NFL Playoff Odds 2024: Early Lines for Wild Card Games and Super Bowl | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
No. 5 Cleveland (-2) at No. 4 Houston (Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET)
No. 6 Miami at No. 3 Kansas City (-3) (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET)
No. 7 Pittsburgh at No. 2 Buffalo (-9.5) (Sunday 1 p.m. ET)
Buffalo avoided a road game and a rematch with the Dolphins by winning on the road on Sunday night.
Now the Bills have one of the most favorable paths to the conference championship game in their sights.
Buffalo has not lost since Thanskgiving weekend and faces a Pittsburgh team that must make a quarterback decision between Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett.
Pittsburgh was decent enough to defeat Baltimore's reserves on Saturday, but it will face a whole other challenge containing Josh Allen and the red-hot Bills in a road game.
It would not be a surprise to see the Bills bet up over double digits because of that mismatch.
Miami dropped into the worst matchup possible since it has to go on the road to Kansas City and play in freezing temperatures.
Kansas City rested Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and other key players in Week 18, while Miami had to play its healthy stars in the loss to Buffalo. Raheem Mostert and Jaylen Waddle did not play on Sunday, but are likely to participate in the wild-card round on Saturday night.
The Chiefs beat the Dolphins in Germany earlier this season in a game in which the Dolphins scored just 14 points. The mid-season matchup could help sway bettors in favor of Kansas City.
Cleveland is a deserved favorite after its 36-22 win in Houston in Week 16.
C.J. Stroud's presence is the major difference between that contest and the wild-card meeting.
Stroud and the Texans will be an intriguing underdog at home because of the rookie quarterback's performance in an elimination game on Saturday night against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Stroud-Nico Collins duo can go pass-for-pass with Joe Flacco and Amari Cooper. The two dynamic combinations and the indoor conditions at NRG Stadium could produce the highest-scoring game of the weekend.
Cleveland holds the edge in experience at quarterback with Flacco, the Super Bowl winner who unexpectedly rescued the Browns' season.
The Myles Garrett-led Cleveland defense has the potential to slow down Stroud, but it is hard to imagine the first-year signal-caller will be silenced for four quarters given his performance on Saturday.
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