2023 NFL wild-card playoff picks Tom Bra

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I heard a coughing sound over the weekend and since I was battling a cold, I thought it was me, but as it turns out, it was actually just the choking away their shot at a playoff spot.To make the playoffs, all the Packers had to do was beat the in the final game of the 2022 regular season, but they couldn't do that, which means will now be watching the playoffs from home... or from a South American ayahuasca farm. One or the other.With Week 18 in the books, that means it's now time for the postseason Ryan McMahon Jersey , and up first, we have the playoff round that I love to hate: The wild-card round. I love watching it, but I hate trying to predict it, because it always gets crazy, and I'm not talking a little crazy, I'm talking "orange is a sound, down is left, my milk is starting to taste like peanuts" crazy.Just to give you an idea of how crazy things can get during the first weekend of the playoffs, just consider this: Underdogs have gone 16-8 against the spread since 2017, which clearly means I should take every underdog to cover this week, but also, maybe I shouldn't, because they went 1-5 last season. You can also throw home-field advantage out the window: Road teams are 11-9 straight-up in the wild-card round since the start of the 2018 season, which means I should obviously pick a few road teams to win this week, but also, maybe I shouldn't, because road teams went 1-5 last year.And if that's not confusing enough, we could have as many as seven quarterbacks making their first career playoff start, which is definitely not a good thing. Since 2002, quarterbacks making their first Blank Jersey career playoff start in the wild-card round are 12-35 straight-up, including 1-4 last year and that one win only happened because two first-time playoff starters were facing each other ( vs. ). This year, the , , , and will all have a QB making his first career playoff start. Also, the could be added to that list if DOESN'T start and the could be added if DOESN'T start ( and have never started a playoff game, but Bridgewater has). How many of these quarterbacks will I pick against? Let's get to the picks and find out. Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET (Fox) Featured Game | San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks Moneyline Spread Total SF SEA This game marks the third time this season that these two teams have played each other and after picking the 49ers to win in each of the first two games, I have to say, I haven't seen anything that's going to change my mind this time around.If the Seahawks have proven one thing this season, it's that they can beat you if they can run the ball, which actually could be a problem in this game, because it's almost impo sible to run the ball against San Francisco's defense. The 49ers have only surrendered 77.7 rushing yards per game this year, which is ranked first in the NFC and second in the . To put that number in perspective, EVERY other team in the NFC gave up at least 110 yards per game on the ground in 2022.For the Seahawks, their magic number on the ground has been 75: In games where they've rushed for more than 75 yard this season, they've gone 9-3, but they're 0-5 when they are held under 75 yards. And in news that probably won't surprise you, the Seahawks didn't hit 75 yards in either of their two regular-season games against the 49ers. As a matter of fact, they only averaged 53 rushing yards per game. The only thing that concerns me about the 49ers is that they're starting a rookie quarterback and rookies tend to struggle in the playoffs in the same way that the Titanic struggled against the iceberg. It's not pretty. However, I'm not actually overly concerned about because I think Kyle Shanahan will ease him into the postseason. The Seahawks surrendered the third-most rushing yards in the NFL this season (150.2 yards per game) so I won't be surprised if Shanahan draws up a run-heavy game-plan that calls for Purdy to do almost nothing.The one quarterback I am concerned about though is . He'll be making his first career playoff start and let me just Gerardo Parra Jersey say that the 49ers have the one defense in the NFL that you don't want to be facing when you're making your first career playoff start.I'm taking the 49ers here, but if the Seahawks win, I might have to let this corgi handle all of my next week. The Corgi has spoken! Becky (@beckarabecka) That dog is way better at "stairs basketball" than me.THE PICK:49ers 27-20 over SeahawksRecord picking SF-SEA games this season: 2-0Record picking Seahawks games this season:9-8Record picking 49ers games this season:12-5Saturday, 8:15 p.m. ET (NBC) Featured Game | Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Los Angeles Chargers Moneyline Spread Total JAC LAC I've spent the past 48 hours thinking about it and i still have no idea how the Jaguars made the playoffs this year. Back on Nov. 1, the Jags were 2-6, which was tied for the third-worst record in the NFL. At that point in the season, the Jags were so bad that I was 40% convinced that Doug Pederson was secretly letting Urban Meyer coach the team again.As bad as the Jags were through the first eight weeks though, they did have two wins and one of those wins was a game in Week 3 where they destroyed the Chargers 38-10. However, I'm not going to put too much stock into that game because was banged up and didn't play. Actually, you know what? I am going to put some stock into Colorado Rockies Jersey that game and that's because the Chargers were mostly healthy on defense and the defense got gashed up by the Jags. Jacksonville totaled 151 yards on the ground in Week 3 and if the Chargers had gotten better at stopping the run since then, I wouldn't be bringing this game up right now, but they've somehow gotten worse.During the regular season, the Chargers surrendered a total of 145.8 yards per game on the ground, which was the second-worst number in the AFC and fifth-worst in the NFL. They also gave up an average of 5.4 yards PER CARRY this year, which wasn't just the most in the NFL, but it was the most by any team SINCE 1959! made playoffs despite giving up the sixth most rushing yards per carry since 1933:1934 Cincy Reds 6.401950 NY Yanks 5.631950 Colts 5.561952 Dallas Texans 5.541959 Redskins 5.482022 CHARGERS 5.421961 Vikings 5.411958 49ers 5.362013 Bears 5.35 Joe Reedy (@joereedy) When you can run on the Chargers, you can beat them: L.A. went 4-6 this year when giving up more than 150 yards on the ground, but 6-1 in games where they surrendered under 150. Although the Chargers have been bad at stopping the run, the Jags have been even worse at stopping the pa s. Justin Herbert might throw for 500 yards on Saturday and that's because he'll be going up against a Jaguars defense the surrendered the fifth-most pa sing yards in the NFL this year.The Jaguars defense won't be able to stop the Chargers pa sing game. Kyle Freeland Jersey The Chargers defens