Saturday, January 17, 2015

NFC Championship Preview & Pick

Before the 2014 NFL regular season got underway, the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks were +300 favorites to win the NFC again on BetOnline's futures odds. The betting odds that Green Bay would win this season's conference title were +700, which were the third-best odds on the board. The only team with lower odds other than the Seahawks was San Francisco at +400 and the 49ers did not even make the playoffs. This makes it safe to assume that the two best teams in the NFC will be battling it out for the title this Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field in Seattle.

The big question in this game is how will Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodger's performance be impacted by a nagging calf injury? At full strength on opening day, he had his issues against Seattle's shutdown defense in a 36-16 loss. Green Bay came into that Week 1 clash as a 4.5-point road underdog and this time around the current betting odds at BetOnline have the Packers listed as 7.5-point underdogs.

Given the situation with Rodgers' injury, it is easy to see why most of the betting public's money has gone towards the Seahawks in this matchup. Anyone who follows my picks on a regular basis is well aware that I usually have the tendency to go in the opposite direction when the betting becomes this one-sided. Rodgers may not be 100 percent, but even playing at 80 to 85 percent still makes him a better quarterback than 98 percent of the other signal-callers in this league.

I still do have my doubts that Green Bay can actually go into one of the toughest venues in the NFL and come away with a straight-up win, but I am loving that extra half point in the Packers' favor in what I see as a touchdown spread between Seattle and Green Bay at the final gun.

My complete preview and pick for Sunday's NFC Championship can be found at the link below to an article that was posted earlier this week on SportsBettingStats.com.

Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks Betting Pick

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