Friday, January 15, 2010

Roberts NFL Divisional Playoff Selections: Who Dat Gonna Beat Dem Cardinals?



Cardinals +7 @ New Orleans: The Cardinals getting points on the road has been one of the best bets on the season going 5-0 against the spread. This is a resilient team led by a veteran QB in Kurt Warner who doesn’t rattle to the opposing teams fans. They have played their best ball in these situations dating back to last season in the playoffs. The Saints fans are some of the loudest, but the crowd has been disappointed and not a factor in losing their last two home games outright as large favorites. It’s been over a month since the Saints have won and they haven’t won convincingly since beating the Patriots on a Nov. 30 Monday night. That’s a long gap to believe they can all of a sudden become the week 12 Saints again.



Cardinals/Saints Under 57: There were 14 instances in the regular season where the game total was over 50 and the under went 11-3. The bulk of those games, 10 to be exact, were played in games involving the Saints and the under was 7-3 in those games. The Cardinals had two totals of 50 or higher and both went under the number.

Arizona lit up the scoreboard last week against the Packers, but the Cardinals defense showed a weakness against Aaron Rodgers who put 45 points on the board. The major difference coming into this game between what we saw last week is that the Packers offense had been fluid throughout to close the season while the Saints struggled badly against the Cowboys and Buccaneers at home. They weren’t able to move the ball in the same effective manner they did in the first 13 weeks of the season.

Just a side note: Over the last three season of the Divisional Playoff round, underdogs have gone 10-2 against the spread with seven of them winning straight up. I wouldn't be upset if I had to root for all four dogs this week.

3 comments:

  1. Hope you're right about that total.

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  2. I hope I'm right about the game too because I took ML and the points as well. Come on, you can't win them all, can you?

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  3. took it in th shorts all ways round robined. M/L, points, & under....plus parlayed to each. At least it was painless early and I didn't have to sweat it out late.

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