Six games comprise Wild Card Weekend in the NFL. Single elimination — win or go home. Since every football fan wants to make a bet (and I'm no different), it's time to ante up.

But before that, it's time to tally up. How did I do in my 2023 predictions?

Picking the winners of every game, every week, I amassed a record of 164-107. That comes to 61% correct. Half of the playoff teams had W-L records lower than 61%. I'll take it.

Perhaps a bigger accomplishment: I only had two weeks out of 18 where I went under .500. While 2022 was not my best season ever, I feel confident — especially in this era of Extreme Parity.

The 2022 NFL season was peppered with upsets and surprises. Who would have thought the Packers would fall to third place in their division? Who could have predicted that the Bucs would end up with a losing record and their division title would stay up in the air until almost the last week? Who would have thought the Rams and Raiders would get clobbered early — and stay down? The Rams, in particular, went from champs to chumps, reminding everyone why we fans love to repeat that old saw: the initials stand for 'Not For Long.'

Speaking of getting clobbered, I got clobbered on my early weekly picks — especially Week One (4.5-11.5) — but my picks seemed to get more accurate as the season wore on.  

Next, what about those preseason playoff predictions? 

Before Labor Day, I selected the following playoff teams: AFC: Bengals, Bills, Chiefs, Colts, Raiders, Ravens, and Titans. NFC: Bucs, Cowboys, Eagles, Falcons, Packers, Rams, Saints. I got 7 of 14 right. Again, not my best outing, but the days of getting 10 or more right may be in the past — Extreme Parity practically forbids it.  Nevertheless, I'm feeling warmed up, primed, and ready to predict the playoff games. 

The best part of all this is not making predictions — it's watching the games themselves, which are usually crowd-pleasers and occasionally heart-stoppers. I think every match this weekend is going to be competitive, but I particularly look forward to the Saturday night game — Dolphins at Jaguars — featuring two hot young QBs and that spunky defensive squad that knocked out the Titans last weekend.

Here are the six games in Wild Card Weekend:

                                             My pick
 
Seahawks         at 49ers           49ers               Saturday afternoon   
Chargers          at Jaguars        Jaguars            Saturday night
Dolphins           at Bills             Bills                 Sunday afternoon      
Giants              at Vikings        Vikings             Sunday afternoon      
Ravens             at Bengals       Bengals            Sunday night
Cowboys           at Bucs            Bucs                Monday night

With games on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, football addicts will be in hog heaven. Enjoy!