Best bets for Wild Card Weekend: Will history repeat itself?

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For the first time in NFL history, we get six games in the wild-card round, which provides us with some much-appreciated volume from both an entertainment and a betting perspective.

Here's who we're backing this weekend.

Colts @ Bills (-6.5, 51.5), Jan. 9 @ 1:05 p.m. ET

It only took me 17 weeks, but I'm ready to Bill-ieve. Though they say the best blueprint for postseason success is a strong running attack paired with a stout defense, that narrative is rapidly changing in a pass-first NFL.

The return of deep threat John Brown adds another layer to this unstoppable Buffalo offense, which just dropped a 50-burger on one of the league's best defenses. Puppet master Brian Daboll is calling one flawless game after another, and he's doing too good a job for me to have any reservations stemming from Josh Allen's big-game resume.

And now the Bills have a defense ranking sixth in DVOA since Week 7 to pair with the league's most frightening offense. The Colts know their only chance is to keep Buffalo's offense off the field, but as well as Jonathan Taylor has been playing, Allen might not need more than 20 minutes of possession to comfortably win this game.

Pick: Bills -6.5

Buccaneers (-8, 45) @ Washington, 8:15 p.m.

The NFC East has been the laughingstock of the NFL this season, and most people will tune into this game Saturday night to watch Tom Brady, not the Washington Football Team. But is the disrespect warranted?

Washington was 5-1 this season in games started by Alex Smith, and while the veteran quarterback has still had his struggles of late, the team's been able to lean on a suffocating defense to remain competitive. Washington hasn't allowed an opponent to score over 20 points since Week 10, and it's only happened once since Week 5.

That might not seem like an issue for a Buccaneers offense that hummed along beautifully over the season's final month, but all four of its opponents ranked bottom 10 in the NFL in sacks. Washington was sixth with 47. Against teams with at least 45, the Bucs were 0-3 this season, averaging just 16.7 points. Brady, who hasn't looked a day under 43 when he's faced pressure this season, had a 4-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio in those games, topping out at 239 yards.

The last time a team with a losing record made the playoffs was in 2014, when Ron Rivera's Panthers (7-8-1) beat Bruce Arians' Cardinals (11-5). Rivera's Football Team is well-equipped for another upset behind a ferocious defensive line ... or at the very least a cover, which would be a win in our books.

Pick: Washington +8

Ravens (-3.5, 55) @ Titans, Jan. 10 @ 1:05 p.m.

Well, here we are once again. A late-season surge vaulted the Ravens back into the Super Bowl conversation ahead of another playoff date with the Titans, and everyone is talking about Baltimore's revenge tour.

Yes, Baltimore went scorched earth on the NFL over the season's final month, but it beat up on a number of inferior opponents. The Ravens blitz a ton on defense, and against bad teams with bad quarterbacks, that's a great recipe for success. Against good teams with good quarterbacks, however, they get burned.

The Ravens thrive under perfect conditions. They are the bully everyone's scared of until they get hit - then the facade breaks. The Titans will come out swinging as always, punching the Ravens square in the teeth through Derrick Henry, while Ryan Tannehill - who had 10 touchdowns to four interceptions under pressure this season - won't be fazed by their blitz-heavy attack. Don't underestimate the running ability of Tannehill, either; he had as many touchdowns on the ground this year (seven) as Lamar Jackson.

Mike Vrabel has the blueprint for beating this Baltimore team and there's no reason to expect Sunday's game to go any differently. The Ravens are efficient on offense, but their low-volume passing attack isn't a formula to exploit Tennessee's biggest weakness on defense. The Titans handled the Ravens in the postseason last year and took care of business again during the regular season. Yeah, Baltimore is coming in hot, but we've seen this story play out before. To quote the great Roger Daltrey, "We won't get fooled again."

Pick: Titans +3.5

Alex Moretto is theScore's supervising editor of sports betting. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.