NFL wild card predictions for Sunday and Monday: Take four favorites

Richard Witt makes his predictions for the remaining games on NFL wild card weekend: The Cowboys are at home, where they’ve won their past 16 straight — and look to make it 17 against Green Bay — while the Packers have largely dominated the ’Boys when they’ve met in recent years. Quarterback Jordan Love has been most impressive in his first season as the Packers’ starter, but the combo of Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb has been a reliable go to for Dallas, and shows no sign of slowing down.

It’s been more than a quarter century since the Cowboys managed to advance beyond the divisional round in the playoffs, but this may be a breakthrough year from an organization which seems to have gotten its act together in a significant way. Both of these sides can be reasonably expected to know one another’s oddest quirks exceptionally well.

As a further oddity, quarterbacks Matthew Stafford (Rams) and Jared Goff (Lions) each played for the opposing team until a 2021 trade. They’ll be looking to capitalize on their more thorough than usual understanding of the opposition. The Lions are nearing the end of the second of two good years and should be able to maintain tangible momentum through at least this round.

We would like to like the Bills, especially at home, but it would be easier to do so if they weren’t laying a full 10 points — especially against the Steelers, who are frequently ornery. Buffalo’s projected weather should be better Monday than it would have been Sunday, but still not ideal. It could keep scoring relatively low, which makes laying double digits more problematic.

The continued snowy and cold conditions Monday could dampen the enthusiasm of a lessened home crowd. These Steelers are undefeated under Mason Rudolph, though they’re just 10 7 overall, third in the AFC North. Still, Pittsburgh will be missing T.J. Watt, who suffered a knee injury in last week’s win over the resting Ravens.

The Bills have been functioning quite well all season, and their injury list appears manageable. Take Josh Allen and the Bills, keeping in mind that there are innumerable ways double digit NFL favorites can wind up not covering. Philly finally lands in a relatively more comfortable spot, against the NFC South — which the Buccaneers were able to top with a relatively sedate mark of 9 8.

Both quarterbacks are expected to perform at margins somewhat less than 100 percent — the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts recovering from an injury to his right middle finger and the Bucs’ Baker Mayfield coming off a rib injury in Week 17 and an ankle injury last week. The Eagles are also boosted by the return of DeVonta Smith — who sat out against the Giants last week, resting his ankle.

A potential cloud reaching over the Eagles could be the status of head coach Nick Sirianni, whose future has been cast in some doubt by some observers. Give Buccaneers full credit for a sharp effort against a testing foe, but we’d take the Eagles, giving three. Last week : 5 9 Season : 104 115 9.