NFL Playoffs - Divisional Round Weekend

Last week i was full of inspiration and by my low standards produced a decent preview of the weekends action. This week the inspiration has deserted me like it did Neil Young in the 1980's and popular music in general from around 1996. Here's this weeks schedule and I'll breeze through game by game

NFL Divisional Playoffs
Saturday, January 14
New Orleans @ San Francisco 49ers FOX 9:30PM - Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston,
Denver @ New England Patriots CBS 1:00AM - Jim Nantz, Phil Simms

Sunday, January 15
Houston @ Baltimore Ravens CBS 6:00PM - Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorf
NYG @ Green Bay Packers FOX 9:30PM - Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver


The many different previews i read before lifting their thoughts and picks onto here all say something like 'the Saints will score 24-27 points and i don't see the 49ers matching that', apart from the ones that don't that is.  I don't know who wins this one, It will probably be the Saints but i feel a much better bet is to go for the 2nd half to be the highest scoring at Even Money with Paddy power for 5 points.

 
TEBOWMANIA rolls into New England on Saturday night to take on Brady and Co,  that's company not Stompe.  The Patriots will win this game, they will take away any chance of the deep ball that Pittsburgh threatened Tebow into throwing and wait for McGahee to fumble or Jeebus himself to throw an interception. I don't think this one will ever be in much doubt but whether or not the Patriots cover will depend on if Belichick wants to stick the boot into the 2nd coming and how long Denver go before making the critical error.  I'm steering clear of the spread and going having 2.5 points on Aaron Hernandez to score a TD at 2.23 with pinnacle and 1.5 points on Tom Brady at 7/1 to do the same with Corals as Denver will look to take away Gronkowski the Pats like a QB sneak at the goal line

It was either this or Bibi Jones, but this is a family blog.

The first game on Sunday sees The Texans go to fortress MT&T Bank stadium to take on Baltimore. I've made my mind up that Baltimore are winning this and rather than make up 115 pages of guff to attempt to justify my decision I'll do it in a few lines.  I wasn't impressed with Houston last week, particularly in the first half  when the Bengals could have built themselves a decent lead if they hadn't been in full self destruct mode.  The Ravens old guard on defence will be well rested (as long as they've been sat at home not killing anyone) and looking to terrorise and befuddle TJ Yates while not letting Arian Foster beat them by himself, Boldin is back after minor surgery to give Flacco his no1 receiver back which will take a little bit of defencive pressure off Ray Rice. The Ravens won 8 of their 12 wins (8/8 at home) by at least 8 points including a 29-14 win over the Texans, I'm expecting a similar outcome this time with the Ravens winning by a couple of scores.  Baltimore -7.5 , 5 points @ 10/11 (Gen)

Ravens are aiming high, but not in the Ricky Williams sense

The final game of the weekend is the cool pick for an upset with the Giants going to Green Bay. Well us here at kjbetting (me) are not cool and we're not stupid either. Green Bay won in New York by the dreaded 38-35 scoreline, having to drive to kick a field goal in the last 2 minutes having gone to sleep to let the Giants back into it.   The Giants are supposed to have 'momentum' having scraped their way to the division title and victory in a pretty uninspiring game vs Atlanta, but I'd much rather have a 15-1 record, a bye week home advantage and Aaron Rodgers.
Green Bay -7.5, 6 points @ 10/11 (Gen)

Big Ben being aggressively pursued by a Clay