By Spike Measer
SATURDAY January 3rd:
ATLANTA @ ARIZONA- Falcons 11-5 SU, 9-7 ATS…+66 point differential…Ryan offensive ROY, Turner 1699 rushing yards, White 1382 receiving yards…Smith likely NFC coach of year…have won 3 straight games and 7 of last 10…Atlanta is ONLY playoff team to hold every opponent under the 30 point mark…John Abraham 16.5 sacks…Cardinals 9-7 SU & ATS…+1 point differential…Warner 4500+ yards, 30 TD, 14 INT…3 receivers 1000+ yards…6 players with at least 3 sacks…’Zona has more completed passes (418) than rushing attempts (340)
By Dark Horse Sports
Philadelphia and Minnesota have both had rocky roads to the playoffs, complete with controversy, sound bites, and an infamous tie game. But both teams prevailed and find themselves in the hunt for the Lombardi Trophy.
By Dr. Vegas
GMAC Bowl, Mobile Alabama
Ball State vs Tulsa
January 6, 2009
7:00pm CST
Ball State went 12-0 in the regular season, losing the MAC Championship to Buffalo. Some say that Ball State didn’t put forth the effort, but in fact they did beat Buffalo in many categories, such as First Downs, Total Yards, Passing Yards, Rushing Yards, and Time of Possession. They outplayed Buffalo in many ways, but the final score didn’t reflect it. Buffalo took advantage of several key turnovers.
Tulsa is another team that led the Conference but lost the championship game, in their case to the East Carolina Pirates. And just as Ball State did, Tulsa actually won many key categories in this game, including First Downs, Total Yards, Passing Yards, Rushing Yards, and Time of Possession. It was a close game decided by a late field goal.
So here we have two teams, conference leaders, who lost the championship in games they actually could have won.
By Big Jay of Platinum Plays
It’ll be an interesting Wildcard Playoff weekend for fans and handicappers alike as all four road teams are favored in their respective playoff games. Some of this can be explained by the disparity in strength between the divisions this year which was more pronounced in 2008 than any year in modern NFL history. Most notably, the NFC West, the AFC West were incredibly bad and the AFC East and NFC South which were incredibly strong. The NFC West divsion winner, the Arizona Cardinals looked very good at times this year (mostly at home) and won NFC West with a (9-7) record. The Cardinals clinched their spot in the playoffs after week 14 and their dismal late season performance is not as alarming had they needed to finish strongly to qualify for the playoffs. It remains to be seen if the Cardinals can regain their midseason form and prove they are a team who deserves a chance to win the Lomabardi Trophy. The Falcons, coming off one of their worst seasons in the franchise’s history, played very well all year long with a rookie head coach (Mike Smith), a rookie quarterback (Matt Ryan) and a running back (Michael Turner) who’s never had the opportunity to be a fulltime player until this season. They finished with an (11-5) record and laid claim to one of the NFC Wildcard spots over the likes of the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Buccaneers and Chicago Bears, all who had chances to make the playoffs in the final weekend of the season. Having put the Michael Vick, Bobby Petrino controversies in their rear view mirror, the Falcons made last years (4-12) record seem like a bad dream whereas the Cardinals, finally lived up to many preseason predictions of the last three years by finally qualifying for the playoffs this season.
By Razor Sharp Sports
What a match-up for the first round of the playoffs. When Tom Brady went down in the first quarter of week 1, the Colts and the Chargers had to be the favorites to win the AFC. Now here they are playing in the first round of the playoffs. If you were to tell someone that knew football but missed the whole season that the Colts have won 9 straight games and the Chargers were the 2nd highest scoring team in the NFL, they wouldn’t be surprised. But if you told them that the Colts were a wildcard team and the Chargers snuck in at 8-8, their jaw might drop. Then you have a 12-4 team on the road at an 8-8 team. So saying all that, the winner here may still be the favorite to represent the AFC. Lets take a look at both teams a little closer.
First we have the Wildcard Indianapolis Colts. They are 12-4 and have won 9 straight games. Peyton Manning threw for 4000 yards for his record 9th time. The running game has struggled all year, due to injuries. Joseph Addai missed 4 full games and wasn’t 100% for most of the rest. He still lead the team in rushing with 544 yards. The Colts ended up 31st in the NFL in rushing offense. Manning’s receiving corp is still there with Wayne, Harrison and Clark. Defensively, the Colts rank 11th in yards allowed and 7th in points allowed. Indianapolis was +9 in Turnover Ratio for the year.
By The Vegas Steamline
So we have reached the end of the regular season and even though I believe that season awards should include the playoffs, especially when you talk about the MVP, I have come up with my list of award winners. This year as most, there were some real easy picks and some real hard ones. So lets get right to them.
By Dr. Vegas
5-10 Jacksonville has been eliminated from the playoffs. 10-5 Baltimore has 4 ways to get into the playoffs: 1. a win against Jacksonville, 2. a tie plus a Miami loss, 3. A tie plus a New England loss, or 4. a New England loss. The only one of those scenarios that rests entirely in Baltimore’s hands is to simply win their game against a defeated Jaguars team.The game opened with Baltimore -11.5 and has moved to -12.5. It’s safe to say that Baltimore, who has won 4 of the past 5 and 8 of the last 10, will win this game outright. But what about that large point spread?
By Hawkeye Sports
The NFL regular season is soon coming to and end and what a mess it all it is going into the final two games. In this article we arre going to take a look at the NFC and see if we can make some sence of it and pick who will indeed find theirselves in the 2008 playoffs. We know the N.Y. Giants and the Arizona Cardinals have won their respective divisions, but there are four more playoff spots yet to fill. Can anyone have a clue on what seed is going to belong to who ? I am ready to try!
By Dr. Vegas
One factor not usually considered in Las Vegas is the weather, but a cold front has settled in over the valley. Some parts of town received 3 inches of snow on Monday and by gametime Saturday it will only be in the 30’s.
BYU is ranked #17 in the country, sporting a 10-2 SU record, but they are only 3-8 ATS. They have scored 424 points and given up 254 this year. They have lost 7 of the last 8 ATS, a telling sign of their over-value to Vegas, and one reason a ranked team is the underdog against an unranked team. According to the exclusive Dr. Vegas Power Rankings, the Cougars have a +14.6 rating with an opponent of +3.3.
By Razor Sharp Sports
With two weeks to go in the NFL there is still plenty of playoff spots up for grabs and plenty of positioning to go. Two of the teams that will more than likely be extending their season into January do battle this week as the Arizona Cardinals take on the New England Patriots. The Cardinals have already wrapped up their division and more than likely will be the #4 seed in the NFC after their loss to the Vikings last week. As for the Patriots, they could still win their division, they could still be a wildcard team or they could still not make the playoffs. Looking at these teams and there are plenty of similarities, especially on offense. Both teams are heavily passing teams, that have struggled to find a running game. Both teams QBs have put up numbers that have them in consideration for the league MVP and both have All-Star duos at WR that can take over games. Lets take a look at both teams a little closer.
By The Vegas Steamline
So here we are, it is the holiday season time for candy canes, egg nog, Christmas Cookies and of course, College Bowl games. This year, much like we have seen over the past decade or so, the bowl season is a long, stretched out group of less than interesting match-ups for the most part. First of all, before I go through and rip the BCS and the no playoff system, let me just say, I will probably watch almost every game of the bowl season. They may not be the pretty or most interesting match-ups all the time, but it is still football and with the proper work, we can still make some good holiday investments. Like I have said before, there is no reason that we can’t have an 8 team playoff and still play the other ump-teen other meaningless bowl games. So with that said, let me go through the Bowl Schedule and tell which games I think are the ones to watch and which ones are the ones that will be good holiday naptime background noise.
By Huddle Up Sports
Dear Santa,
For some odd reason I’ve been getting some of your mail. I guess it’s a Christmas wish list from some athletes. I’ve looked them over and they seem like reasonable requests. See what you can do.
Plexico Burress: A gun silencer and a first-aid kit
Michael Strahan: My two front teeth
Roger Clemens: Truth serum.
John Madden: You see, I want, a Brett Favre action figure, a beer brat and a turducken! BAM!
Green Bay Packers: Brett Favre back or new management. We’ll take either.
Al Davis: A good team.
Oakland Raiders: Al Davis to quit.
OJ Simpson: New gloves. I lost mine.
Michael Vick: To share a cell with OJ.
Terrel Owens: Attention, just give it to me baby
Mike Tyson: Speech lessons
Evander Holyfield: A new ear.
Michael Vick: Oh yea can I get a pound puppy too?
Stephon Marbury: A severance check and a ticket out of New York
You see Santa, so far these seem reasonable. That was only the beginning though. I guess athletes just don’t have enough already. Here were some other requests
By The Scout
It’s been a while since you’ve heard from the SCOUT. He’s been everywhere. Just not posting BLOGS! We’re not “BLOGGERS”. But we’re getting heat from management to post a blog. Honestly, we’d rather invest the time working on our selections. And believe us, it’s paid off. Our players are up a ton this football season. Also, believe us when we say we’ve got some serious information on the Bowl games already. We expect to make more money playing the bowl games than any other four week span ever! And it’s already confirmed, so to appease the the BIG BOYS, here’s our quick take on the potential playoff teams AFC style. It’s our version of contender/pretender.
By Spike Measer, Big Time Sports
Green Bay @ Jacksonville- two very disappointing teams with combined record 9-17…Jags on 4 game skid…just 1-5 SU at home this season after 18-6 home record ‘05-’07…have won only 2 games since Sept…J’ville has scored less than 20 pts in 6 of last 7 games…Fred Taylor now on IR…Packers have lost 3 straight, allowing 110 pts during that stretch…G Bay allowing 4.8 ypc…Packer secondary features 3 DB’s with 5 INT’s
Detroit @ Indianapolis- Colts have won 6 in a row…C Saturday and S Sanders expected back in lineup…RB Addai no practice, likley out…Najeh Davenport signed to backup Rhodes…Lions allowing league-worst 32 ppg…have lost by at least 13 points 7 times…have lost by3+ TD’s 4 times…Detroit has not scored more than 25 pts in any game this season…reached 20 pt mark only 6 times…Orlovsky to start at QB for Lions
By Dr. Vegas
A classic AFC East battle, with two teams in completely different places right now. The Jets are in a three-way tie for first, while the Bills sit alone at the bottom of the division.
Buffalo is 6-7 SU, 0-4 SU in the division, and 5-8 ATS. They have scored 279 points and given up 275. They have lost 6 of their last 7 against the spread, and have only scored two field goals in their last two games. Making things worse, their loss last week to Miami essentially ended their shot at the playoffs this year, since they would lose about any tiebreaker scenario.