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Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
How Do Divisional Matchups Play Out In The Playoffs? Trends of Past Divisional Matchups With New Playoff System
For the first time since the 1990-91 NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles will play the Washington Commanders in the NFL postseason, with the two NFC East rivals squaring off in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game inside Lincoln Financial Field with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. PennStakes is your home for updated Eagles Super Bowl Odds throughout the playoffs.
When the two longtime rivals square off at 3 p.m. Eastern time, they’ll do so for the third time this season, with Philly beating Washington, 26-18, at home, before falling to the Commanders by a 36-33 final score on the road in the home stretch of the regular season.
Come Sunday, oddsmakers from DraftKings PA Sportsbook have the Eagles down as a six-point favorite over the Commanders with a -285 moneyline on the home side, compared with +230 odds on the visitors from the Nation’s Capital, some 34 years after Washington handed them a 20-6 defeat in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
Utilizing Pro-Football-Reference.com, PennStakes.com found trends of how teams that are in the same division typically play against each other in the NFL Playoffs – based on how they played against each other during regular season. We looked only at divisional matchups in the playoffs since the NFL postseason added another team back in 2020.
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Divisional Matchups In Playoffs Trends (Since 2020)
7 of 10 teams that lost the first matchup went on to win the playoff matchup (favors Washington) |
7 of 10 teams who were higher seed in the playoff matchup won (favors Philadelphia) |
When teams split season series 1-1, the home team has won 4 of 6 playoff matchups (favors Philadelphia) |
The last 7 playoff matchups between divisional opponents have seen the home team win (favors Philadelphia) |
What To Watch For Sunday In NFC Championship
Of the 10 teams that have played in the either of the NFL Championship round contests since the league’s postseason expansion a half-decade ago, seven of the higher seeded teams won, while games that pitted teams that played twice in the regular season saw the one that played the postseason contest at home emerge victorious in the sport’s postseason.
Throw in the fact that the last seven postseason games between divisional foes have been won by the home team and you have some pretty convincing anecdotal evidence as to why the Eagles are a heavy favorite to win come Sunday afternoon.
The lone tidbit that supports a Washington upset is the fact that seven of the ten NFL teams that lost the first matchup in seasons with two regular season games went on to win that year’s postseason contest, which is exactly what Jayden Daniels, and the Commanders did this year, though that’s not enough to convince oddsmakers to side with the underdogs from D.C. come Sunday afternoon.
For now, what we know is that the Eagles and Commanders will see each other for just the second time in the postseason this weekend, with the two NFC East stalwarts looking to punch their ticket to New Orleans to play in Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
USA Today photo by Bill Streicher.
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