NFL Conference Championships Previews
This past weekend only one out of four home teams win their Divisional playoff game. The one team who did was the Pittsburgh Steelers, the two seed in the AFC.
An intriguiging note, the one seed in each conference played a team witha better record than the two seeds in their respective conference did. Moving on to this week both match ups are very interesting.
NFC Conference Championship Game: Philadelphia Eagles(6) at Arizona Cardinals(4)
The four seed in the NFC is hosting the NFC Conference Championship game, how did this happen? It is also amazing that the Cardinals are playing the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that no one thought would be in the playoffs. In week 12 Philiadelphia dropped to the Baltimore Ravens 36-7 to fall to 5-5-1 record. In that game Donovan McNabb, a five time pro-bowler, was benched for the first time in his NFL career. The following week the Eagles rolled over the Cardinals 48-20. In that game Cardinals’ quarterback Kurt Warner had no time in the pocket. The Philadelphia defensive line was beating the Arizona offensive line on every play rushing Warner. If the Arizona o-line can’t give Warner more time in this game I would expect the same result as that Thanksgiving day game.
Many are saying that Larry Fitzgerald is going to be a key player in this one, and he very well could be. However in the Eagles’ six losses the player to get the most receiving yards against them has not been the other team’s top receiver. I think if Arizona is going to have a chance is this one, Warner is going to need to spread the ball around to Breaston, Urban and his running backs.
I think that the Eagles are playing great right now and I like them to come out with the win here. I havent matched for odds that I feel are of value as of yet, for match odds or spreads. I will be trading this game on Betfair while it is in play looking for value bets.
AFC Conference Championship Game: Baltimore Ravens(6) at Pittsburgh Steelers(2)
This should be a low scoring game. These are the NFL’s top two defences and there is a chance that the weather will be very tough for the offences to work with. I can see Baltimore taking the ball out of rookie quarterback Joe Flacco’s hands and running all day. I really like the under (33.5). The odds right now on betfair are 2.06 to back the under.
I am expecting a match up similar to their week 15 game, which the Steelers won 13-9 on a controversial touchdown call. A big play on either side could be the difference and it very may well come from the defence. Since I think it has a good chance of coming down to that I think there is good value on Baltimore.
Again I will be trading this one on Betfair in play. It does concern me that the Ravens will be playing their 18th consecutive game without a weekend to rest. I do feel the longer they can keep this game close the better their chance to be playing in the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay on February 1st
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