NFL Championship Game Previews and Free Picks:

AFC

Pittsburgh Steelers (+200): The Steelers came out and got punched in the mouth by the Baltimore Ravens, trailing 21-7 heading into halftime, but they showed the heart of a champion by outscoring the Ravens 24-3 in the second half of a 31-24 victory to move onto their fourth AFC title game in seven years. The Steelers are favored by three points at home over the New York Jets, and this will be a rematch of Week 1’s 10-9 victory for the Steelers in New York (well, New Jersey if you want to be technical). The win over Baltimore came down to Ben Roethlisberger making more plays than Baltimore counterpart Joe Flacco when the chips were down, and they’ll have the advantage again this week.

New York Jets (+300): However, many said there was no way that Mark Sanchez could out-play Tom Brady, and we see what happened in the Jets’ 28-21 upset win at the New England Patriots. The Jets played with the fire of a team that got destroyed 45-3 in their last trip to Foxborough, and there was no way that was going to happen again. The defense was all over Brady, and the secondary may have put on the coverage display of the season as he had no open receivers to go to, especially down the field. The Jets have another tough task ahead of them, and no team has had a tougher road to Dallas. If they can go through the Indianapolis Colts, New England and Pittsburgh, all on the road, shouldn’t we give them the Super Bowl trophy just because?

Line:
Jets: +3.5
Steelers: -3.5
ML: Pitt. -180

Free Pick: Pittsburgh MoneyLine -180

NFC

Green Bay Packers (+140): Would you have ever expect the Packers to be the NFL betting favorites for the Super Bowl heading into the final four? Well, here we are, and Green Bay is at the top of the pile after a 48-21 demolition of the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome, and Aaron Rodgers may have put on the quarterbacking performance of the season, with all due respect to Michael Vick’s rout of Washington in Week 10. Next, they get their NFC North rivals the Chicago Bears, and the two split their regular-season meetings, with the Bears edging Green Bay 20-17 at home in Week 3, while the Packers took a 10-3 slugfest at Lambeau Field in the final week of the season, so like last weekend’s AFC games, this will be a rubber match between bitter rivals, although this will be the first postseason meeting for the two since a 33-14 win for the Bears in 1941.

Chicago Bears (+500): The Bears made sure there would be no Cinderella story in Seattle, as they jumped out to a 21-0 halftime lead and wound up with a 35-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks, avenging a 23-20 loss in Week 6. Jay Cutler played very well in his first postseason game since high school, while Lance Briggs showed what the Bears were missing in that first meeting with six tackles. Now the Bears have the unenviable task of trying to slow down Rodgers, the league’s hottest quarterback, and he has good numbers against the Bears in his career. Also, unlike the Seahawks, Rodgers and the Packers are very used to playing in the cold (ahem, they play on the “frozen tundra” of Lambeau), so they’ll be fine if the temperature plummets. One thing is for sure: this will be one of the toughest online betting picks of the weekend.

Line:
Packers: -4
Bears: +4

Free Pick: Chicago +4