Which NFC Teams Have the Best Super Bowl Odds Heading into the Divisional Round
The NFL playoffs began last weekend with three road teams claiming victory to advance to the next round. It should be noted that two of those road victories took place on the NFC side. The Seattle Seahawks knocked off a depleted Philadelphia Eagles squad 17-9. In the other NFC wildcard matchup, the underdog Minnesota Vikings rose to the occasion to defeat the New Orleans Saints.
Will the road teams reign supreme this week as well? Here’s an updated look at the Super Bowl odds for the remaining NFC teams, along with my predictions as to which teams will advance to the conference championship round.
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The Fourth-Best NFC Super Bowl Odds: Minnesota Vikings (+1300)
The Vikings weren’t given much of a shot in their matchup against the Saints last week, and rightfully so. You see, Kirk Cousins hadn’t exactly earned the reputation for being a quarterback that could lead his team to victory in the postseason, while Drew Brees already has a Super Bowl championship on his resume. The Saints managed to send the game into overtime after overcoming a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, their momentum was short-lived as Cousins connected with tight end Kyle Rudolph for the game-winning touchdown, enabling the Vikings to escape with a 26-20 win. Cousins completed 19 of 31 passes for 242 yards, with the lone touchdown pass taking place in overtime. On the other side of the ball, the Vikings forced a pair of turnovers against a team that recorded just eight of them during the regular season. Next up for the Vikings is a divisional showdown against the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers.
The Third-Best NFC Super Bowl Odds: Seattle Seahawks (+1100)
After failing to win their division, the Seahawks were relegated to the No. 5 seed in the playoff bracket and they came into the postseason with their odds at +2500. As previously mentioned, the Seahawks defeated a short-handed Eagles squad 17-9, which bumped up their odds to +1100. Russell Wilson led the way, completing 18 of his 30 pass attempts for 325 yards to go along with a touchdown.
Meanwhile, Josh McCown, who was forced into action after Carson Wentz was knocked out of the game, also completed 18 passes on 24 attempts for 174 yards. But the Seahawks’ defense made his life difficult for most of the evening, sacking him a whopping six times. The Seahawks road to the big game continues this weekend with another road game against the Green Bay Packers.
The Second-Best NFC Super Bowl Odds Green Bay Packers (+600)
Green Bay’s Super Bowl odds were right around +1000 for most of the season. Once the Minnesota Vikings took down Drew Brees and the Saints though, those odds have improved to +600. The Green Bay Packers aren’t elite on either side of the football, as they finished the season ranked 18th in both total offense and defense. This means they could have their hands full trying to contain DK Metcalf, who torched the Eagles’ secondary for 160 yards on seven catches.
Meanwhile, although the Seahawks came into the playoffs ranked 8th in total offense, they finished 26th in the league in total defense. And when you’re going up against a future Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers, your defense could be in for a long day at the office. Seattle has only lost one game on the road this season, while the Packers have only lost one game on their home turf. In what should be a close game, I’m predicting that Rodgers will make just enough plays to help his team advance to the championship game for the first time since 2017.
The Best NFC Super Bowl Odds: San Francisco 49ers (+320)
The 49ers won their first eight games of the season before splitting their next four. Fortunately, they managed to turn things around by posting three wins in their final four games of the regular
season to finish tied with the Packers for the best record in the conference at 13-3. We all saw what the Vikings were able to do against the Saints in the wild-card round. But being that the 49ers finished fourth in total offense and second in rushing yards per outing (144.1), they will prove to be a bigger obstacle former Minnesota to overcome.
Let’s also not forget that the 49ers had the second-best defense in the league and were ranked first in passing yards allowed per game. In other words, Kirk Cousins will have his hands full in this one. The one stat that may allow the Vikings to keep this one close is the fact that San Francisco was ranked 16th in total rushing yards allowed. Despite this trend though, look for the 49ers defense to leave their mark in this contest, which will propel the team to its first conference championship appearance since the 2013 season.
