Clear skies for the three National Football League Wild Card games today. The action starts at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time when the Buffalo Bills host the Denver Broncos. The afternoon game finds the Philadelphia Eagles meeting the Green Bay Packers at Lincoln Financial Field. The late game, scheduled for 5 p.m., finds the Washington Commanders in Florida to battle the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Two teams are going to end their 2024 season against the opponent they opened with. The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles opened their seasons in Brazil and the Eagles edged Jordan Love and company, 34-29. The Commanders and Buccaneers opened their 2024 campaigns at Raymond James Stadium, same site where these two NFC playoff teams meet today. The Buccaneers opened the season with a 37-20 victory over Washington and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Since that first loss, the Commanders and their first-year head coach, Dan Quinn, went on a terror that has them surprise participants in the postseason. Following their opening setback, the Commanders won four straight games before losing by a touchdown to a very talented Baltimore Ravens team on the road.
The success of Washington is greatly pinned to the success of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. He completed his first year in the NFL with a passing completion percentage of 69%, which is slightly higher than the all-time completion percentage leader, Joe Burrow. To qualify for inclusion on the lifetime completion percentage stats a quarterback has to have a minimum of 1500 attempts. In his rookie year, Daniels had 480 attempts.
This is also the second straight season that the second overall pick in the NFL draft has lifted his team to the playoffs. Last year, C.J. Stroud was Houston’s first round pick, second overall, and he both guided the Texans into the playoffs but earned his team a playoff victory in his first postseason experience. Yesterday, Stroud became one of six quarterbacks in history to win opening playoff games in each of his first two professional seasons.
Daniels is up against Tampa Bay Quarterback Baker Mayfield. He was a first overall draft selection in 2018, taken by the Cleveland Browns. Not finding franchise quarterback success with his initial team, Mayfield has spent the last two years with the Buccaneers and has led them to the playoffs in both seasons.
As for the public wagers, their favorite play this week was yesterday’s contest in Houston where they favored the Los Angeles Chargers (-3) over the Texans. The second most-bet game off the Wild Card schedule is the Buffalo Bills (-8) over the Denver Broncos followed by the Philadelphia Eagles (-5) over the Green Bay Packers.
Qoxhi has one money rated game today, and that contest is now posted on this site.