NFL Wild-Card Atlanta Falcons vs. Arizona Cardinals
The Atlanta Falcons travel to Arizona to take on the Cardinals in the first NFC Playoff Wild-Card game of the weekend. The Cardinals finished out the regular season by losing 4 out of their last 6 games. The only two teams they managed to beat were the hapless St. Louis Rams and the even worse Seattle Seahawks. Arizona is one of the worst divisional winning teams in the history of the NFL after going 9 and 7 straight up and 9 and 7 against the BetUS online wagering spread.They have a terrific offense, but their defense is just bad. Sports betting fans can’t have a lot of faith in the Cardinals going into this playoff game.
By contrast the Atlanta Falcons are flying high after finishing the regular season with an 11 and 5 record. Against the BetUS online betting spread, they were the same as Arizona finishing 9 and 7, but the Falcons have a better defense and the fact that they are the favorites on the BetUS online wagering line even though they are the visiting team means that a lot of online NFL betting fans believe in the Falcons.
Here are the BetUS online sportsbook NFL betting odds for this game:
Atlanta Falcons – 2 – 110 – 130 O 51 ½ – 110
Arizona Cardinals + 2 – 110 + 110 U 51 ½ – 110
Here are a few online wagering trends that might help us find a good online bet in this game:
The Atlanta Falcons are 6 and 1 against the spread in their last 7 games after an against the spread loss.
The Atlanta Falcons are 13 and 5 against the spread in their last 18 games on grass.
The Arizona Cardinals are 2 and 7 against the spread in their last 9 games as the underdog.
The Over is 9 and 1 in the Arizona Cardinals last 10 games at home.
This is going to come down to a couple of factors. First, can rookie Matt Ryan play the sort of game that the Falcons are accustomed to him playing? Will the pressure get to him?
Second, does Arizona’s defense have any chance of stopping Falcons’ running back Michael Turner?
The reason I bring up these two factors is because every football betting fan knows that the Cardinals are going to put up points. The problem that the Cardinals will have is in stopping the Falcons. If the Cardinals can’t stop the Falcons from using Turner to chew up clock, or Ryan doesn’t make rookie mistakes in his first NFL playoff game, then it won’t matter if Kurt Warner hits Larry Fitzgerald in the hands every time he tosses the ball.
Arizona just won’t get enough possessions to win this game. I believe that the Falcons, knowing that they have a better defense, will go ahead and try to keep the ball in their offenses’ hands as much as possible. They will only need one or two stops from their defense in order to win this game.
The against the spread line is only 2 points. To me, this is an easy call. Because Atlanta has the better defense, better running game, and a quarterback that rarely makes mistakes, they should have no problems in the Valley of the Sun.
Falcons vs. Cardinals Wild card Prediction:
I’m betting the Atlanta Falcons to cover the 2 point online betting spread in the BetUS Sportsbook.
