NFL Handicapping Articles

AFC Championship Game Picks: Ravens at Patriots NFL Odds Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 1/18/2012

Old warriors die the hardest. For the last decade Tom Brady and Ray Lewis have been the standard bearers for offense and defense, respectively, in the National Football League. They have each gone to war nearly 200 times in their careers and both have won every accolade, both individual awards and titles, that a player can ever hope for. They are first-ballot Hall of Fame players and they will match wills once again with everything on the line.

NFC Championship Game Predictions: Giants at 49ers Odds and Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 1/18/2012

The 49ers and Giants advanced to the NFC Title Game thanks to incredible defensive efforts last week, outmuscling the No. 1 and No. 3 offenses in football, respectively, in wins over the Saints and Packers. San Francisco and New York forced turnovers and took advantage of weaker defenses in both games, and now they will bang heads in what should be another NFC Championship Game between these long-time rivals.

NFL Betting Advice: Home Field Advantage in Conference Championship Games
by T.O. Whenham - 1/18/2012

There is always a lot of talk about home field advantage in the NFL Playoffs. This is a very interesting time to be talking about it, too. Last weekend in the NFC alone we saw two extremes. We saw how important it can be when the Niners road the emotion of a rabid crowd to a huge rallying win, and we saw how little playing in an iconic building can matter if a team isn’t ready to play.

NFL Handicapping: Exploiting the (Few) Weaknesses of Drew Brees
by T.O. Whenham - 1/13/2012

With apologies to Tim Tebow and Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees is the quarterbacking story of the playoffs right now. Every time the guy touches the ball he seems to set another record. Even a quick summary of his accomplishments are remarkable. He has passed for at least 300 yards in his last eight games, and he is averaging more than 350 yards per game all season.

NFL Divisional Round Player Props and Betting Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/11/2012

For the NFL’s four-game wild-card weekend, I analyzed three player props: most yards passing, rushing and receiving. And the results, unfortunately, weren’t pretty. Saints quarterback Drew Brees was the heavy favorite to throw for the most yards last week, and that’s obviously understandable considering he set the NFL single-season yardage record this year. I didn’t recommend Brees against the defensively porous Lions last week only because he was such a big favorite.

NFL Totals Betting: Divisional-Round Weekend Over and Under Predictions
by David Schwab - 1/11/2012

The offense got the best of it in last weekend’s Wild Card Round of the NFL playoff bracket as three of the four games went ‘over’ the total. The average number of points scored by the four winning teams was 32.3. The NFL playoffs now move onto the Divisional Round, which offers another great opportunity to mine some value out of the total lines. The following are the top two ‘over/under’ plays for this weekend’s matchups with the lines provided by BetOnline.

This Week in NFL Betting By the Numbers
by Darin Zank - 1/11/2012

The most shocking number to come out of the NFL's wild-card playoff weekend was five, as in the number of 30-plus-yard pass plays the Pittsburgh Steelers allowed Denver's Tim Tebow to complete. How the hell does that happen to the No. 1 defense in the league, by a guy who supposedly can't throw? We don't know. And who the hell saw that coming? Nobody, that's who.

NFL Divisional Round Predictions: Giants at Packers Odds and Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 1/10/2012

The New York Giants are the most predictable team in football. A litany of diehard, “Joey” fans of the G-Men might not agree. Nor would a sea of football bettors, national prognosticators, or other members of the bobblehead media. However, when it comes to betting on or against, or predicting on or against the Giants, you need to follow one simple guide:

NFL Divisional Round Odds: Texans at Ravens Predictions and Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 1/10/2012

If you ask football fans to name the most difficult venues in the NFL for visiting teams to get a win you will get a list that includes the usual names: Lambeau Field, the Superdome, and even Qwest Field in Seattle. But even though most people don’t even know where M&T Bank Stadium is or who plays there, this site has been, in terms of against the spread success, the gold standard of home field advantage over the past decade.

Super Bowl Matchup Props: Odds and Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 1/10/2012

We’re down to eight teams in the NFL Playoff brackets, so people are inevitably looking forward to the Super Bowl. With four teams still standing in each conference we have 16 different possible combinations of Super Bowl opponents. Some are obviously more likely than others. Like anything else you can think of, the books will let you bet on which combination of teams you expect to see in Indianapolis in a few weeks.

NFL Predictions: Saints at 49ers Odds and Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 1/9/2012

“Can anyone stop the New Orleans Saints?” Beyond debates about Tim Tebow’s transcendental qualities, this has to be the second-most asked question in the NFL these days. New Orleans has scored 40 or more points in four straight games (and five of seven) and after demolishing one plucky upstart, Detroit, last week in the opening round of the NFL postseason. They will try to dispatch another surprise team, San Francisco, in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs this weekend.

NFL Picks: Broncos at Patriots Odds and Betting Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 1/9/2012

Apparently it is a miracle nowadays when a team advances deep into the postseason on the back of a powerful running game, a forceful defense, and some clutch big plays and turnovers. It is funny: I always thought that was what football was all about. But when Tim Tebow is the man leading that winning team the only real explanation is that there are Higher Powers involved.

NFL Wild-Card Weekend ‘Most’ Player Props Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/5/2012

There’s a lot of team and player prop options, as you would expect, for the opening round of the NFL’s postseason this weekend. But let’s go with the “most” options on players available: most passing yards on wild-card weekend, most rushing yards and most receiving yards (numbers may vary some at various books that offer this prop).

NFL Defensive Player of the Year Updated Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/5/2012

Your MVP, as good as Drew Brees has been in his record-setting season, is going to be Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, who was the huge 11/2 preseason favorite on Bovada. I stupidly argued that wasn’t good value although I admitted he should have been the favorite.

NFL Totals Betting: Wild-Card Weekend Over and Under Predictions
by David Schwab - 1/4/2012

Last week the NFL regular season closed things out with nine of the 16 games going ‘over’ the total. We ended-up on the wrong side of two of our three best bets to close-out the regular season with an overall record of 28-21-2.

NFL Props: Next Coach of Rams, Bucs Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 1/4/2012

Last week in my NFL Week 17 props story, I recommended that bettors on Bovada take the ‘over’ three head coaches fired from the end of Week 17 until the first playoff game – which is this Saturday. I figured at worst it would be a push, because the Tampa Bay Bucs’ Raheem Morris, St. Louis Rams’ Steve Spagnuolo and Minnesota Vikings’ Leslie Frazier were all goners and that the San Diego Chargers’ Norv Turner and Indianapolis Colts’ Jim Caldwell were likely out.

This Week in NFL Betting By the Numbers
by Darin Zank - 1/4/2012

Finally, after 17 weeks of regular-season play, a new league single-season record 11,356 points scored, numerous bad calls, endless replay reviews and bad beats up the ying-yang, the NFL playoffs are here. The NFL Playoff brackets feature twelve teams, four rounds, and a championship tournament; what a novel idea. Are those money-grubbing college presidents paying attention?

NFL Handicapping: Looking Back at QBR Rating
by T.O. Whenham - 1/4/2012

At the start of the NFL season ESPN announced their revolutionary new statistic — the QBR or Total Quarterback Rating — with much fanfare and hyperbole. They had redefined the way we look at quarterbacks and understand their significance, they claimed.

NFL Playoffs Predictions: Falcons at Giants Odds and Betting Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 1/3/2012

The Giants will welcome the Falcons to the Meadowlands at 1 p.m. on Sunday in an NFC Wild Card game. The Giants played their way into this position by beating Dallas on their home turf last Sunday night in a winner-goes-on-loser-goes-home game. The week prior to that they beat the New York Jets in a situation where a loss could have ended their postseason aspirations.

NFL Predictions: Steelers at Broncos Odds and Betting Picks
by Alan Matthews - 1/3/2012

For the second year in a row we have a division champion in the playoffs without a winning record as the Denver Broncos (8-8) backed into the AFC West crown this past weekend. They will host the reigning AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in the final game of the NFL’s wild-card weekend.