The SportSteem crew hopes everyone had a wonderful New Year’s with your friends and family, and that everyone watched all of the exciting sports action.
NFL AFC
In the NFL, the playoff picture is solidified and ready for the Wild Card Weekend. In the AFC, the Steelers and Patriots have byes, so action kicks off on Saturday with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Tennessee Titans. The Titans are considered by many to be the weakest playoff team, though with McCoy’s injury the Bills may have usurped that ignominious title. The Chiefs were appearing to be pretenders after a middling stretch at 1-6, despite a 5-0 start, but finished strong with 4 straight wins down the stretch to finish 10-6. Which Chiefs team is going to show up? Does it matter against these Titans?
On Sunday, the Jacksonville Jaguars (yo !!!) are hosting the Buffalo Bills - if someone, anyone, put down $1 on a parlay of Jags & Bills making the playoffs, we’d love to see the payout for that ticket. The Jaguars, especially their defense, and somehow also kind-of slightly Blake Bortles (just kidding - Leonard Fournette!), are heavy favorites here (-400 on the ML).
NFL NFC
The NFC is far more exciting! The Eagles backed into their bye and the Vikings fearsome defense is getting some rest, so Saturday’s NFC game is the Los Angeles Rams hosting the Atlanta Falcons. In the Rams 2nd season in LA, and with a child-coach as a possible COTY (Mike Zimmer, anyone?), they’ve made the playoffs with strong play from 2nd year QB Jared Goff and stealthy MVP candidate Todd Gurley (3rd year). This is a young team that does amazing things with the football, leading the NFL in scoring. They’re facing the Falcons though, who showed last year what they’re capable of (note: I didn’t say this year). If the Falcons continue their recent trend, this could be the game of the weekend.
Now, the other possible Game Of The Weekend is the New Orleans Saints hosting their fellow NFC South contenders, the Carolina Panthers. It will be a match-up of the QBs in our opinion - is Brees going to be locked down against the Panthers D? Will Newton throw effectively and outrush the Saints RB duo (could happen…)? This is the third matchup between these two teams, so they know each other well, and will likely need to get creative to keep each other on their toes.
NCAAF
In the college realm, we saw some amazing games - the back-and-forth, the revenge, and some exciting talents on televised games hoping to make an impact on football fans and, potentially, NFL scouts. With only 1 bowl game left - the CHAMPIONSHIP with University of Georgia (3) playing Alabama (4) - it looks like HAS THIS LOCKED UP! Their lead is insurmountable - http://sportsteem.com/leaderboards - congratulations to
! We’ll be in touch regarding prizes.
Still a chance to get second place though as our cappers have left room for people to take their shot. Who do you have? UGA? ALA? Spread or ML? Going Over or Under? Track your picks with SportSteem!
MMA Coming Soon!
Continuing from our previous announcement, you will soon be able to track your MMA picks with SportSteem! Be on the lookout for further details on MMA tags and instructions on how to track your MMA selections.