Hopefully something in these notes on the weekend NFL games will help you out in the Divisional round.

Cardinals at Saints. The Saints haven’t played a good game since they wiped out the Patriots on the last Monday nighter of November, and have arguably been outplayed by 5 straight opponents.   They weren’t putting forth great effort in the last couple of weeks,  but there’s got to be a little concern there.  On the other hand, could the Cardinals lack energy after leaving it all on the field in their classic 51-45 OT win over the Packers?  Teams off of wins where both teams scored a lot of points aren’t a positive subset in the NFL.   Saints favored by 7, which has been solid.  The total has been bet up a bit and there are a lot of 57’s around at Vegas and online sportsbooks as this is written.

Colts at Ravens: Ravens certain to want to establish the run, but obviously their 52 runs and 10 passes in New England could be credited to the shape of the game.  And the 47 total points in that one were a pretty high score considering that there was only 464 yards of offense combined for by the two clubs in New England. But no way the Ravens put too much trust in Flacco.   Colts resting hasn’t worked in the past and overall they’ve lost their opening playoff appearance in 6 of their last 9 seasons. Worth noting that each of the last 4 games in this building have seen 44 points or more scored. Colts are favored by 6.5 in most places but some online sportsbooks have it at 6 and the total has been bet down to 44.

Cowboys at Vikings.  Dallas is red hot, and in their 4-game winning streak they’ve outyarded their opponents 1732-1122.  They’ve outgained 7 straight teams and are playing impressively.  Vikings lost interest and tried to keep Favre fresh late in the season, but maintained very strong home performance.  They’re the only NFC team to go undefeated at home and won their 5 home affairs by 17, 26, 26, 20, and 37 (nice effort, Giants).    The line opened at Vikings -2 and has been drifting up to the point where it’s 2.5 minus significant juice and possibly headed to 3.  The total was bet down from 48 pretty quickly and has been at 46 since Monday at Vegas and online sportsbooks.

Jets at Chargers:  The only outdoor game of the weekend is being played in the city with America’s nicest weather and low 60’s and light breezes are expected on Sunday. Interesting matchup as the Jets pass defense and Chargers pass offense are both phenomenally good.  If the Jets ace secondary can slow down the Chargers rangy receivers (all 6-4 or taller) they’ll be one of the few defenses to accomplish the feat.  This is the one game that saw the most action on the side, there were briefly some lines as high as 9 (even 9.5), which quickly came down to 7.5 and now there are a lot of 7’s. The total has been bet down from an early 43 to 42.  If there’s a public side this weekend, the Jets are it.

Good luck in this weekend’s NFL.