The NFL probably couldn't have asked for any more than it got for its premier doubleheader of football. The Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers were the best two teams in the NFC all season long and are deserving participants in the NFC Championship Game, while the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots give one last chance for the world to see Peyton Manning against Tom Brady in the playoffs.
Prop options will surely be aplenty on Sunday, and we're here to break it all down.
You can find NFL playoff prop odds at BookMaker.eu for the Conference Championship games.
Play Tom Brady Under in Passing Yards but Over in Completions and Pass Attempts
This might seem a little counterintuitive, but we're considering the source of who's going to be on the other side of the field. The Patriots don't really have a running game to speak of right now, as they only ran their running backs a total of seven times for 21 yards against Kansas City while letting Brady throw the ball 42 times.
Denver's pass defense did a really good job of keeping the Steelers receivers in front of them on Sunday, and the only time they gave up really big plays were on misdirection plays and otherwise blown coverage occurrences after Ben Roethlisberger moved around some in or out of the pocket.
New England only ran the ball a total of 16 times on 61 offensive plays in the first meeting of the year, and once again, the onus is clearly going to be on Brady. Still, getting to 300 yards as he'll probably be expected to do might be a big ask against the best defense in the NFL.
Play Ronnie Hillman Under in Rushing Yards
It's tough to suggest playing the under on either of the Denver running backs, but C.J. Anderson seemed to have the hot hand at the tail end of the game against Pittsburgh last week, and Gary Kubiak has a history of riding his hotter horse. Hillman's game isn't necessarily as between the tackles as is going to be necessary here against the speedy Patriots, and that might call for a little more of a thumper in Anderson to get the ball in his gut more often than not.
Let's not forget that Hillman was a forgotten man late last season when Anderson took off on his tear, and we could see the same against New England in what has otherwise been a split backfield. This play is more about Anderson than about Hillman, but we aren't wild about betting on any running back against a very underrated Patriots front seven.
Play Carson Palmer Under in Passing Touchdowns
Palmer might've thrown three touchdown passes against the Packers last week, but let's face the real fact here: He really didn't play well. That's two straight games in which Palmer was anything but special, and his history in the postseason suggests that he could be in a lot of trouble here on the road against the Panthers.
Carolina's defense came out of the blocks on fire against Seattle, and when Russell Wilson wasn't moving around in the pocket, he was largely ineffective until the game was competitively said and done with. Palmer doesn't have the legs that Wilson does, and we think that he's going to struggle as a result.
Can Arizona score 20 in this game? Sure it can. But we think this is a game in which the Cards are going to struggle to score points. With Josh Norman throwing a blanket over Larry Fitzgerald from the slot and great cover linebackers in Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis waiting for those short over the middle passes, we just don't see Palmer being able to get the ball in the end zone all that often.
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