*$$*Championship Sunday*$$*

[Loves2kickass]

The Green Bay Packers travel to the Georgia Dome to take on the Atlanta Falcons in the first of two Championship games today. These 2 teams played in this same venue on October 30, 2016 and it took a Matt Ryan 11 yard touchdown pass to Mohamed Sanu with 31 seconds left in the game to defeat the Packers by a single point, 33-32. Some may say the Packers are shorthanded in today's rematch and that may be true to a certain extend but they were also shorthanded in their narrow 1 point loss. In that game they were without LB Clay Matthews (hamstring), WR Randall Cobb (hamstring), WR/RB Ty Montgomery (illness), CBs Quinten Rollins (groin) and Damarious Randall (groin), RB James Starks (knee) and TE Jared Cook (ankle). Based on past history, as current as this season, and the momentum that the Packers bring into this game 311Green Bay +6, -110 is quite simply too many points for Atlanta to lay in this game. These 2 teams have played 5 games in the Georgia Dome (2005, 2010, 2011 twice and 2016) and in those games Atlanta is 2-3 straight up and in the 2 wins they won by 1 & 3 points. In the 3 losses they were defeated by 8, 11 & 27 points. Even though I expect Atlanta to squeak out a win I look for a close, competitive game which may be decided by a field goal or less with a final score of Atlanta 34-31 or somewhere thereabouts.


cheersgif

 

[XSPower]

Good luck today

 

[Loves2kickass]

Best of luck to you also sir.

 

[Loves2kickass]

The Pittsburgh Steelers travel to Gillette Stadium to take on the New England Patriots in the second of two Championship games today. In this matchup the game total has my attention and here's why. Last week in the Divisional round the Patriots mustered 34 points against Houston but not all were against the very good Texans defense. New England scored on a 98 yard kickoff return, had 208 total return yards for the game and their offense was put in good field position with 3 Osweiler interceptions. Houston controlled the ball against the Patriots finishing with a 5 minute time of possession advantage. Pittsburgh traveled to Kansas City and managed to score just 18 points and was held out of the endzone against a team that arguably has a below average defense and quite simply, not as good as the Patriots defense. New England leads the league with 15.6 points per game against at home and Pittsburgh isn't far behind, giving up 19.2 points per game against on the road. Their are many other factors that give me reason to believe that 313Pittsburgh/314New England UNDER 50 1/2, -110 is a total that is simply too high. The weather will also be a factor as their is a chance of rain throughout the game and more importantly wind gusts of 15+ mph from sideline to sideline. This is important because if that ends up being the case it will affect the medium to long range passes for both teams and we could see more of a running game/short passing game for each team which will eat away at the clock. Nothing affects a total more than crosswinds in a football game. Add in that some of the drives will result in field goal attempts and you have a recipe for a game total to be lower than expected. As with the first game today I also see this game as a close competitive game with the total points at the highest range of about 39-49 points and slim to no chance that this goes over the posted total.

 

[Loves2kickass]

Interesting that Atlanta scored a touchdown on its first drive of the game to take a 7-0 early lead and the "Live" line (7 1/2) moved up just 1 point from the closing line (6 1/2).

 

[Loves2kickass]

In a early 10 point hole. No worries boys. Aaron will get us some points on the board. :aktion033

 

[Loves2kickass]

Missed FG and red zone turnover inside the Atlanta 5 yard line. Just down by 10 so I guess it could be worse. Enjoy the game everyone and let's hope the Packers can tighten things up both on offense and defense.