The Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles square off in Glendale this Sunday in the NFC Championship Game to determine who will have the right to play in the Super Bowl.
Will we give our playoff free pick to the home underdog Cardinals in this NFC Championship matchup or go with Donovan McNabb and the surging Eagles?
Oddsmakers from online sports book Sports Interaction have made the Eagles -4 point spread favorite. The over/under for this game has been set at 47 total points.
Top Trend: Arizona is 7-3 against the spread in its last 10 games at home and 4-2 against the number in its last six games.
Key Stat: The Cardinals are averaging close to 300 yards passing per game and are scoring 26.7 points per game. They’ve also held their last two opponents to under 100 yards rushing so far in the playoffs.
Game Outlook: Sometimes it’s easy for bettors to overlook the simplest things. The Philadelphia Eagles are the better going into Sunday. They’ve got a better defense, they match up well with the Cardinals and Andy Reid has more postseason experience than second-year head coach Ken Whisenhunt. But even with all of those factors, you can’t overlook the simple fact that the Cardinals are a much better team at home than they are on the road – as in, remarkably better. The Eagles are going to pressure Kurt Warner more Sunday than he’s been pressured all playoffs, but with Anquan Boldin back in the fold (he’s expected to play), Warner will also have all of his weapons at his disposal come Sunday. This will also be the third straight week that the Eagles will have to play on the road and don’t forget that this was one of the more inconstant teams in the NFL this season. Arizona’s defense is peaking at the right time, they’re playing with loads of confidence and they’re forcing turnovers. As long as the Cards’ offense can convert on third downs and not turn the ball over themselves, they’ve got a tremendous chance of not only covering the spread, but winning the game outright. In fact, that’s exactly what we’re going to predict – an outright Arizona victory. Our stronger play is the under, however. Even though the Cardinals can score quickly and their defense has allowed an average of 26 points per game this season, this is going to be a tight ballgame throughout and we expect the scoring won’t get revved up until midway through the third quarter. The total is set to high for such a marquee game and so much on the line. Take the under and the home team getting points. For the rest of our NFL NFC Championship Free Pick, see below.
Our Free NFL Pick for the NFC Championship Playoff Game matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals game is
ARIZONA CARDINALS +4
TheSpread.com Projected Final Score
Arizona Cardinals 24
Philadelphia Eagles 21
We also predict that this game will GO UNDER THE TOTAL (47 Sportsbook.com) SET BY ODDSMAKERS