Anyone that gets involved with the sports betting sites understands that sometimes the simplest approach is the best approach. When it comes to NFL betting, there are two ways in which you can win by using the simplest of methods. Remember that there is no betting method that is perfect and can guarantee results. But methods that will get you better than 50 percent in the win column is at least worth investigating.

The bookie software sets the lines based on several conditions. But when a high-scoring team plays a low-scoring team, the line will almost always skew towards the high-scoring team. As a matter of fact, the five highest scoring teams in the league in any given season usually win at least 60 percent of their games against the spread. All you have to do is determine if a team is a top-five scoring team and then place your bet. It is that simple.

Another easy indicator of how a team will play is its home and away record. If you write or follow any other sports website such as a hockey blog, then you know that teams tend to establish patterns of winning and losing on the road. After the midway point of the season, you can use these tendencies to make some money. If a team has a winning record at home, then you can take the bet that it will win its next home game. More often than not, you will be right.

A fun little sideline to NFL betting and online wagering in bigger games is something called proposition betting. These are bets that the price per head service creates on its own to try and generate a little extra betting action for itself and its customers.

A proposition bet is not a typical bet to determine which team will win or which team will lose. It is a side bet that gives lines on things like who will win the coin toss, the over-under on how many yards a quarterback will throw for, who will be leading at halftime and who will score the winning touchdown. NFL fans like these proposition bets because they can be a great way to pad the winnings for a night. But proposition bets also have a challenging side that every bettor needs to be aware of.

There are no standard lines for proposition bets. That means that the line for who will win the coin toss on site A is different than the line on site B. That means that bettors may want to do a little looking to find the best lines on proposition bets to make sure they are getting the best possible odds. The danger in this for the betting websites is that the sites with the best odds will get all of the action and the sites with the lower lines will not see any additional revenue.

Many of the proposition lines are based on historical information. But, in many cases, it can just be a gut feeling that tells you which bet to take and how much you should put down.

As college football betting starts to focus on bowl games, the NFL season keeps charging towards the playoffs. The NFC playoff race is full of some very interesting scenarios that have kept fans in several cities on the edge of their seats for weeks. Some NFC teams will get their playoff hopes dashed in week 14, while others will move one step closer to reaching their post-season goals.

New York Giants @ Dallas Cowboys

This week 14 matchup will complete the fall of the Giants and the rise of the Cowboys all in one week. This is the game where the Cowboys wrestle first place in the NFC East away from the Giants for good and crush the Giants’ playoff hopes.

Pick: Dallas Cowboys

San Francisco 49ers @ Arizona Cardinals

The San Francisco 49ers are a playoff contender while the Arizona Cardinals are not. But the pay head sports odds makers are still watching the race in the NFC for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The 49ers have made significant improvements over last year’s team that finished 6-10. The 49ers will need this win to try and keep pace with the Packers in the NFC standings.

Pick: San Francisco 49ers

St. Louis Rams @ Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks are trying to sneak into the playoffs for the second year in a row. Last year, the Seahawks finished 7-9 and made the playoffs as the worst divisional champion ever. The NFL scores that the Seahawks have been posting lately are starting to push the team into playoff contention. If the Seahawks can keep winning and the New York Giants keep losing, then the Seahawks could be in the post-season again.

Pick: Seattle Seahawks

Online Sportsbook Overview

The Patriots’ offense is on a roll that the Eagles could only dream of. Even without a key downfield receiver, the Patriots continue to score points. But that could be where the Eagles’ defense comes in. The Philadelphia defensive secondary is capable of taking away the short passes that Tom Brady loves so much and forcing the Patriots to throw the ball down field. That will bring Chad Ochocinco into the game more, and he has not played much this year at all.

New England Patriots

The price per head sports fans in New England know that the Patriots are all offense and no defense. The only defensive strategy the Patriots have is to keep the other team’s offense off of the field by holding on to the ball. But that may not work in this game and it could expose serious weaknesses in the Patriots’ game plan.

Philadelphia Eagles

The good news for NFL fans in Philadelphia is that the Patriots do not have a pass rush capable of putting Michael Vick back in the hospital. The Eagles have a shot at winning this game if it can get the ball past the New England linebackers. That is where Desean Jackson and the Eagles’ wide receivers come into play.

The Bottom Line

These teams are very similar, but the big difference is that the Eagles’ secondary can shut down the Patriots’ passing game. This may not be a pretty game to watch, but the Eagles’ fans will enjoy the outcome.

Pick: Philadelphia Eagles

Now that Super Bowl XLV is a week old, sports betting online enthusiasts can shift their attention to the upcoming draft in the end of April. This year’s draft class looks to be one of the best in most NFL betting online handicapper’s minds. Who will go first? Will quarterbacks be the talk of the draft like the last three years? Here are some predictions regarding the draft.

The 2011 NFL draft will be defensive heavy for the first couple of rounds. On paper, it appears that the three teams that won the honor of drafting in the first three spots will all be defensive heavy. Carolina Panthers finished in dead last this past season and unless they trade the first overall pick, appear destined to pick a defensive minded player, although that could change as there are some great offensive threats.

In our opinion, we feel that since Carolina’s defensive line ranked amongst the worst last season, we predict they will focus on grabbing a defensive tackle or a defensive end. While cornerback Patrick Peterson of LSU appears to be the consensus pick amongst our colleagues, as the top draft choice, we feel Da’Quan Bowers a defensive end from Clemson will move up in the draft. Bowers is projected by our colleagues to be a four, five or six pick, but the big defensive end has all the tools to be a number one. What’s more, Bowers is comparable to former Carolina Panther great Julius Peppers, and really if the Panthers have a chance to get another Peppers, you can guarantee they will do so.

What’s more, look for several veteran quarterbacks to be in play come draft time. With rumours coming out, that Carson Palmer of the Bengals and Donovan McNabb of the Redskins want to be traded, both of their clubs could move the disgruntled pivots for higher draft choices. Donovan McNabb in Buffalo could be the pivot the Bills have been waiting for since Doug Flutie left in 1998.

Sunday February 6. 2011 will be a day remembered by all sports betting handicappers of the NFL, as that was the first time in the history of the league that the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers were able to battle over the Vince Lombardi Trophy. While the Packers walked away as an online betting legend, both teams emerged with elite status. Here is a recap of the game.

The 2010-11 NFL seasons, Championship Game was played at the new Cowboy’s Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with over 100,000 spectators taking the game in person, while over 100 million spectators watched the game on television. Entering this year’s playoffs, the Green Bay Packers, were narrowly able to get in, with a 10 to three victory over the rival Chicago Bears. However, once getting into the playoffs, the Green Bay Packers under the guidance of quarterback Aaron Rodgers and defensive Captain Clay Matthews were able to elevate their game to a whole new level.

On the contrary, the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to get into the playoffs as one of two teams with a bye. However, in their first game against Baltimore they narrowly escaped with a come from behind win. Meanwhile in the Steelers second game of the playoffs the AFC Championship game against the New York Jets, the Steelers jumped out to a giant lead before almost losing the game in the final minute. Fans around the league speculated that this may be the year, that the Steelers failed to win the biggest prize of them all.

Entering the Super Bowl game, the Green Bay Packers had a ton of momentum on their side, and the Pittsburgh Steelers looked to be on their last legs. Before the game was half way old, the Steelers were down 21 to 10. By the time the game concluded, it was evident, that the Packers momentum was far too much for the Steelers to handle.

Super Bowl 45 betting lines have come and gone as handicappers reflect on the 2010-11 NFL seasons. What year this past Super Bowl betting season was, as fans witnessed many ups and downs, highlighted by one of the highest scoring Championship games in recent memory. Here is a look back at Super Bowl 45.

The 2010-11 NFL Season came to an end on Sunday February 6, 2011 as the league’s two biggest fan bases met for the biggest prize. In one corner, was the modern day dynasty of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who appeared destined for a third Super Bowl ring in six years. On the other side of things, was the Green Bay Packers, who for the last few years has been attempting to create a new identity, without Brett Favre, and overcome a ton of adversity due to injuries in the regular season. When all was said and done, the adversity riddled Packers triumphed over the dynastic Steelers, in a game that acted as a coming out party for several players.

Going into the epic matchup, football analysts and fans from around the league all agreed that four men would be front and center. The game would feature, Aaron Rodgers, and Clay Matthews on one side and Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu on the other. Throughout the game, Rodgers, Matthews and Roethlisberger all left their marks, but Polamalu was near invisible. For Green Bay, Rodgers and Matthews weren’t the only ones center stage, as Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson were also important. The latter of which at different times in the game could have been considered as the goat if the Packers failed to win the Super Bowl.

This game also featured, karma getting back at Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Despite winning two of the last six Super Bowl Championships, Roethlisberger has been quite reckless in his personal life, and gone unpunished. With two interceptions and a Super Bowl loss, it appears that karma got the best of the man they call Big Ben.

In a matter of days the Super Bowl 45 betting lines have been some of the closest in recent memory, as the spread between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers is only two and a half points. Two of the most storied franchises in NFL betting history, the 2010-11 edition of the Packers and Steelers are almost carbon copies of each other. Here are two factors that will be on full display come game time Sunday.

• Defense – The old adage of defense wins championships has never been truer in 2010-11. Dom Capers and Dick LeBeau the defensive coordinators of the Steelers and Packers are essentially identical to one another. Capers came up with the run defense that Pittsburgh has employed since 2003. As a result, in the last five years the Steelers have won two of the five potential Super Bowl trophies. What’s more, the 2010-11 Steelers emerged as one of the top five best defensive units since the NFL merger in 1970.

Conversely, the Green Bay Packers under Dick LeBeau, have adopted the Steelers model of defense, and have gone from being lit up by teams, to containing them to 16 points a game. Linebacker Clay Matthews has shown in the last year and a half that the days of Brian Urlacher and the Chicago Bears receiving all the praise in the NFC North, are over as Green Bay is the standard setter now.

• Experience vs. Inexperience – In sports we as fans look at all the statistics and at the end of the day the only statistic that really matters is the win and loss column. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Super Bowl is familiar territory, as since 2005, no team has been more dominant in the NFL.

On the contrary, the Green Bay Packers have finally built a winning team, and for the first time in 15 years they will be entertaining the possibility of winning the Super Bowl. Green Bay has yet to face adversity in these playoffs, while the Steelers narrowly defeated the Baltimore Ravens. When looking at these two teams, the safe bet is Pittsburgh because of their recent dominance.

In the history of online sports betting it has been rare to see two teams battle it out for a league’s Championship that literally everyone wanted to see. In fact the only other time we can remember two teams battling it out for league supremacy was in 2009 when the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees of the MLB dueled over the World Series. Now in 2011, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers have granted Super Bowl betting enthusiasts there wish by making it all the way to the finals. Here is a preview of the game.

This past Sunday if you weren’t a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers or Green Bay Packers, you became one. For the first time in a long time, the NFL finally got it right, as the four remaining teams to battle it out for a berth in the Super Bowl owned the top defenses during the regular season.What’s more, for the majority of the two games the Steelers and Packers showed the Jets and Bears that they were superior on defense to them, and ultimately would win the games.

Super Bowl 45 on February 6, 2011 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will be the first time that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers have met since their regular season matchup during the 2009-10 seasons. During that last encounter, the teams combined for 73 points, as the Steelers edged the Packers by a score of 37 to 36.

As we’ve seen both throughout the regular season and these playoffs, both the Packers and Steelers offenses can run as fluidly as their defenses.Meaning to say, similar to an old Western film featuring John Wayne, football handicappers should expect a shoot out between the two greatest clubs in NFL history.

We are now down to the final two weeks of the NFL betting lines playoffs, and the AFC Conference Championship couldn’t be more appealing. As we saw this past weekend defense wins Super Bowl betting championships, and who better to play in the AFC Final then the conference’s two best defensive minded teams. Today we look at why the New York Jets will get the monkey off their backs and move on to the Super Bowl Championship.

Heading into the 2010-11 NFL regular season, the New York Jets ownership group did everything in its power to give itself, at least on paper, the best chance to win the Super Bowl. For instance, the Jets acquired Antonio Cromartie from the San Diego Chargers, to give Rex Ryan a competent dual cornerback threat alongside Darrelle Revis. Next, they acquired former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes from the Pittsburgh Steelers in order to give Mark Sanchez a big time pass option in the playoffs. Finally, the Jets brought in LaDanian Tomlinson to provide veteran leadership for rookie Shone Green.

Now as the AFC Championship game approaches, the Jets remain as the only AFC East option of a Super Bowl ring. What’s more, this will be the first time that Santonio Holmes will be playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a playoff game. With wins already against AFC powerhouses the Indianapolis Colts and AFC East divisional rival the New England Patriots, the Jets appear to have the drive it takes to knock off the giants of the NFL.

To be blunt, we truly feel that if the New York Jets can stop Mike Wallace and Sanchez can overcome the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, going to the Super Bowl will just be a formality for the youngest team remaining in the playoffs.