The online betting sites are getting geared up for the NFL playoffs, but there are still two weeks of the regular season to get through first. Some teams are battling for playoff spots while other teams are trying to build on something positive for next season. The bookie software has all of these teams eliminated from playoff contention, but that does not mean that they cannot finish the season strong.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Carolina Panthers

This is exactly the kind of game that the Carolina Panthers need to help build on next season. The inexplicable collapse of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play into the hands of the constantly improving Panthers. With a couple of off-season changes, this Carolina team could be a playoff contender next year. This game will help kick-start that momentum.

Pick: Carolina Panthers

Minnesota Vikings @ Washington Redskins

The NFL fans in Washington have endured one of the most violent roller coaster rides in NFL history these last couple of years. But it may be time for the Washington train to get on track. Christian Ponder is not holding up to the pressure of being an NFL starting quarterback, which means that Joe Webb may start this game. Either way, this win will give the Redskins something to build on for next season.

Pick: Washington Redskins

Arizona Cardinals @ Cincinnati Bengals

In all reality, both of these teams are showing significant progress in the second half of the 2011 season. But the Bengals are much better than it was supposed to be as Cincinnati fights for a playoff spot. This game will be a stepping stone to being a playoff contender next season for the Bengals.

Pick: Cincinnati Bengals

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.

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.

Super Bowl 45 betting online has become more popular than any other Championship game of the 2010 to 2011 seasons. In 2009 sports betting handicappers got to watch a baseball purists dream game when the Philadelphia Phillies battled the New York Yankees, now in 2011 it’s the football purists turn as Green Bay takes on Pittsburgh. Here is a preview of the upcoming Super Bowl Championship game.

Since 1970 when the AFL merged with the NFL, no two teams have been followed more closely than the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers. For the Packers they were the bench mark setters for the rest of the NFL prior to the merger winning 12 Championship rings. However, it would take them 30 years to win ring number 13 as they did so in 1998. Now 13 years later, the Packers go for a franchise best 14^th Championship ring, despite only winning three Super Bowl titles.

Meanwhile, in the 41 year existence of the new NFL has there ever been a better team than the Pittsburgh Steelers? In the first decade of the new NFL alone, the Steelers won four of a possible 10 Championships. Then in 2005, when current quarterback Ben Roethlisberger arrived as a rookie in Pittsburgh, a new era of awesome started. Since Roethlisberger has been in the league the Steelers have either been Championship winning team or bust. For instance, over the last five years, the Steelers have won the Super Bowl title in both playoff appearances, while missing the three years there was new Champions.

For Ben Roethlisberger, this game has huge implications for his career and reputation. On the one hand, if Ben Roethlisberger can guide the Steelers to a third championship, it will tie him for most rings for a current NFL quarterback with New England Patriot Tom Brady. On the other hand, a Super Bowl win will make his offseason issues a distant memory, and finally cement him as an elite quarterback. Prediction: Pittsburgh 41 Green Bay 37

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.

This week’s Super Bowl betting lines see a jump for some times and a further slide down for others. From the increase in odds for football betting long shots, Seattle to the drop by the Jets, fans aren’t sure who to take this weekend in the divisional round playoffs. Today we look at the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens.

Prior to the start of the playoffs, many fans and experts from around the country were already banking on the Ravens and Steelers meeting in the playoffs. Ideally, this game shouldn’t have been taking place until the Championship round of the playoffs next weekend. As in theory, Baltimore would be facing off with the New England Patriots this year, in a rematch of the Wild Card round from 2010, while the Steelers would be facing the Indianapolis Colts in a battle of the league’s two most dominant teams over the last decade.

Instead, due to the Jets upset win over the Indianapolis Colts, the ranking worked so that the AFC divisional round would live up to its name as all four teams involved in the two games, are from the same division.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens have literally hated one another since the Ravens came into the league in the middle of the 1990s. For the most part over the last decade, the AFC North has been a two team battle between these two storied franchises. This year alone the two teams faced off and split their two game series against one another. What’s more, the winning team only won by a field goal.

On Saturday afternoon, when the Steelers and Ravens face off, fans should once again expect to see a highly defensive oriented matchup. Both teams have decent offenses, however we feel that like their first two matchups, this game will once again come down to a game winning field goal. Only similar to week four, this game will be won by Baltimore.

NFL betting enthusiasts have grown both in numbers and in complex strategies since the league merged with the AFL in 1970. Back then, you could take the home underdog on a Monday night when football betting and make a decent amount of money.Now year’s later handicappers are stuck spending countless hours on betting strategies that aren’t necessarily guaranteed to work. Whatever happened to keeping it simple? Here is a look at one of the easiest strategies that literally takes a matter of moments to figure out.

In essence all you have to do is either look at your local newspaper’s sports standing section or online sports site for a standings column. Once finding the standings simply search for the highest scoring teams and the lowest scoring teams in the NFL.

Over the past five seasons, it has been determined that if you bet on the five highest scoring teams to go over the spread, you could accumulate a record of 279 – 186. Meanwhile, taking the five lowest teams to cover the spread would get you a record of 202 – 265.

Breaking each record into percentages, you will be winning at over 60 percent if you take the highest scoring teams to win the games, while losing at 48 percent taking the lowest scoring teams. Now there isn’t much of a guarantee that these numbers will continue to be so different, however this season is proving to be headed in that direction.

Also it is important to keep in mind that most sportsbooks will try to compensate for low scoring teams by moving point in their favor. For instance, if the Houston Texans the league’s highest scoring team, take on the Buffalo Bills the league’s lowest scoring team, the line may open at – 10 when it should be -15.

The 2010 NFL season has been one of the more difficult football betting seasons for handicappers, as there has been a multitude of surprises. Whether it has been historically awful teams overachieving, or Super Bowl championship jinxes, NFL betting lines have been all over the place this season. Here are some of the biggest surprises of the early season.

• What’s Up With New Orleans? – The 2010 defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, have been one of the biggest surprises of the early season. Who would have thought, returning with exactly the same roster as the one that went 13 and three in the regular season of 2009 and hoisted the 2010 Super Bowl, would go through such struggles.

This time last year, they were undefeated, and along with eventual Super Bowl runner up Indianapolis, looked pretty much untouchable. This year, the Saints are at four and two which isn’t exactly worrisome. However, when you lose by 10 points to a poor Arizona team in week four, people will be talking.

• Minnesota Is Terrible – Last season, the Vikings lost by a field goal with seconds remaining in their NFC finals matchup against the Saints. As a result, many speculated that was the last we would see of Brett Favre. Another missed training camp and possible sex scandal later, and we now have a Vikings team that looks more like the one before Favre arrived. What’s worse, although they are one and one with new old wide out Randy Moss in town, the Vikings offense has been atrocious.

• Never Fear The Steelers Are Here - Going into the 2010/2011 NFL season, many handicappers pretty much wrote off the Pittsburgh Steelers as a legitimate threat to challenge for the Super Bowl. Who could blame them? Last season, the Steelers struggled mightily and failed to reach the post season. Making matters worse, they traded former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes to the Jets and Big Ben was suspended for four games.

Three quarterbacks in three weeks and a bye later and Big Ben returned last week to a three and one Steelers squad. With Big Ben looking like he hasn’t been gone all season, albeit against the Browns, the Pittsburgh Steelers may be the best team in the NFL and win another Super Bowl this decade.