NFC Divisonal Playoffs – Arizona @ New Orleans

January 14th, 2010

NFL Betting – Cardinals Experience Will Factor Again

Arizona Cardinals @ New Orleans Saints
NFC Divisonal Playoffs
Bookmaker Line : Saints -7
NFL Betting Total : 56.5

The Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints are expected to be in quite the shootout this week. As you can tell, the sports betting odds makers have set the odds for the over/under at 56.5, which gives you an idea of what type of style they believe this game will be.

The Cardinals and their first-round opponent, the Green Bay Packers, combined for 96 points in the Wild Card weekend, and the Saints are quite the high-scoring outfit themselves, so there is little reason to believe that this game won’t be as high-scoring.

From the Cardinals perspective, they better hope their defense finds some answers in the week between games. They allowed 500+ yards to the Packers and gave up 45 points at home, which isn’t even the biggest concern. The Cardinals had a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter, then also led 31-10 in the third quarter and led 38-24 entering the fourth quarter.

Even with such huge leads, the Cardinals still couldn’t hold on and allowed the Packers all the way back.

The Cards have had some trouble with big leads a few times down the stretch of the season. They allowed the Detroit Lions to come up off the mat after a 17-0 lead and then allowed the St. Louis Rams to hang around the following week as well.

Considering they are going up against Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Marques Colston and Jeremy Shockey this week, they better figure out their deficiencies really quickly.

If the Packers exposed one thing last week it’s that the Cardinals simply don’t have much depth in the secondary. They are good in run defense but against teams who line up with multiple receiving weapons, they are going to have problems.

Inconveniently, the Saints have that many weapons.

The experience edge will definitely be on the Cardinals side as their team went to the Super Bowl last year but don’t forget that this Saints team has also been to the NFC Championship a few years back. Drew Brees and Sean Payton were on that team, so they’ll be familiar with the playoff atmosphere.

This game will be close but a bye week should be the difference. The Saints will be just a bit crisper in this game.

NFL Betting Pick : Saints -7

Entry Filed under: NFL Football,Sports Betting

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