ARIZONA +4 (1 unit)
Hasn't the coverage on this game been as lopsided as you have ever seen on a game. No matter how much they try to fool us into believing it isn't, you have to remind yourself that it is just a football game. However, everywhere I look, there isn't anyone that is giving Arizona a chance. I really don't believe that has anything to do with what will happen today. But I do believe that the public is all over Philadelphia.
AND THE POINTSPREAD ON THIS GAME!!! Like I said, everyone and even the oddsmakers are already writing Arizona's obituary. It reminds me of (GASP) The 2001 New England Patriots, Arizona really has something left to prove...
Although you must give Philadelphia credit, this is the 5th time in the championship game in just 8 years! And the will to win the big one surely has never been as big for that team as it is this year. Considering the way they got here. Remember, Arizona won their division by default, but Philadelphia reached the wildcard round by default!
It's a hard game to figure. Even the injury report here doesn't help us. About the only thing that attracts me to the play is the fact that Westbrook is playing injured. And all through the playoffs, the questionable at the positions has been consistent with what happened all year in the injury report trends whereas players at certain positions were listed as out.
And that is about as close as I can come to figuring that game. But this next one is a lot juicier!
BALTIMORE +5 (the house)
This is perhaps the algorithm lock game of the playoffs. All of the 'reversal of fortune' angles are on this game. There is one reversal of fortune angle here that applies to this game that have been consistent all year in the divisional match-ups. There is a reversal of fortune angle here that has been consistent all through these playoffs in the non-divisional match-ups (that applies to non-divisional match-ups where the same two team that met during the regular season, meet again in the playoffs it has also appied to divisional games).
There is even a reversal of fortune angle that applies to that phantom call in the last match-up between these two teams, you remember when the official reversed a call made on a touchdown pass in the final seconds of the last Baltimore-Pittsburgh game. This is an angle that goes back a number of years.
In other words, you could say that NFL history suggests that the Steelers luck against the Ravens has run out. Baltimore will catch the breaks this time.
There are even injury report trends on this game as well that makes it even more of a lock that it already is. Imagine that, with all of the hype we have heard this week about the Ravens being banged up, the injury trends suggest that Baltimore will win. And there is more than one of them on this game. The game is as big as any game I have ever seen before.
That is why I laugh whenever I listen to the reporters and radio show hosts when they talk. I listened to the Mike Francesca comedy show this morning. I tried to call him so that I could go on the air and explain in detail the algorithm that I have on this game (while he has been saying all week that everything points toward the Steelers winning) but the phone lines were busy with callers calling in to talk about things like "maybe Jessica Simpson was at that Cowboys game three weeks ago and that's why Tony Romo played so bad"
Good luck with whatever you do today.
gl