NFL-Lines

With the NFL betting lines regular season coming to a close this weekend, fans and handicappers alike, are already looking ahead to next weekend’s schedule, when the playoffs get underway. We started out with 32 teams, but are now down to 12. Today, for your bookie software pleasure, we’ll be looking at why the playoffs are the most exciting time of the year.

The one major difference between regular season and playoff games in the NFL is that if you win you continue on, but if you lose, you go home. For this reason, most handicappers and analysts unofficially throw out the trends from the regular season, as literally the team with the best game plan can win on any given night. The best example of this took place a season ago, as NFL bookies had the New Orleans Saints as a 21-point favorite over the lowly Seattle Seahawks. Despite being a heavy underdog, the Seahawks who had entered the playoffs with a losing record, came up with a brilliant game plan, to stop the Saints offense. As a result, Seattle destroyed New Orleans, before getting eliminated them in the second round.

As handicappers ourselves, one of the trends we like to take a look at, is a teams success in the final stretch of the regular season. Essentially, capping every team from weeks 11 to 17 provides you with a good idea of which teams are for real, and which were fortunate to start out hot in the beginning of the season. For instance, the Detroit Lions have quietly put together a strong second half to the season, as they have killed opponents. The Lions started off the season with five wins, before dropping their next five games. But in the final six games of the season, the Lions have gone undefeated.