Prop Bets Favor Arizona Cardinals In Enigmatic Wild Card Match-Up

NFL News - January 6th, 2010 - Written by John

For those who believed that the Green Bay Packers domination of the Arizona Cardinals last week set a very clear tone for this week's wild card playoff game, think again.

All it did was muddle things.

Although it was a one-sided affair on both offense and defense by the Packers, consider that the Cardinals were without the majority of their starters, and lacked the firepower they would normally dispense at will.

Arizona has a shaky running game that will be working against the fourth-rated rush defense in the league, yes, but it will be a home game with a full roster, and Kurt Warner simply doesn't lose NFL Playoff games. He is 8-3 all-time, and is coming off one of the most improbable runs to the Super Bowl in NFL history.

There are oodles of contradictions in this game that could easily sway it one way or another, and they are the main reason for almost even lines in BetUS' prop bets page for the game.

Predicting the first team to score in the game is one such conundrum. Few teams are coming into the playoffs hotter than Green Bay, which has won seven of it's last eight at the end of the year. Aaron Rodgers has only thrown two interceptions since Week Nine, and paved the way for another great year for Greg Jennings and Donald Driver.

It even has a stable running game, anchored by third-year back, Ryan Grant, who set career-highs in yards and scores this year. If the Packers score first, BetUS will payout bettors at -110, and if they win each half, double-result betting would payout at +200. Double result means wagers must be placed on who scores the most points in each half.

At the moment, Arizona is favored to win both halves with a +125 payout, according to NFL Betting Lines.

It is also favored to be the first team to score, but only marginally at -120. The Cardinals get the edge because the Packers haven't sparkled on the road, and Arizona has been in this position before, backing into the postseason, only to knock off every NFC team in it's way.

But a 4-4 home record is unsettling, and having the 28th-ranked rushing attack doesn't help either. If Warner isn't clicking right away, it may be tough for the Cardinals to score at all. They have scored first in only two of their last eight games, and it was against the St. Louis Rams and Detroit Lions.

If one team scores three unanswered times, bettors will receive a -170 return. If not, the payout is +140.