NFL Handicapping Articles

Free NFL Prop Predictions – Championship Weekend Playoffs Edition
by Jay Horne - 1/22/2010

Championship weekend in the NFL is here and just two games remain before the Super Bowl match-up is determined. This year marks some of the most interesting matchups in recent memory for the championship games. Two of the top offenses in the NFL collide in the NFC Championship Game as the world waits to see if Brett Farve can make it back to the Super Bowl at 40 years of age.

Interesting NFL Championship Game Props
by T.O. Whenham - 1/21/2010

The best part about the NFL playoffs is the crazy number and range of prop bets that are available for the games. This trend really reaches a crescendo for the Super Bowl, but there is no shortage of interesting props for this weekend's Championship round. Here's a look at a few of the more interesting (all props are from Bodog):

NFL Handicapping: Ranking the Championship Round QBs
by T.O. Whenham - 1/21/2010

The NFL Championship round is always fun to watch - the four best teams in the league (at least theoretically) playing for the highest possible stakes. The down side of this week of action, though, is that there are only two games to handicap. You can only spend so much time on two games no matter how hard you look at them, so there is more down time this week then we have been used to since the football season started.

AFC Championship Game Preview: Jets at Colts
by Robert Ferringo - 1/20/2010

I have to admit, I was losing faith. After watching the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs and seeing scores like 51-45, 34-13 and 33-14 I was convinced that football, at least this year, was drifting away and being replaced by seven-on-seven drills. Run the ball and play good defense. That’s what I’m looking for. That’s the tried-and-true method of winning in the NFL playoffs. And as I looked around I didn’t see a whole lot of teams subscribing to that theory.

NFC Championship Game Preview: Vikings at Saints
by Robert Ferringo - 1/20/2010

Jasper Brinkley, come on down. Brinkley, the rookie middle linebacker for Minnesota, is in the eye of the storm in one of the biggest games in the history of either the New Orleans Saints or the Minnesota Vikings. He was thrust into this position due to an injury to Vikings starting MLB and defensive leader E.J. Henderson last month. So now it’s on Brinkley to shore up the heart of a defense facing one of the best offenses in the NFL.

NFL Playoff Betting: Championship Weekend Player Props
by Alan Matthews - 1/20/2010

Courtesy of Brobury Sports, we’ll take a look at three prop bet option bets available on the skill players involved in the NFL’s championship weekend. That’s the beauty of playoff football – unique betting options. Let’s start with the quarterbacks and Brobury’s odds for which QB will have the most passing yards this weekend:

Bad Coaching Dooms Dallas, San Diego
by Robert Ferringo - 1/18/2010

In the least surprising news that I’ve heard since Sarah Palin joining Fox News, Wade Philips and Norv Turner once again humiliated themselves and their teams on Sunday en route to a premature playoff exit. Weird. I’ve been repeating this over and over and over again all season and have said that I was just waiting for their most recent implosion.

NFL Playoff Line Movement – Divisional Round
by T.O. Whenham - 1/15/2010

The second round of the NFL playoffs start Saturday. This is when things really start to get interesting. The further we get into the playoffs, the more attention the general public pays to the games, and the more money they bet on the games. That means that the lines are going to be under more pressure now than they are in a regular season game.

NFL Free Prop Predictions – Divisional Playoffs Edition
by Jay Horne - 1/15/2010

The NFL Playoffs kicked off in a big way with a number of storylines last week. The Dallas Cowboys ended a 13-year drought when they took down the Eagles for the second straight week in a row. The Ravens dominated the Patriots and it seems the New England dynasty may have finally come crumbling down.

NFL Handicapping: Kurt Warner’s History Against the Spread
by T.O. Whenham - 1/14/2010

Kurt Warner made quite a splash before his playoff game against the Packers last week when news leaked out that Warner was likely eyeing retirement after this season. He made an even bigger splash wen he didn't let the distraction of that news bother him and went out and played close to a perfect game.

NFC Divisional Round Preview: Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings
by Robert Ferringo - 1/13/2010

The Cowboys (12-5) will line up to crunch skulls with the Vikings (12-4) at 1 p.m. on Sunday in the Metrodome. This game will match up two of the most physically imposing, most bloodthirsty, most rage-filled teams in the NFL and will be a contest of attrition. With two punishing running games and mountainous offensive lines clashing with a pair of maniacal and abusive defenses this game should be more of a throwback to the type of Playoff Football that we’ve come to expect from the NFL.

NFC Divisional Round Preview: Arizona Cardinals at New Orleans Saints
by Matt Severance - 1/13/2010

Let’s see, if the Arizona Cardinals can score 51 points – with Kurt Warner throwing more touchdown passes (five) than incompletions (four) -- against a Green Bay defense that was second in the NFL in the regular season, what can Arizona do against a New Orleans unit that fell off big time at the end of the year?

AFC Divisional Round Preview: New York Jets at San Diego Chargers
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 1/12/2010

If the Jets backed into the playoffs then the Chargers made a dead out sprint into the postseason, running the table after their 34-23 loss to Denver back on Oct. 19. This may be the ugly duckling of the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs with the underwhelming Jets headed into San Diego as nine-point underdogs.

NFL Divisional Playoffs: Examining the Coaches
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 1/12/2010

There are certain NFL Playoff rules every bettor has in the back of his or her mind. They pertain to road teams or rookie quarterbacks or warm climate teams playing in the cold or dome teams playing on real grass. But there seems to be one constant year in and year out with NFL playoff football and those are the guys with the headsets on.

AFC Divisional Round Preview: Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts
by Robert Ferringo - 1/11/2010

About four years ago the idea of a team, in the playoffs, heading to New England and beating Tom Brady one week and then going to Indianapolis and beating Peyton Manning the next would be about as likely as me sleeping with Alessandra Ambrosio one weekend and Megan Fox the next.

NFL Handicapping: Wild Card Line Movements
by T.O. Whenham - 1/8/2010

The wild card round gets underway on Saturday. The betting volume is always huge for the playoffs - more casual bettors pay attention when the playoffs roll around, and fewer games on offer mean that bettors have more to spend on each game. Because the volumes are higher, the lines are under more pressure than normal, and we need to be more aware of how they are moving and what that can tell us.

NFL Free Prop Predictions – Wildcard Weekend Playoffs Edition
by Jay Horne - 1/8/2010

A week after the regular season concluded, the postseason will get started with NFL Wild Card Weekend this Saturday. One of the interesting facts about the opening round of the playoffs is that three of the four games will feature Week 17 rematches. With so many interesting games on the table, we look to narrow in on a couple of profitable NFL betting lines and cash in big.

AFC Wild Card Preview: Ravens at Patriots
by Matt Severance - 1/7/2010

The one thing that makes Sunday’s AFC wild-card round game between Baltimore and New England stand out from the other three playoff games is that Ravens-Pats is the only matchup of the four that wasn’t also played in Week 17 – New England is a 3.5-point favorite on Bodog.

NFL Playoff Betting Adjustments
by T.O. Whenham - 1/7/2010

The NFL playoffs are finally here. Anyone who has been sports betting for a while knows that the NFL playoffs are a very different animal from the regular season. If you approach the games in January in the same way you handicapped games in October then you are going to be in trouble. Here's a collection of some of the adjustments you'll want to think about making before you make your first bet:

Chris Johnson vs. Usain Bolt: Who’s Faster?
by Matt Severance - 1/7/2010

Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson is no doubt fast. He ran a 4.24 at the 2008 NFL Scouting Combine for the best time that year (supposedly the best ever is Deion Sanders’ 4.17, but timing systems have changed dramatically over the years). Johnson’s speed was on display often this year as he became the sixth back to top 2,000 yards rushing in a season, set an NFL record for yards from scrimmage and he had three touchdown runs of 85 yards or longer – no other player has managed that in a career.