Wildcards In With Shout In NFL Playoffs- 01-10-06

January 10 - It was a good week of rest for the four top NFL teams as they gear up for a clash with last weekend's wildcard winners. As usual, online sports betting site Sportsbook.com is one of the first to post NFL playoffs odds, and now is as good a time as ever to back an underdog....

The top four will have the home field advantage, ever more the reason to back them. Denver, Chicago, Seattle and  Indianapolis are all picked to advance by Sportsbook.com, but if you delve into history you will find that a week of rest doesn't always help the favorites.

In the last ten years, 9 of 40 wild card winners have progressed to the next weekend and caused an upset. That's a pretty high percentage - one a year to be more specific. Four of those underdogs went all the way to the Superbowl, including Carolina in 2003, Baltimore in 2000, Tennessee in 1999 and Denver in 1997. Denver and Baltimore went on to win. Even more interesting is the fact that that in only three of the last ten seasons, a home team won all four games.

When asked about the chances of an upset, Peter Childs from Sportsbook.com answered "History tells us that there is always an underdog coming through. Teams who had the rest sometimes come into the big games a little rusty due to their lay off. A wild card with momentum can be dangerous."

The Wild Cards for this year are  New England, Pittsburgh and Carolina, all with a lot of big game experience in recent years.

So if you like backing a dog, now is as good a time as ever as these Wild Cards have a lot of experience.

Click here to visit Sportsbook.com for a full list of odds, and receive a 10% free cash when you sign up.

Sportsbook.com is owned by Sportingbet PLC, the world's largest gambling group.

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