There won’t be a much better matchup this entire season than the Buffalo Bills against the Kansas City Chiefs. The other three divisional round matchups are pretty good too.
We won’t find out if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are hosting the Arizona Cardinals or Los Angeles Rams until after the Cards and Rams face off Monday night, but either team would be a fun match against the Bucs. The other three matchups are set and after what we saw wild-card weekend, a showdown of two red-hot teams in the Bills and Chiefs will be the highlight.
Here is the first look at the lines for the three games that are already on the schedule, with the spreads from BetMGM:
The Titans got to rest as the No. 1 seed, and they seem likely to get star running back Derrick Henry back from a foot injury. Henry hasn’t played since Oct. 31. The Bengals got past the Las Vegas Raiders, getting a stop inside the red zone with the game on the line. The Bengals are on a nice late-season run, with quarterback Joe Burrow playing some great football. He’ll have a tough test against a disruptive Titans defense. It’s a fun way to kick off the divisional round.
Weather forecast for Green Bay on Saturday: High of 22, low of 11 and a 35 percent chance of snow. That wouldn’t be too fun for the guys from the Bay Area, but San Francisco is built like a cold-weather team. They’re going to want to run it and play defense. They have the pass rush to make things challenging for Aaron Rodgers. The 49ers will have to worry about Jimmy Garoppolo playing a mistake-free game, but they played very well in an upset win at Dallas on Sunday and have won eight of 10 including that game. It’s a little surprising to see this line creeping closer to a touchdown than a field goal.
Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5)
Both teams were excellent this past weekend. The Bills didn’t punt, try a field goal or turn it over against the Patriots, the first time in NFL history that has happened. They just scored touchdowns on every possessions before killing the clock at the end. Then the Chiefs, after a quiet start, got five touchdown passes from Patrick Mahomes (and one from Travis Kelce) in a 42-21 win over the Steelers. The Bills won a game at Arrowhead Stadium earlier this season, but that was long ago. This rematch of last season’s AFC championship game feels like the true AFC title game this season as well. It feels like there will be plenty of action on both sides before kickoff.
