Bills, Steelers Playoff Battle in Snow Today – January 15

The Buffalo Bills weathered the last five weeks of the NFL regular season coming up with five straight wins to capture the AFC East title for the fourth consecutive year. Today, the Bills will weather the snow and brutal cold in a game that was supposed to be played yesterday. New York governor Kathy Hochul and the NFL agreed to postpone the game until today at 4:30 p.m. because of a winter storm that could dump up to three feet of snow on Buffalo and surrounding areas. 

The Bills opened as an 8.5-point favorite and that number has moved up to 10. The Steelers will be without NFL sack leader T.J. Watt and that should have an impact on today’s outcome. The weather likely will as well. Game time temperatures will likely be in the teens and the chance of snow throughout the day is over 70 percent. 

Bills Have Played in Cold Before

Ironically, it was exactly 30 years ago today that the Bills played in the coldest game ever in Buffalo. On Jan. 15, 1994, the Bills hosted the Los Angeles Raiders in a divisional playoff game. The temperature that day was 0 degrees and wind chills made that feel like -14. Still, the Bills went out and took care of business in a 29-23 victory. Buffalo would go on to advance to its fourth straight Super Bowl appearance. 

Today’s game will not be nearly as cold. As mentioned, the game time temperatures will be in the teens. The wind chill will make it feel more like single digits, but that probably will not affect the Bills faithful. On that day 30 years ago, 62,000 fans showed up to the old Rich Stadium, which held around 80,000. The new Highmark Stadium seats around 71,000 and expect it to be full of rowdy Bills fans. Those fans can earn $20 an hour by helping to shovel snow inside the stadium before game time. The Buffalo area has received 17 inches of snow already. Winter storm advisories are in effect until Thursday.

Business as Usual on the Leaderboard

Sports Hub’s expert handicappers and our partners were at it once again yesterday. Just another day at the office for the best cappers on the planet. Our friends at Knup Sports crushed it yesterday earning $660 to earn the top spot on the board. Four Sports Hub experts followed to round out the top-5. Combined, those four cappers earned over $1500!

Here’s how it played out yesterday.

• Knup Sports: Our friends at Knup Sports went 11-4 with nice mix of NBA and CBB picks. Knup won a total of $660 to give them winnings of $1065 over the last seven days. Knup is No. 1 on the 7-day NBA leaderboard with $860 in winnings.
• Ashlee Kiddell: Our favorite Brit actually missed on 7 of his 13 picks, but won enough bets at plus money that he finished up $481! Ashlee had five futures bets on the Sony Open golf tournament that all missed. All were at +750 or higher. If he would have won just one of those, he would have owned yesterday’s leaderboard. Ashlee is No. 1 on the 7-day soccer leaderboard with $628 in winnings.
• The Bookie: The Bookie just killed it yesterday…4 picks…4 wins…$400. Nailed the total on both NFL games and even had the TWolves +2 against the Clippers. For the month, The Bookie is now up $1506.
• Sal Lombardi: Old school Sal keeps sneaking around the top-5. Yesterday, he went 5-2 and won $355. That gives him $460 in winnings for the past three days. Sal is one of our top NHL handicappers and with the season hitting the meat of its schedule, you’ll want to check each and every day to see if Sal has picks in our database.
• Mario Deluca: Mario rounded out yesterday’s top-5 by going 3-0 and earning $300. For the month, Mario is now up $1308.

Packers and Lion Oh My

How about those Packers?! Remember former Dallas head coach Jimmy Johnson’s famous line after the Cowboys won a Super Bowl? Well, the Cowboys aren’t getting anywhere near a Super Bowl once again. Yesterday, the Green Bay Packers made sure of that. 

Then, you had the Detroit Lions do something they had not done in 32 years – win a playoff game. With the Cowboys loss, Detroit will host another playoff game next week. They will face the winner of tonight’s Bucs-Eagles game.

Here’s what is trending today.

• Packers Love: Green Bay QB Jordan Love was drafted late in the first round of the 2020 NFL draft, one year after the Bills drafted Josh Allen. Love backed up Aaron Rodgers until this year. Yesterday, he went 16-of-21 for 272 yards and three touchdowns. RB Aaron Jones had 21 carries for 118 yards and three more scores and the Packers absolutely destroyed the Dallas Cowboys 48-32.

• New coach in Washington: Jedd Fisch, whose Arizona team went 10-3 this season, will be the new head coach at the University of Washington. Fisch orchestrated a huge turnaround at Arizona, which went 1-11 just two seasons ago. Fisch has Big Ten experience. He was Michigan’s offensive coordinator in 2015-16.
• Harbaugh: Speaking of Michigan, its head coach Jim Harbaugh will meet with the Los Angeles Chargers about their head coaching vacancy. 
• Lions win playoff game: Sticking with this little Michigan theme, the Detroit Lions won their first postseason game in 32 years. Jared Goff went 22-for-27 and threw for 277 yards and a touchdown as the Lions beat Goff’s former team the Los Angeles Rams 24-23. 

Bills-Steelers Start Rare Playoff Doubleheader

It’s Monday and it’s Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. Rarely do fans ever get a Monday NFL doubleheader. Even rarer is an NFL playoff doubleheader on a Monday. That’s exactly what we get today as the Pittsburgh Steelers make the trip to snow-covered Buffalo to take on the Bills at 4:30 p.m. The primetime game features Philadelphia traveling to Tampa Bay where game time temperatures will be in the 60s.

For more on today’s games, visit our NFL Wild Card weekend page. You’ll find a ton of information as well as the best bets from some of our top NFL handicappers here at Sports Hub.

Here’s what’s on today’s schedule.

1. Steelers-Bills: Today’s game starts at 4:30 p.m. Snow accumulation today is only supposed to be an inch. The Bills are still favored by 10. The total for today’s Bills-Steelers game has dropped from 43 at the opening to 38.5.
2. Bucs-Eagles: This game will start at 8:15 p.m. tonight. The Eagles are a 3-point road favorite but keep in mind that Philly has only won one of its last six games. The weather could affect this one too. While temperatures will be in the 60s, there is some rain expected.

3. Pro basketball: The NBA has 11 games on this MLK Day. Games begin at 1:00 p.m. with Houston playing at Philadelphia. Games will be played throughout the day and TNT has a doubleheader. The early game starts at 3:30 p.m. in Atlanta where the Hawks host rookie sensation Victor Wembenyana. The late game starts at 6:00 p.m. and features Golden State at Memphis.
4. College basketball: A couple dozen games are on tonight’s NCAAB schedule. The big one is in the Big East where Villanova takes on No. 11 Marquette. The Golden Eagles are the only ranked team in action tonight.
5. Hockey: There are 10 games on the NHL schedule today. Like the NBA, there are several – six – afternoon games. 
6. Soccer: The international soccer schedule is kind of light today. None of the major soccer leagues have matches today. 
7. Australian Open: The year’s first Grand Slam tournament continues today. No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic plays in the second round today. On the women’s side, Naomi Osaka was bounced out of the tournament in the first round yesterday. It was her first match since giving birth last year. Top seed Iga Swiatek plays her first round match later today.

What a great Monday! Two NFL games as well as NBA and NHL games played all day long. If you live in the U.S. in the Midwest or Northeast, bundle up. It’s a cold one. The Bills game today will be an old-school, cold weather game. Be sure to check our picks database. There are a couple dozen picks for both NFL games already and there will likely be more before game time. 

Good luck today! Enjoy the games and come back here tomorrow for a recap of how our elite handicappers performed as well as great content from the world of sports.