The Wild Card weekend for NFL betting fans was an odd one for a number of reasons, as one team essentially got shut out, while another set all sorts of offensive records in a game.

It was most certainly a weekend for the higher seeds in the first round. All of the home teams won and covered their spreads, and all did so with ease, while three of the four games went past the ‘total’, making it a great weekend for most sports bettors and a bad weekend for the sportsbooks.

The Houston Texans won their first ever playoff game in franchise history to kick off the postseason on Saturday. The Cincinnati Bengals jumped out of the blocks early, stopping the Texans on the first drive of the game and eventually going up 7-0, but this is about where the good times stopped for Cincinnati. Houston tied the game at 10-10 with inside of two minutes left in the first half, and from there, the defense took over. QB Andy Dalton was picked off three times, including right at the end of the half by DE JJ Watt, who returned the pick for a touchdown to start the Texans’ romp. Houston outscored Cincinnati 14-0 in the second half and walked away with a 31-10 victory in dominating fashion. The Texans were favored by 3.5 points at Bovada.

Later that night, the New Orleans Saints looked like they were going to be in some trouble as well. The Detroit Lions came out of the blocks in their first playoff game since 1999 with sound and fury, taking a 7-0 lead on the first drive of the game and even leading at halftime. However, from that point on the offense for QB Drew Brees and the gang took over, scoring touchdowns on all five drives of consequence in the second half to take what was once a close game and turn it into a thorough 45-28 beating. Brees threw for 466 yards and three TDs, and he put on an absolute clinic in the second half. In the end, New Orleans had a whopping 626 yards of offense, the most that a team has ever put up in a game in NFL history. A whopping six New Orleans receivers had at least 55 receiving yards, while RBs Pierre Thomas, Darren Sproles, and Chris Ivory combined for 164 yards on the ground as well. New Orleans covered the 11 point spread.

After two high scorers on Saturday, the defenses showed up in the first game on Sunday. The Atlanta Falcons took a 2-0 lead in the second quarter, but their offense had absolutely nothing to do with it. They were stopped twice on 4^th and 1 in the game, and the end result was that they couldn’t score a single offensive point against the New York Giants. The G-Men, who have had problems in the secondary all season long, didn’t allow a single play of greater than 21 yards on the day, an oddity against an Atlanta team that had gotten at least one pass play of 40+ yards in over half of the games that WR Julio Jones played in this year. QB Eli Manning threw three TD passes, the ground game came up with over 140 yards, and the defense did the rest, pitching the de facto shutout in the 24-2 triumph. Atlanta became the first team in NFL history to score exactly two points in a playoff game. The Giants were favored in Las Vegas by 3 points.

Three home teams and three favorites had covered in the first three games of the playoffs, but Sunday night was a night for the dogs. The Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers both failed to take advantage of a number of opportunities in what amounted to be a rather sloppy game. Pittsburgh absolutely dominated the first quarter, holding the Broncos to just eight yards on nine offensive plays, but two solid drives only amounted in six points. In the second quarter, Denver scored four times, once thanks to QB Tim Tebow’s legs, once with his arm, and twice with K Matt Prater’s leg. The latter two scores were definitely concerning, as Head Coach John Fox had to know that those field goals that weren’t touchdowns were going to come back to hurt.

And did they ever… Pittsburgh, which was playing the game without the likes of RB Rashard Mendenhall, OL Mike Pouncey, and S Ryan Clark, lost both DT Casey Hampton and DE Brett Keisel as well. QB Ben Roethlisberger did the best that he could with what he had, but he also had a bad ankle as well. It looked as though Big Ben was going to pull it off when he almost had his team in field goal range right at the end of the game, but instead of trying a 67 yard field goal that could have broken a deadlock at 23-23 after a big Steelers comeback, the team ended up looking to throw a Hail Mary and ended up getting sacked instead.

Even though he had only completed nine passes prior to that point, Tebow delivered right on the first play of overtime. He hit WR Demaryius Thomas for 80 yards for a TD to win the game. Tebow threw for 316 yards and accounted for all three Denver touchdowns, and he further cemented that he is going to be the quarterback that leads this team into the future as well. Thomas had over 200 yards and two scores on just four catches. Denver was a big underdog, getting up to 9 points in some sportsbooks.

It was likely the last time that we will see WR Hines Ward, as he is reportedly retiring after his 15 seasons in the NFL.

There was plenty of other news off the field this week in the NFL. The Indianapolis Colts announced plans to draft Stanford Cardinal QB Andrew Luck with the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in April, which has left the status of QB Peyton Manning very much so up in the air. QB Robert Griffin III is reportedly also coming to the NFL, forgoing his final season with the Baylor Bears.

In coaching news… The Kansas City Chiefs retained Romeo Crennel as their head coach after his successful stint as the interim coach at the end of the year. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reportedly talking to Mike Sherman, Wade Phillips, and Marty Schottenheimer to take over their opening, while the Miami Dolphins and St. Louis Rams are supposedly the only two in the running for Jeff Fisher’s services. The Rams have also been linked to Bengals Offensive Coordinator Jay Gruden, who is one of the up and coming assistants in the league. The Oakland Raiders fired Hue Jackson on Tuesday, and Winston Moss is reportedly the frontrunner for the job. For more NFL news, follow us on Twitter.