NFL Playoffs Wild Card Round TV Schedule, Announcers, Spreads and Picks

Update 1/5: That announcers have now been updated for all four Wild Card round playoff games.

The regular season has ended and the playoff schedule is set. Incredibly, the Wild Card round this upcoming weekend will give us three rematches of Week 17 games.

Considering that I nailed two out of the three (and 10 out of 15 overall last week, with one push) you’d probably think I’d be pretty confident heading into the playoffs with my 135-106-3 record picking against the spread on the season.

And you’d be right, but that doesn’t mean that this week’s games aren’t very tricky to predict.

The Jets smashed the Bengals, but Cincinnati seemed disinterested and flat. The same is true for the Packers win over the Cardinals. And who knows what to make of Dallas’ shellacking of Philadelphia. The Cowboys took two from the Eagles this year and are favored this weekend, but we know the old adage about how hard it is to beat a team three times.

The TV schedule is set and the spreads are in, so my picks are as well. As I’ve done all season – with pretty damn good success I might add – I’m picking these games based on my gut reaction immediately after seeing the first spreads posted.

It’s worked well all year, so like a good football team I am not going to change things up once the stakes are higher.

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NFL Week 17 Picks, Point Spreads, TV Schedule, and Announcer Lineup

This post is from 2009. Here are the NFL Week 17 Picks for 2010.

Update 1/2/10 7:30 pm: All of the games now have spreads and picks below.

Update 12/29 9:00 pm CT – The announcer lineups for the Week 17 games have been announced and this post has been updated. There are still a few games not on the betting board. I’ll update as soon as I see a spread. Please chime in with a comment if you find a spread for a game we don’t have listed.

Well, I had a much better Week 16 than Jim Caldwell did in Indianapolis.

As I write this, Eric Kuselias and Adam Schefter are killing Caldwell as they fill in for Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio. I’ve also read numerous tweets and other social media posts from Colts fan friends of mine who are absolutely pissed at Caldwell for removing Peyton Manning and other starters during the 3rd quarter yesterday.

And I don’t blame them. The Colts were five games away from etching their name in NFL lore as the greatest team of all time. Yet, they put that legacy in the hands of Curtis Painter, who predictably failed to deliver win #15. I know what Caldwell’s reasons for sitting his starters were, but I still say that he cheated the NFL, its fans, the Colts, his players, and the Colts fans.

Update: For the record, not that it’s the purpose of this post, but I have changed my stance on the whole Colts issue with more time to think about it and to watch the aftermath, specifically how Colts fans have reacted to the situation. This post from KVB pretty much sums up how I feel.

I understand why Colts fans were upset and felt cheated initially. Obviously the gut reaction I placed in the post proves that I felt similarly. But a little time should have given Colts fans some perspective and reminded them just how good they have it. Apparently, this has not happened.

With that, and with my above .500 record in Week 16 (10-5 if the Bears can stay within 7 tonight), we look ahead to Week 17. At a minimum, I will be 22 games over .500 when Week 17 starts. Hopefully you’ve been paying attention all year; for my first time picking games for every week of the NFL season, I’d say I’ve had a pretty auspicious debut.

And, to be fair, despite what happened in Week 16, Jim Caldwell has had a pretty auspicious debut this season as well.

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