NFL Week 17
By the Numbers
The final
week of the 2020 NFL regular season spelled out which teams will enter the
postseason and which ones will go home. The aftermath also left a few teams
searching for new head coaches.
Week 17 is
typically a weird one from a betting perspective. It’s almost as if anything
goes. Take the Bills-Dolphins matchup as an example.
EARN
BETTER REWARDS FOR YOUR FREQUENT SPORTS BETS AT HRWAGER.AG
Weird
Numbers
Top sports
handicappers and bettors alike all knew that
Buffalo, the AFC East champion, was a 3.5- to 4.5-point favorite heading into
its season finale with Miami. The Dolphins had to have a win in order to make
the postseason.
By the time
Sunday rolled around, the Bills were 3.5- to 4.5-point underdog. The thinking
was that Bills QB Josh Allen and some other starters would probably be replaced
early in the second half. Miami had some incentive to win, therefore, the
Dolphins were favored.
Allen was
replaced early in the second half, but the Bills had built a 22-point lead by
that time. Buffalo ended up winning by 30, 56-26. The Bills also doused the
10-6 Dolphins’ playoff hopes.
$1,000,000
With the
end of the regular season, a number of players were able to collect on
performance bonuses placed into their contracts. For example, Rams OLB Leonard
Floyd needed a half-sack on Sunday to eclipse the 10-sack mark. When he took down
Arizona QB Chris Streveler, he wound up with 10.5 and earned a cool $1.25
million bonus.
Green Bay
OLB Za’Darius Smith earned an even $1 million, $500K for hitting double digits
in sacks - 12.5 - and another $500K for reaching at least 12.
There were a
few other players not so happy with themselves after Week 17. That’s because
they missed out on a $1 million bonus. Dallas QB Andy Dalton would have earned
$1 million if the Cowboys had made the playoffs.
Minnesota
OT Riley Reiff was set to earn $1 million if he played in 93.75 percent of all
the Vikings offensive snaps. He finished at 92.6 percent.
See our NFL
Week 16 by the numbers from last week’s action.
Favorites
& Dogs
Week 17 saw
14 favorites win straight up. For the season, favorites enjoyed a record of
170-79-1. Covering the spread was another story.
Underdogs
covered in nine of the sixteen games in Week 17 leaving the season record at
136-112-2 in favor of the dogs.
MUST READ: NEW
YEARS BONUSES AT ONLINE SPORTSBOOKS
Three-fourths
When Week
17 was over, seven teams in each conference earned playoff berths. That’s up
from six last year. This is the first year of the NFL’s new playoff
format.
In year’s
past, there were four games on Wild Card weekend. This year, there are six. It
is worth noting that in each of the past two seasons, three of the four
lower-seeded teams won on Wild Card weekend.
Last year,
it was Tennessee, Seattle, and Minnesota. The year before, it was the Chargers,
Colts, and Eagles. Five of those teams were underdogs. Only last year’s
Seahawks were favored in their Wild Card weekend game.
If this
trend holds, at least four of the six lower seeds would win this weekend. The
work for bettors is to find which ones can pull the upset.
We missed
our Seahawks
@ 49ers free pick on Sunday, go see what we picked.
