or ⁦@Jaguars⁩ fan pic.twitter.com/g5nekB2I0a

— David Connors (@DConBlitz) January 18, 2023

It’s been awhile since the Bengals or Bills tasted defeat. There aren’t many hotter teams in football, but I wouldn’t say either of these teams were at their best during Super Wild Card Weekend. The Bills defense hasn’t been the same since Von Miller got injured, and Skylar Thompson & the Dolphins were able to carve them up and come within a field goal of forcing overtime and perhaps defeating the team that NFL media has been telling me is unbeatable since August. The Bills are good, and it’s been a couple of months since they’ve been beaten, but they’re not unbeatable.

The Bengals had their own problems taking care of the Ravens on Sunday night. Injuries on the offensive line have led to pundits falling back on the lazy talking point that the Bengals do nothing to protect Joe Burrow. They tried! It worked for awhile, but now everybody’s hurt. The offense has looked disjointed in recent weeks, but still productive on the whole. Fortunately, the defense has kicked things up a notch and has had a knack for producing touchdowns of its own. One of the things to watch for in this game: Josh Allen has been turning the ball over on a fairly regular basis. If the Bengals defense can capitalize off of that and get the ball in the end zone, that’d be a big difference maker.

However, we don’t need to put that much thought into this. The experts have told me that the Bills are the best team in the history of football, and that the Bengals don’t have a chance. “Zero chance” is what the experts are telling me. Since I don’t want to be responsible for you good people losing your money, I will listen to the experts & their logic over my insane Bengal fandom. Obviously the Bengals did nothing to get here, have nothing going for them as a football team, and might as well roll over for the Bills and their mafia. Right?

Dallas at San Francisco (-3.5)

Dallas Cowboys vs San Francisco 49ers is the most expensive divisional game of all time!!! $1,420 is the average ticket price. Standing room, just to get in.. is around $606! pic.twitter.com/VMR3w4nKl2

— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) January 18, 2023

Things couldn’t have gone much better for the Cowboys on Monday night. They finally shook the Brady curse, defeating the GOATed QB for the first time in eight tries. Dak Prescott was at his best, not making untimely turnovers. The defense made the Bucs look like…well, what the Bucs looked like for most of the season. The only problem? Their kicker was one for five on extra point attempts. It didn’t matter much here, as the Bucs could only muster up two touchdowns long after the game had been decided, but there will be a time where the Cowboys will need to be able to convert on extra points & field goals.

It’ll probably be this week. The 49ers got off to a slow start against Seattle, but once they got things in gear it was never really close. I think the Cowboys put up more of a fight than the Seahawks did, but the 49ers should still cover this on the backs of Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel & the man, the myth, the legend…..BROCK PURDY!

Super Wild Card Weekend Results: 4-2

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

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NFL

Down The Wire: No Cap Recap Super Bowl Edition

The Wortz brothers are back one last time this season to review Super Bowl LVII!

Published

1 month ago

February 15, 2023

PC Tunney

The Wortz brothers are back one last time this season to review Super Bowl LVII!

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NFL

Cook’s 2022 NFL Gambling Picks: Super Bowl LVII

It’s the Super Bowl, and the world will be watching! See who your resident Chairshot handicapper Steve Cook thinks will win the NFL’s championship!

Published

1 month ago

February 11, 2023

Steve Cook

It’s the Super Bowl, and the world will be watching! See who your resident Chairshot handicapper Steve Cook thinks will win the NFL’s championship game between the Eagles and the Chiefs.

Hi, hello & welcome to Super Bowl LVII! I’m Steve Cook, and I’m not going to lie to you good & honest Chairshot readers. I have absolutely no interest in writing this column or watching this game. None whatsoever. Those of you that root for NFL teams that have come up short in conference championship games know exactly what I’m talking about. Granted, getting to that position certainly beats a decade of three-win seasons, three decades of not being able to win a single playoff game & most of the states that NFL franchises currently find themselves in, but there is absolutely no fun to be had in a Super Bowl that you think your team should be in.

Our Cincinnati Bengals had a few too many obstacles in front of them. They had to deal with the best quarterback in the league, who allegedly had a high ankle sprain but seemed to be throwing the ball and moving around pretty well. The Bengals quarterback didn’t have his best game, and their offensive line had a little too much to deal with while the Chiefs’ offensive line seemed unbothered. There was all the trash being talked by some of the Bengal players, which while horribly overplayed by the media certainly got under the Chiefs’ skin. Then there were the officials giving the Chiefs extra downs whenever they needed them and popping up with some kind of bogus call whenever the Bengals made a big play.

So the Bengals season is over. Which is fine. Now I have to hear about how it’s such a wonderful story that the Kansas City Chiefs managed to somehow get back to the Super Bowl. I have to hear about Andy Reid, & Patrick Mahomes, & Jackson Mahomes, & how loud it gets in Kansas City, and that goofball from the University of Convicts, Travis Kelce. Oh don’t get me started…ok, I’ll get started.

Did you know that Travis & Jason Kelce are the first brothers to oppose each other in the Super Bowl? I might have heard that a time or thousand over the past couple of weeks. It’s not accurate. See, Travis is a tight end for the Chiefs, while Jason plays center for the Eagles. They will not be taking the field against each other. Had the Cardinals & Steelers played in this game, and J.J. Watt played linebacker for the Cardinals while Derek Watt was in at fullback for the Steelers, they would have opposed each other in the Super Bowl. That would have been interesting. This isn’t. Let me know if Travis goes in at linebacker, or Jason lines up at defensive end, because that would be interesting. Here, they’ll just stare across the field at each other like a couple of octogenarian politicians.

Chiefs vs. Eagles. I mean, the whole “two Black quarterbacks” thing is pretty cool, and it’s shocking yet not all that shocking that it took so long. Beyond that, I’ve got nothing. I’m still going to be stuck watching this thing, so how does one get excited for the actual game itself?

Prop bets?

Yep, we got prop bets coming out the yin yang for the biggest sports gambling day of the year. You can bet on almost anything going on in this game, though I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have some inside knowledge. How long will the National Anthem take? Bet on it if you know how fast Chris Stapleton sings things. I don’t listen to current hip-hop, so I’m not familiar with his work. Let’s take a look at some of the best and/or most popular…

What will the coin toss land on?

Heads: -105
Tails: -105

One of the dumbest things to bet on out there, but still one of the most popular. Heads has won four out of the last five Super Bowls. Personally, I always chose Heads on Madden 2002 back in the day, so that would be my pick.

Super Bowl MVP:

Patrick Mahomes: +130
Jalen Hurts: +140
Travis Kelce: +1100
AJ Brown: +1400
Miles Sanders: +2500
Devonta Smith: +3000
Haason Reddick: +3000

There’s a long list of other options on BetMGM, but I feel like I’ve already listed too many. A quarterback has won this award thirty-one times. Mahomes is going for his second, and with his “story” going in it’d be an easy call to make if the Chiefs end up winning. Now, we’ve seen a wide receiver win it two out of the last four seasons, this opens the door for the likes of an AJ Brown to slip through. Interesting thing about Kelce: No tight end has ever won Super Bowl MVP. Considering how much media has gassed him up this week with the “brothers” storyline, he’s an interesting choice at +1100. I still think the quarterbacks are the obvious bets, especially if you’re getting them at plus odds. I could see this changing before Sunday.

Color of Gatorade Bath:

Orange: +325
Yellow/Green: +175
Clear/Water: +750
Blue: +400
Red/Pink: +500
Purple: +900
No Gatorade Poured: +1400

I’m a Lemon-Lime guy myself, so I would be hoping for some yellow Gatorade on the sideline if I was involved. I am not, so it would behoove those wanting to bet on this to figure out which Gatorade players of both teams prefer. Blue has had a strong run, winning three out of the last four years. It seems relevant to point out that the Chiefs doused Andy Reid with Orange back in 2020. Some have speculated that Reid may opt out of the Gatorade bath now since he’s old…I don’t think he’s quite that grouchy yet, but it’s something to keep in mind.

I’d go Blue or Orange depending on who you think will win.

Sunday, February 12

Kansas City vs. Philadelphia (-1.5)

This is WILD 🤯

📺: #SBLVII on FOX pic.twitter.com/qZGxeUZNsu

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 9, 2023

We’ve already said a lot about the Kansas City Chiefs. While I have my reservations over how they conduct themselves as an organization and over how they got to this particular game, I’m still a bit surprised to see them as an underdog. They’ve been here before, multiple times in recent years. Their recent postseason success would look even more impressive if it’d taken place before Tom Brady and/or the Patriots shifted the paradigm. Five straight AFC Championship Game appearances, three out of four Super Bowl appearances. They’ve dominated the AFC in recent years, and with Pat Mahomes locked up they’ll probably dominate the AFC in future years.

So why are they the underdogs?

The Philadelphia School District announced a delayed opening for Monday after the Super Bowl 🎒 pic.twitter.com/EJu3z6MgST

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 9, 2023

While the Chiefs had difficulty dispatching the Jaguars & Bengals in their AFC playoff games, the Eagles ran through their NFC opponents like a hot knife through butter. They had no issue defeating the Giants, then stomped out the hopes & dreams of the quarterback-less 49ers. There’s a knock against the Eagles, which is the idea that they’ve had a relatively easy schedule. It kind of falls apart when you remember they played the Cowboys & Giants twice in the regular season, along with two other playoff teams in the Vikings & Jaguars early in the season. The Packers & Titans are usually playoff teams and both teams nearly made it again. These Eagles have taken care of business so far, and they could very well do it again.

I don’t think they do. Patrick Mahomes may not have had that blow-away Super Bowl performance yet, but it’s coming. If you’re giving me the Chiefs as an underdog, I’m gonna take it.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy Super Bowl LVII!