The final day of the NFL 2024 regular season takes place on Sunday where we have our usual set of two slots of games in the earlier part of the day as we finalise the playoff line up and determine who will be going where next week.
As always, we have a couple of matches live on the TV for us to enjoy over the course of the evening and the RedZone show will give us all of the scoring plays and highlight reels. Some bookmakers live stream the non-TV games too.
1pm Kick Offs (6pm UK time)
It is divisional clashes all the way in the final week of the season and the interest in terms of the TV coverage in the UK first up takes us to Florida where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will look to win the NFC South title. They play host to the New Orleans Saints knowing a win and they will host a wildcard game next week. Should the Bucs lose they would open the door to the Atlanta Falcons to win the division. For that to happen they would need to win their home match against the Carolina Panthers.
Six other matches take place over the remainder of the first part of the night with the Philadelphia Eagles the only ones playing for anything tangible as they host the New York Giants knowing that a win could give them the number one seed in the NFC if the Sunday Night Football goes their way. Elsewhere, the Buffalo Bills close out the regular season with a trip to the New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans host the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys welcome the Washington Commanders, Green Bay Packers meet the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts face the Jacksonville Jaguars.
4.25pm Kick Offs (9.25pm UK time)
That leaves us with five matches in the second part of the Sunday slate and the TV attention takes us to the AFC West where the Denver Broncos will be looking to tie down the final spot in the playoffs. They occupy the seven seed going into the weekend and if they win against the Kansas City Chiefs then they will go to the Buffalo Bills next week. Were they to lose then the Miami Dolphins will be the number seven seed if they can win at the New York Jets.
There isn’t a great deal on offer in the other matches. Los Angeles Chargers could move up to the number five seed if they are able to beat the Las Vegas Raiders but apart from that there isn’t much of a competitive edge on offer. The other two matches come along in the NFC West where we already know that they Los Angeles Rams will host the fifth seed. They finish their regular season against the Seattle Seahawks while the Arizona Cardinals will conclude a campaign that got away from them when they host the San Francisco 49ers.
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Betting
There are three bets which take my fancy on the final Sunday of the regular season with two of them coming in the TV games. In the first of them I like Tampa Bay Buccaneers to cover a two touchdown spread against the New Orleans Saints. The Saints will be playing with emotion after the events in their city over the last week but emotion can only get them so far. The problem is a real lack of personnel. Derek Carr and Chris Olave have been ruled out and Alvin Kamara is still a game time decision and those three are massive losses to an offense which has put up just 29 points in their last three games combined. Even were they to put that many up here, which the signs are they won’t get close to doing, there is no guarantee it will be enough when the Bucs have already put up 51 points on them in New Orleans. Tampa Bay have scored 40+ points in their last two wins and with the win here not in question I expect them to wrap up the NFC South title with a two score win.
Away from the TV cameras, Houston Texans will want to get into a bit of a rhythm ahead of their clash with either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Los Angeles Chargers next week and as such they might keep their starters on the field slightly longer than a team in their situation usually would. I would still be wary of them being sat in the second half though so the 5/4 on the Texans leading the Tennessee Titans at half time appeals. The last couple of weeks haven’t gone to plan for the Texans but losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens aren’t exactly disastrous results and there is no doubt that the Titans are a good deal worse than those two teams. Tennessee might come into this one in the second half but if the Texans can find their regular groove, which having not played since Christmas Day and therefore having had the extra four days to prepare for this one you would assume they will do, then they should be nicely clear by the time they think about sitting their starters.
Moving into the later TV game and while I respect the Denver Broncos, I’m not sure they are in a position where I would be confident that they will cover a 13 point handicap against a Kansas City Chiefs side who admittedly will be resting some of their starters. This isn’t a roster that will be bringing in no-hopers though as the Los Angeles Chargers found out this time last year when the Chiefs were in a similar position only for Kansas City to get the better of them. The Broncos will be all about winning here regardless of how many it is by because a win will take them to Buffalo next week whereas a loss and their season is done. That will bring about a bit of pressure and we shouldn’t forget that for all Bo Nix has been in decent order recently he is still a rookie quarterback and won’t have experienced a match of this magnitude before. The Chiefs will sit Patrick Mahomes but Carson Wentz is no mug and there are enough options in the offense below the key men to get the Chiefs down the field and put up enough points to stay within a dozen here if not get the job done.
Tips
Back Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-13.5) to beat New Orleans Saints for a 3/10 stake at 1.82 with Bet365
Back Houston Texans to win the first half vs Tennessee Titans for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Boylesports
Back them here:
Back Kansas City Chiefs (+13) to beat Denver Broncos for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
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