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NFC Conference Championship Playoff Spread: Eagles vs. Cardinals

Point spread and prediction for the NFC Conference Championship playoff weekend nfl clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Arizona Cardinals plus the betting spreads, and betting trends for nfl football gambling…

NFC Conference Championship – Philadelphia Eagles vs. Arizona Cardinals

Both of the teams that made it to the NFC Championship are big surprises. The Philadelphia Eagles had to beat their arch rivals, the New York Giants, on the road in order to get to the championship game. The Arizona Cardinals had to beat the two seed, the Carolina Panthers, on the road to get to the championship game. Out of the two teams, it’s the Cardinals that have provided the biggest surprises to online betting fans this NFL playoff season.   No NFL betting fan really believed the Cardinals would beat the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers were 10 point favorites against the BetUS online betting spread, but the Cardinals quickly turned that dream into mush by squashing the Panthers early. By half-time, Arizona had built up a 23 point lead against the Panthers. Now, they get to host the NFC Championship game because the Philadelphia Eagles are the sixth seed in the playoffs.

Not that being a sixth seed has hurt the Eagles in any way. They traveled to Minnesota in the wild-card round and made more than one NFL betting fan happy by beating the Vikings straight-up and against the BetUS online wagering spread. Then on last Sunday they stared down the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants on the road and beat them straight-up, also destroying the 4 point online betting spread, by a score of 23 to 11. The Eagles are definitely playing at a very high level.

Here are the BetUS online sportsbook betting odds for this game.

Philadelphia Eagles – 3 ½ – 110 – 200 O 47 – 110
Arizona Cardinals + 3 ½ – 110 + 165 U 47 – 110

Here are a few online wagering trends that might help us find a good online bet in this game.

The Philadelphia Eagles are 5 and 0 against the spread in their last 5 playoff games on the road.
The Philadelphia Eagles are 6 and 1 against the spread in their last 7 games overall.
The Arizona Cardinals are 4 and 1 against the spread in their last 5 games against an NFC opponent.
The Arizona Cardinals are 3 and 7 against the spread in their last 10 games as the underdog.

The Philadelphia Eagles are super hot in the early betting on this game. The BetUS odds makers set the line at Eagles – 3 on Sunday night. But already, about 24 hours later, the Eagles are now 3 ½ point online sportsbook wagering favorites.

Why are football betting fans so strongly behind the Eagles? First, they beat the defending champions, the New York Giants. Second, their overall record against the BetUS online wagering spread is a sparkling one at 11-6-1. The total includes their last two games. Finally, the Eagles are the known team. What I mean by that is that BetUS online sportsbook wagering fans have backed the Eagles during the regular season and they have won money when backing them. That makes the Eagles a solid online wagering play in this game.

But I prefer to look beyond the trends in NFL Championship games. Why? Because the trends don’t mean much when a team like the Arizona Cardinals take the field. The Cardinals are simply not the same team as the one that the Eagles faced on Thanksgiving night.

Arizona is playing with the type of confidence that teams get only after discovering something special. The defense just hasn’t made mistakes lately and the offense is clicking away in the running game. Arizona is on a serious roll, they get the Eagles at home, and nobody on the Eagles staff can cover Larry Fitzgerald.

That might be the reason that the Cardinals win this game. In order to stop both Edgerrin James and Tim Hightower in the running game, the Philadelphia Eagles are going to have to bring Brian Dawkins up to provide run support. That means that Larry Fitzgerald could be out there all by his lonesome against a single cover corner.

Fitzgerald simply cannot be covered.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Cardinals have the perfect signal caller in Kurt Warner to go against Eagles’ defensive coach Jimmie Johnson’s blitz schemes. Warner is a master at reading the blitz and releasing the ball before getting pummeled by a defender. Johnson is going to have to be very careful about which blitzes he calls in this game. Warner and Fitzgerald will make the Eagles pay if the wrong blitz is called.

That’s the difference to me in this game. Forget trends, forget history, forget name recognition. The winner of this game, and the winner against the BetUS online betting spread, is gong to be the team that takes advantage of mismatches.

The Cardinals should be that team.

Eagles vs. Cardinals Playoff Prediction:

I’ll be making an online football bet on the Arizona Cardinals to beat the Philadelphia Eagles straight-up at the online betting odds of + 165.