Wild Card Playoffs: Cincinnati Bengals vs Las Vegas Raiders 1/15/22 NFL Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Cincinnati Bengals and Las Vegas Raiders clash Saturday afternoon in the NFL AFC Wild Card Playoffs at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. The Las Vegas Raiders look for their first playoff win since 2002 when they made the Super Bowl. The Cincinnati Bengals look for their first playoff win since 1990 when Boomer Esiason was quarterback. 

The Las Vegas Raiders have won five of their last eight road games. Derek Carr is completing 68.4 percent of his passes for 4,804 yards, 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow have combined for 1,703 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns, while Bryan Edwards has 34 receptions. The Las Vegas Raiders ground game is averaging 95.1 yards per contest, and Josh Jacobs leads the way with 872 yards and 9 touchdowns. Defensively, Las Vegas is allowing 25.8 points and 337.2 yards per game. Denzel Perryman leads the Las Vegas Raiders with 154 tackles, Yannick Ngakoue has 10 sacks and Trayvon Mullen Jr. has 1 interception.

The Cincinnati Bengals have split their last eight home games. Joe Burrow is completing 70.4 percent of his passes for 4,611 yards, 34 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have combined for 2,546 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns, while Tyler Boyd has 67 receptions. The Cincinnati Bengals ground game is averaging 102.5 yards per contest, and Joe Mixon leads the way with 1,205 yards and 13 touchdowns. Defensively, Cincinnati is allowing 22.1 points and 350.8 yards per game. Logan Wilson leads the Cincinnati Bengals with 100 tackles, Trey Hendrickson has 14 sacks and Eli Apple has 2 interceptions.

The Raiders are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog. The Bengals are 2-5-1 ATS in their last 8 Saturday games and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall. The over is 14-6-1 in Raiders last 21 games as an underdog. The over is 5-1 in Bengals last 6 home games. The Raiders are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 meetings.

The Raiders and Bengals played each other on November 21 and the Bengals won 32-13, a game where Cincinnati dominated time of possession and ran 70 plays. The Bengals are the better team, and it feels like people are just waiting for these Raiders to go away. With all that said, the Raiders play with a weird sort of confidence and are a team that just finds ways to hang around. The Raiders also play some of their best ball on the road where they’ve won five of their last eight tries, and they’ve covered six of their last eight as a road underdog. The Bengals are young at a lot of key positions, so who knows how they perform in these spots, and the weather is expected to be cold and rainy.

Give me the points.