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Betting Guide for the 2018 NFL Conference Championship Round

Betting Guide for the 2018 NFL Conference Championship Round

Written by on January 18, 2018

NFL News and Betting Previews| Xbet.ag
Four teams remain in the chase for the Lombardi Trophy, which NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will hand to the team that wins Super Bowl LII. The New England Patriots are in this round for the seventh consecutive season, while the other three contenders — Jacksonville (New England’s opponent in the AFC Championship) and the two NFC contenders, Minnesota and Philadelphia, have never won a Super Bowl. The Vikings appeared in four of the first eleven Super Bowls (including three in four years), but they didn’t win any of them — and they haven’t been back since the days of Fran Tarkenton and the Purple People Eater defense. The Eagles last appeared in a Super Bowl 13 years ago, falling to New England — and they’ve only made the title game twice in the Super Bowl era. Jacksonville hosted that Super Bowl between the Patriots and the Eagles, but their Jaguars have never appeared in the world’s most watched sporting event. Take a look at our NFL playoffs betting guide for the NFL conference championship round.

Betting Guide for the NFL Conference Championship Round

Odds to Win Super Bowl LII

  • New England (+105)
  • Minnesota (+210)
  • Philadelphia (+625)
  • Jacksonville (+650)

AFC Championship: Jacksonville (+9.5) at New England (O/U 46.5) (3:35pm ET, CBS)

This game really hinges on which Blake Bortles shows up for the Jaguars. He led Jacksonville to 75 combined points in two wins over the Pittsburgh Steelers this season, a 30-9 shellacking in the early going and then that 45-41 in in the divisional round of the playoffs. He also led his team to 20 combined points in the Week 17 loss to Tennessee and the wild card playoff win over Buffalo, as Jacksonville fell 15-10 and then won 10-3 to get the right to head to Pittsburgh. The star-studded Bortles is a strong, physical runner who has a cannon arm and can hit targets down the field. The other Bortles is tentative and tends to make awful mistakes at the worst times. Against Buffalo, he had a hard time even completing screen passes. He ran for more yards than he threw for, and he fumbled the ball twice. Luckily, the Buffalo offense was even worse. If the confident Bortles takes the field for Jacksonville, this could be an interesting game. If he doesn’t, though, look for this to be a long day. What about the scoring? The Jaguars pride themselves on a shutdown defense, and defensive back Jalen Ramsey already predicted that the Jaguars would go on to win the Super Bowl this season. However, the Jaguars gave up 42 points in Pittsburgh — and if the Steeler wide receivers hadn’t dropped so many passes, Pittsburgh probably would have won. Of course, if Pittsburgh hadn’t tried that onside kick in the fourth quarter and instead had kicked deep, Jacksonville might have lost in overtime as well, as they wouldn’t have finished their three-and-out in field goal range. And if you don’t think that Tom Brady can torch a defense that Ben Roethlisberger made look silly, you haven’t been watching football for the last decade. Ultimately, the Patriots will score enough to win, and the Jaguars will make enough mistakes for the Patriots to cover this sizable spread. And the point total will be at least 50.

NFC Championship: Minnesota (-3.5) at Philadelphia (O/U 40) (6:40pm ET, FOX)

Both of the starting quarterbacks in this matchup — Case Keenum for the Vikings and Nick Foles for the Eagles — entered the season as the backup. Sam Bradford and Carson Wentz both blew out their knees, though, so here we are. Keenum has done much better in his time as the starter as Foles has, and the Vikings look like the more dynamic offensive team heading into this tilt in Philly. But we said the same things about Atlanta — their offense has the tools to torch Philadelphia, but they didn’t. Matt Ryan looked tentative in the pocket, and the Eagles swarmed the Falcons’ running game and won the battle of the line of scrimmage when Ryan dropped back to pass, and the Eagles were able to eke out a win. Why do I think things will end differently this week? The Vikings have played with more confidence than the Falcons have all season long. It’s true that the Vikings needed a miracle pass to knock out New Orleans, but the Eagles don’t have Drew Brees throwing the ball. So I like the Vikings to pull out the win — but the scoring will be far and few between.
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