NFL Wild Card Playoff Weekend 2009

It's finally here, the 2008 - 2009 NFL Playoffs! This is where the best of the best in both conferences battle it out to see who will reign as Conference champs and get their ticket to the biggest event of the year, Superbowl XLIII (Superbowl 43 for those who aren't the greatest with roman numerals... LOL.)

The road to the Superbowl begins with wildcard weekend. There will be four games total, 2 games on Saturday and two games on Sunday (January 3rd and January 4th, 2009). In the AFC the two wildcard match-ups are The Indianapolis Colts @ The San Diego Chargers, played on Saturday at 8:00PM Eastern, and on Sunday the Baltimore Ravens will travel to face the Miami Dolphins at 1:00 PM Eastern. The Colts / Chargers game will be shown on NBC television network, while the Ravens / Dolphins game will be broadcasted on CBS.

The NFC Wildcard Playoffs will kick off Saturday at 4:30 PM Eastern time, with the Atlanta Falcons @ the Arizona Cardinals live on NBC. On Sunday at 4:30 PM the Philadelphia Eagles @ Minnesota Vikings will be shown on the FOX network.

For the Divisional Playoffs, the two winners in the AFC will go on to face either The Pittsburgh Steelers or The Tennessee Titans, and the two NFC wildcard winners will move on to play the New York Giants or The Carolina Panthers. The actual outcomes of each conference's wildcard games will determine who plays who next weekend in the Divisional Playoff Round.

It's amazing some of the teams that did not make it into the playoffs this year. Everybody expected The Dallas Cowboys and The New England Patriots to make it. The Cowboys controlled their own destiny until they blew it the last two games of the year. The Patriots played very well without Tom Brady, in a very tough division, but fell short at the end.

There are a total of 7 out of 12 teams in the playoffs this year who did not make it last year! This is great for NFL football fans, as it makes for a very exciting post-season. Most of the teams are very evenly matched, yet have their own style of play. Of course, the defending Superbowl Champs, the New York Giants are a heavy favorite in the NFC, but I'd like to see someone new win it out this year. Some teams that I think may surprise us are The Baltimore Ravens in the AFC and the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC. Both teams are going to have to play very hard to make it to the big game, but they both have good chances based on the way they have been playing lately.

Donovin Mcnab has been ON FIRE since they benched him earlier in the season. It's like he is playing for his job (and I guess he kind of is). The last week (week 17) of the regular season the Philadelphia Eagles completely annihilated the Dallas Cowboys! It was a shock to many fans and professional football analyst. What happened to Tony Romo, Terrell Owens and the rest of the boys? I'm sure that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will do some serious thinking and re-structuring before the 2009 NFL season.

In the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens Defense has been Hot. They have proven that they can shut down almost any style of offense. Their own offense has stepped up, as rookie quarterback Joe Flacco has shown they he can compete with the big boys. How great would that be if this rookie made it to the Superbowl his first year? Just making it to the playoffs is a great accomplishment and his fans, friends, and family should be very proud of this young 23 (almost 24) year old.

Now, only time will tell who will move on. The 2008 regular NFL season has been a very interesting one as teams like the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins made it to the post-season after very bad 2007 seasons. At the beginning of this year many "experts" were saying that these two teams were the worst in the league! Where are these guys now and what are they saying? It's the NFL guys, anything can happen with professionals!

Who do I think is going to advance further in the playoffs? Well of course that information is reserved for the members of my site. If you are interested in our professional picks, please visit our site and click the link at the top that says "Get Playoff Picks". Or just Click Here. From there you'll be leaded to an order page. You can get all the Wildcard picks this weekend for just $35! You can also order the whole Post-season package, which includes the Superbowl for only $69. Act now and get your picks so you can bet with millions of others who are looking to capitalize on this exciting NFL action. Good luck and Happy New Year.

Scott
http://www.1nflpicks.com

Post Season Playoffs 2008 - 2009

Well, the regular season is coming to end which kind of creates a sad moment for all of us football fans, especially those who's favorite teams did not make it to the playoffs. As you know from previous posts and my website, I'm a huge Oakland Raider fan, but they were absolutely horrible this season (at least not as bad as the Detroit Lions).

Although there is a little bid of sadness, at the same time there is great excitement as week 17 of the regular season will concrete in the wild-card playoff contenders for both the NFC and AFC. As of today there are seven teams that have clinched a playoff birth with 5 spots up for grab. The NFC is a little more stable than the AFC due in part to the AFC East close division. The seven teams that are already guaranteed are: Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New York Giants in the NFC. In the AFC, the Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts, and Pittsburgh Steelers have locked in their right to the Playoffs. In the NFC, the New York Giants have locked in home-field advantage, and the Titans have in the AFC.

The race in the AFC for the final spots is very cluttered and a little bit complicated. The AFC East has been a tight race all year and what is sad, is that a team or two that deserves to be in the Playoffs are may not make it. The New England Patriots have a chance, but they do not control their own destiny, same with the New York Jets. In that division, if Miami wins, they are in as the #3 playoff seed and divisional leader. In the weakest division in the league, the AFC West, the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos play in the final regular season game to see who wins the division and a playoff spot.

One team that I think has been underrated until the last two weeks is the Baltimore Ravens. Now experts are agreeing that they would be very "scary" to have to meet in the playoffs. Their defense is top-notch, and their offense is not too shabby either. The Ravens quarterback, , looked very good the past few weeks when they beat Dallas and they put up some serious points. They also hung in their against Pittsburgh and although they lost, they only allowed 13 points.

In the NFC, the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, and Philadelphia Eagles are still alive. Minnesota controls their own destiny, if they win they are in. The Bears and Eagles need some help to make it in, I don't think they are going to do it this year as Minnesota is looking good. Many say the Giants are still the team to beat, but second seed Carolina is also another contender that could go far.

We'll see what happens tomorrow with week 17 and I'll post the definite Wild-Card match-ups once everything is determined. That's all for now. Good luck and happy betting!

Scott
http://www.1nflpicks.com

Giants Star Plaxico Burress Shot Himself in Leg Friday Night

New York Giants wide receiver accidentally shot himself on the leg on Friday Night at a night-club. The Giants reported that the accidental shooting was in his right thy. Plaxico was already ruled out of Sunday's game due to a hamstring industry.

The injury is not life threatening, but his football playing status and rest of his career is definitely in question. Domenick Hixon will need to step up in Plaxico's place.

Plaxico's has had a variety of issues this past year including:

Skipping off-season workouts and Veteran Mini-camp because of a contract dispute in June.

In October Burress was suspended for a game against the Seahawks for an unstated violation of team rules.

Later in October he was fined and benched in a game vs the Steelers for missing treatment, and finally yesterday, November 28th, 2008 he accidentally shot himself in the leg at a night club.

It sounds like Burress has not been focused on his job this year and is into other things that are affecting his career. Giants Coach, Tom Coughlin, has got to be upset about his star player's actions.

Continued team distractions are not tolerated well by championship teams like the New York Giants and only time will tell what will happen.

The Giants obviously have no comment on this incident as it could become a criminal matter as well as a team/league issue.

Scott
http://www.1nflpicks.com

San Diego Chargers @ Pittsburgh Steelers Week 11

If you are one of the many who bet on the San Diego Chargers @ Pittsburgh Steelers (-5.5) during week 11 of the 2008 NFL season, what an odd series of events at the end of the game to either loose or win you it for you! The official final score was Steelers 11, Chargers 10. But there was some interesting action in the final moments that had me clenching my you know what!

The Steelers had the game, barring a miracle for the Chargers with a few seconds left. San Diego had the ball and one last chance, the San Diego quarterback, Philip Rivers, went to throw a pass, but it was knocked out of his hand as his arm was going backward (from mine and many others' point of view.) When the ball was knocked out, the Steelers grabbed it and scored a touchdown. Players began to celebrate and come on to the field, but according to rules the extra point must be kicked even with 0:00 remaining on the clock.

The special teams came out and made the extra point, making the current final 18-10 in the Steelers favor. Apparently while special teams were out to score the extra point, the play was under review from the booth (in the final 2 minutes of the game, reviews can only be called by the officials in the booth).

The final verdict was that the pass thrown by Philip Rivers was an incomplete pass and not a fumble! This meant that the touchdown scored by the Steelers did not count. This announcement was made literally just seconds before fading the game out to the show 60 minutes, on CBS.

This may not mean much to those who are only betting "straight-up" and not regarding the spread, but to sports investors everywhere, this was the difference in loosing or winning the game. After the game, my partner Barry made a comment that I thought was interesting. He said this: "You know how they say it ain't over till it's over? Well I guess it's not even over when it's over". Interesting, think about that one for a minute.

Overall it has been a good week 11 regarding our NFL picks. We still have the Sunday Night and Monday Night game's to finish up the week, but we are currently 11-2-1 Straight-up, and 9-5 against the spread. Remember, you can get 3 free picks each week, or get all of our premium picks, for a fair price, from our "order now" page. If you have any questions or comments about NFL picks or NFL news in general, please feel free to contact us.

Scott
http://www.1nflpicks.com

Week 10 NFL Games

Tomorrow, Sunday, November 9th 2008 continues week 10 of the NFL regular season. Week 10 kicked off on Thursday Night, November 6th with the Denver Broncos coming from behind in the 4th quarter to beat the Cleavland Browns 34 -30. That was an exciting game and a good performance from backup, 2nd year, Browns Quarterback Brady Quinn, despite the loss.

Some of Sunday's games will include New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens @ Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers @ Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts @ Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles, as well as several other matchups. You can get always get the latest odds, lines, and point-spreads from my site.

Week 10 will end with Monday Night's game with the San Francisco 49ers @ The Arizona Cardinals (-9.5). The 9 & 1/2 point spread is provided by Bodog Sportsbook and is current as of my writing this on Saturday Night, November 8th. Of course the line may vary slightly from different sources and even change according to different game factors. What's important is the point-spread that you lock-in and bet on with the particular sportsbook that you placed your bet with.

Scott
http://www.1nflpicks.com

Giants - Steelers Game: NFL Rules Penalties and Fines

I enjoyed this past weekend's NFL games as usual, but there is one thing that is starting to tick me off about this great sport that we have all come to love! Some of the leagues' new rules have simply gone too far in my opinion. The new rules have been put in place over the last several years to protect the NFL players from getting injured as much, which I can totally understand the intent, but I believe that there needs to be more discretion used by the referees and judges, and the NFL itself.

A perfect example of what I am talking about happened as I was watching the New York Giants @ Pittsburgh Steelers game this Sunday. A "Late Hit" penalty was called on Giants safety Kenny Phillips got for slamming into Steelers running back Mewelde Moore.

Troy Aikman, who was a sports commentator/analyst announcing Sunday's game, disagreed with the unnecessary roughness penalty saying that: "I think the league has gone a little too far on some of the calls that they have been making, whether it's fines later in the week, or calls like we just saw during games," Aikman said. "It's a real slippery slope, and I'm a little concerned with what exactly you tell some of these defensive players."

No, I'm not a professional football player, but I am an avid fan, and fans will agree that we pay to see the action and we don't want anything taken away from our sport! The last thing we need is for NFL football to get "soft". It's not just me complaining about this, several NFL players agree that Commissioner Roger Goodell has taken some of these rules and actions beyond reason.

This is a high-speed game and we don't want to slow it down! If I want slow paced action, I'll watch MLB baseball. Realistically, on that particular late hit penalty called against Phillips could not have been prevented. Kenny Phillips was running toward the receiver as the ball was in mid-air being passed to an eligible receiver, who could have caught the ball, but bobbled it instead. If Moore (the receiver) would have caught it, he still would have been hit and tackled, or had the ball knocked loose causing an incompletion or fumble. If this would have happened, there would have been no penalty on the play.

On this specific play, the defensive player was doing his job well, running down and across the field to make a play on the receiver. There is no way he could have slammed on the foot breaks and stop, even if he knew the ball was not going to be caught. I strongly believe this was an unnecessary call, but what is sad is that there have been others and there will be more similar to this incident.

Players agree that football and playing in the NFL is a tough, violent job. They knew this when they signed up for it and that is one of the reasons they are compensated huge sums of money to entertain us. Yes, we want to protect our players, but don't ruin the game we love trying to do so. If things continue on like this, the sport will get softer and less entertaining. Less entertaining means, less ticket sales, and overall less revenue. The NFL Corporate guys need to think about that.

Scott
http://www.1nflpicks.com

NFL Drug Policy Viloation Suspension Saints & Other

The Big news in the NFL today is the positive results in approximately 10 NFL players for a banned substance. The substance is apparently like Dexatrim and used as a diuretic to loose weight, however it also also a know substance that is used to mask steroid use and abuse, thus making it a banned drug in the NFL.

Among the several players are four players on the NFL Saints including two stars; Deuce McAllister and Will Smith. Everyone who failed the drug tests are facing a possible 4 game suspension and probably a monetary fine. There was one attorney named David Cornwell who was hired to represent several of the players.

The players will be allowed to appeal, but will still most likely have to face the suspension. This could prove very crucial at mid-season where the race for position and playoffs heat up. Some of the players say that they were doing it for weight loss and did not know it was a banned substance, but critics and ex-players agree that they knew exactly what they were doing. Whether using for weight loss or using it to mask other drugs, such as steroids, you are told from day one what the rules are.

Scott
http://www.1nflpicks.com