(7) Denver Broncos @ (2) Buffalo Bills
Sunday, January 12, 1:00 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)
Buffalo Bills fans, you might just want to look away for this one. I’m calling a first-round upset in favor of the Denver Broncos.
The Buffalo Bills have been so good this season. They’ve done just about everything right. They beat the Kansas City Chiefs in what could turn out to be their “Super Bowl” of the year, and they’ve gotten to the point of being 8.5-point favorites over a young and hungry Denver Broncos team in the Wild Card round.
But there are reasons to believe the Broncos might be able to match up well with Buffalo if they are at their best on Sunday afternoon.
Denver has a quarterback playing just about as well as anybody this season in Bo Nix, who finished off his rookie year with 34 total touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and zero fumbles. Nix was in the mix for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year all year long and he’s hit a stride late in the season. We saw him go toe-to-toe with Joe Burrow, we saw him get the Broncos an 11-point lead on the road against Justin Herbert, and we saw him engineer what should have been a game-winning drive against the Chiefs on the road earlier this season.
The Broncos haven’t been able to finish the job against most of the “best” teams they have faced, but I can’t help but wonder if that could change.
The Bills rested their starters (understandably) in Week 18 as they prepped for this game. The Broncos actually went into Buffalo last year and beat the Bills, so maybe that game and some revenge will be on Buffalo’s minds.
It would be an uncharacteristic flub from Buffalo from what we’ve seen this season, but Denver has kept almost every game close and the Bills are 8-0 at home this year while the Broncos are due to win a one-score game.
Prediction: Broncos win 31-29