The pros at FiveStarPick.com have been crunching stats, trends, key matchups and injury reports to give our members today’s winner in the AFC Championship.  The Pittsburgh Steelers are favored by 4-points over the New York Jets with a total of 38.5.  This line is DEAD WRONG!

The Steelers are no stranger to this game, participating in the AFC Championship for the fourth time since 2004. On the other side, if the Jets win, they will go to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1969 when Broadway Joe helped upset the Colts, 16-7 as 18-point underdogs.

The Jets have had some mojo working knocking out Indianapolis and New England in the first two rounds.  Cromartie’s big kickoff return following the go-ahead field goal by Indianapolis gave the Jets excellent field position, which led to a 32-yard field goal at the gun.

All the talk heading into the Divisional Playoff tilt was coming from the Jets’ side as they looked to avenge a 45-3 slaughter in Foxboro on Monday night in Week 13. New York responded to the challenge by eliminating New England, 28-21 as 9-point underdogs capturing its fourth road playoff win in five tries. Mark Sanchez overcame two horrible efforts his previous two starts at Gillette Stadium with a three-touchdown romp as the Pats allowed their most points since Week 11 against Indianapolis (28).

The Steelers came back to shock the Ravens, 31-24 as 3.5-point favorites for the second time this season. Ben Roethlisberger threw two second-half touchdowns, while Rashard Mendenhall’s two-yard plunge with 90 seconds left capped the comeback and gave Pittsburgh its third straight home playoff win. The game went ‘over’ the total of 37.5, as the two teams combined for just 389 yards.

These teams just played each other a little over a month ago at Heinz Field as the Jets upended Steelers, 22-17 as 3.5-point ‘dogs. Troy Polamalu was out with a sprained ankle suffered the week before against Cincinnati as the Steelers’ defense limited the Jets to 277 yards of offense. Sanchez’s bootleg touchdown run on fourth down helped tie the game at 17-17, followed by a Folk field goal and late safety to put the win away for the Jets.

All three of Pittsburgh’s home losses this season came against playoff teams (Jets, Patriots, and Ravens), while owning a 6-3 Against The Spread mark at home. The Jets continue to cash at a frantic rate on the road, putting together a 7-3 Against The Spread record on the highway, including a 6-2 Against The Spread record as an away underdog. Under Ryan, the Jets have gone 14-7 Against The Spread on the road as opposed to 8-8 Against The Spread at home over the last two seasons.

This game is not an easy game to handicap, but the pros at FiveStarPick.com have broken down every stat, trend and injury report on this game to provide our members with two winning plays tonight.  Try FiveStarPick.com today for only ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking NFL pro football winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business that documents our last 30 plays along with our last 5 years results, then displays them on our homepage for all to see.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…our system just wins games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

The pros at FiveStarPick.com have been crunching stats, trends, key matchups and injury reports to give our members today’s winners in the AFC Divisional Playoffs.  The New England Patriots are favored by 9-points over the New York Jets with a total of 44.5.  This line is DEAD WRONG!

The smack has been thick this week leading up to the third round between these two teams. Actually, most of the trash talk has come from the Jets’ side, as New York tries for its fourth road playoff win in five tries after last Saturday’s last-second victory over the Colts.

Nick Folk’s 32-yard field goal as time expired gave the Jets a 17-16 victory over the Colts, avenging last season’s AFC Championship loss. LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for two touchdowns, while Mark Sanchez had limited mistakes to give the Jets another try at the Patriots.

New England has been sitting pretty over the last two months with eight consecutive wins; and their offense has delivered at least 31 points in each of the last eight victories, while knocking off the Steelers, Colts, Packers, Bears, and Jets during that stretch.

The Patriots’ 45-3 December smack down of the Jets on Monday night in Foxboro proved once again the Patriots won’t let up if given the opportunity. Especially agains a Rex Ryan team.  New England jumped out to a quick 17-0 first quarter lead, then Tom Brady went to work picking apart the Jets’ secondary with four touchdown passes. The Patriots’ defense confused Sanchez all night, while intercepting him three times to easily cover as four-point home favorites.

The Patriots are 9-1 on the ‘over’ the last 10 games, while allowing four of their last five opponents to seven points or less. For a team that finished the regular season at 14-2, New England was listed as a nine-point favorite only three times, including twice against the hapless Bills. The only other occurrence as a long favorite came in Week 15 when the Packers played without Aaron Rodgers and the Pats escaped with a 31-27 victory as 14-point favorite.

The low-scoring Wild Card win over the Colts was the first ‘under’ on the road for the Jets this season in nine tries. New York is a profitable 7-5 Against The Spread as a road underdog, but two of those losses have come in blowout fashion in Foxboro. Since a five-game Against The Spread winning streak through September and October, the Jets are just 5-6 Against The Spread, while going 1-4 Against The Spread off a cover the last two months.

The total is set between 44 and 44 ½, with temperatures hovering in the high 20’s and low 30’s around gametime. Things get underway at 4:30 PM EST at Gillette Stadium and will be televised nationally on CBS.

This game is not an easy game to handicap, but the pros at FiveStarPick.com have broken down every stat, trend and injury report on this game to provide our members with two winning plays tonight.  Try FiveStarPick.com today for only ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking NFL pro football winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business that documents our last 30 plays along with our last 5 years results, then displays them on our homepage for all to see.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…our system just wins games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

The pros at FiveStarPick are coming off a 1-1 Sunday for our membership in the NFL with plays on the Packers and Falcons.  Tonight we feel confident on our Monday Night Football spread winner as the Baltimore Ravens lace em up on the road at the New York Jets.  Las Vegas sportsbooks list the Jets as 1.5-point road favorties with a total of 36.  We think this line is DEAD WRONG.

Not only is this the first Monday Night Football game of the season, but after being on “Hard Knocks” and acquiring some high profile talent in the off season, fans and pundits want to know if the Jets can live up to the hype.  The Ravens, on the other hand, are trying to make some noise of their own with the pick up of WR’s Anquan Boldin and T.J. Housshmandzadeh.

Baltimore looked strong in the preseason going 3-1 Against The Spread; their only loss coming against St. Louis.  The Ravens D is still stout limiting their opponents to 25 total points. Since Harbaugh took the reigns, the Ravens are 9-6-1 Against The Spread as a road dog. 

The Jets started last season 3-0 in Rex Ryan’s debut, but lost 7 of their next 11 games.  Indianapolis and Cincinnati each lost their final games to the Jets allowing them to clinch a playoff berth. The Jets made it all the way to the AFC Championship before eventually falling at Indianapolis.  Mark Sanchez enters his pivotal second season as the Jets signal caller.  The second season usually puts to rest whether or not season one was a fluke.  New York finished the preseason 2-2 Against The Spread, with both losses coming at home to the Giants and Redskins.

The Jets had trouble against division opponents last season, going 2-4 Against The Spread in the AFC East.  Against non-divisional opponents in 2009, they finished 9-4 Against The Spread.  New York is 1-4 Against The Spread in their last five Monday Night outings.

So who covers the spread in this Monday Night Football matchup?  It’s very easy to find out.  Try FiveStarPick.com today for just ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking college and pro football winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

The pros at FiveStarPick.com are looking forward to another winning day in the NFL postseason. Today we are hot on the AFC Championship game between the New York Jets and the Indianapolis Colts.  Las Vegas sportsbooks list the Colts as 7-point home favorites with a total of 39.

The Colts (15-2 straight up, 10-4-1 against the spread) held onto a 15-10 lead over the Jets in Week 16 with just over five minutes left in the third quarter when they decided to pull their starters. Backup quarterback Curtis Painter was sacked by Calvin Pace, fumbled, and Marques Douglas ran the ball back for the go-head touchdown. The Jets (11-7 SU, 11-7 Against The Spread) won the game as 4-point road ‘dogs, 29-15.

Oh the irony. If the Colts had kept in their starters and won that game, the Jets would have been virtually eliminated from the playoff picture.  Now, Peyton Manning has to beat the Jets to get to the Super Bowl.  So cool. 

New York has the best rushing offense in the NFL averaging 172.3 yards per game and Shonn Greene has been impressive in the playoffs with 263 rushing yards and two scores. The Jets have needed their rushing game to have a chance with Mark Sanchez under center. Sanchez has completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 282 yards and 2 touchdowns in the playoffs, but the rookie only had 23 pass attempts against the Chargers, completing 12 of them for 100 yards.  Sanchez has only five games this year where he has thrown the ball more than 30 times.

Sanchez should be pretty nervous today, because the Colts defese is playing with high intensity right now.  The Colts gave up just 87 yards on the ground and 183 through the air to Baltimore, winning 20-3 as 6.5-point home favorites.  Joe Flacco was picked twice in the final two minutes of the game.  The Colts are 14th in the league against the pass, giving up just 212.7 YPG.  Sanchez figured that out quickly as he only threw for 106 yards against them in Week 16. The Colt’s achilles heel is defending against the run. Indianapolis has the NFL’s 24th-ranked rush defense, allowing 126.5 rushing YPG.

What the Colt’s do have is the best quarterback the league has ever seen in Peyton Manning.  Manning has a relatively new receiveing corp since his last Super Bowl win, but he’s still getting major contribution out of Reggie Wayne (100 receptions, 1,264 yards, 10 TD) and Dallas Clark (100 catches, 1,106 yards, 10 TD).  He is also getting great performances out of second-year wideout Pierre Garcon (47 rec., 765 yards, 4 TD) and rookie Austin Collie (60 rec., 676 yards, 7 TD).

Indy needs the passing game to click because the Colts are the worst running attack in the NFL, gaining 80.9 YPG on the ground.  Joseph Addai has 828 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns and Donald Brown has 281 yards on the ground with three scores, but that’s it.

Success for the Colts on offense is definitely not a lock today. The Jets are giving up 312.5 YPG in the playoffs right now and Darrelle Revis anchors the best pass defense in the league with an average of 153.7 YPG during the regular season.

Recent history for the AFC Title Game shows the favorites have gone 4-3 Against The Spread in the last seven games. The ‘over’ has gone 5-2 in that stretch as well.

Who covers the spread in this AFC Championship game?  It’s very easy to find out.  Try FiveStarPick.com tonight for just ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking pro football winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com

The pros at FiveStarPick.com are looking forward to another winning NFL postseason against the spread and today we start with the AFC Wildcard game between the New York Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals.  Las Vegas sportsbooks list the Bengals as 3-point home favorites with a total of 34.

The Jets got into the playoffs by beating the Colts and Bengals in the final two weeks of the season, however both opponents rested many of their starters including Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer.

The Jets were an underdog just five times this season, going 3-2 Against The Spread in those spots, but since Week 5, they have been listed as a ‘dog only twice. Jets’ backers started the season 3-0 Against The Spread, but New York failed to cover in six of its next seven; the lone victory coming at Oakland in a 38-0 shutout. In the final five weeks of the season, the Jets hooked up their backers again by covering four times.

Cincinnati finished the regular season 0-7 Against The Spread as a favorite, but the Bengals did most of their damage against division opponents, finishing 4-2 Against the spread in the AFC North. The Bengals two Spread losses both came against the Browns, including an overtime victory at Cleveland.  The Bengals finished their season going 1-6 Against The Spread in their last seven games.

The catalyst for this Bengals team is Carson Palmer.  Palmer completed his fourth season with at least 3,000 yards passing (3,094), but threw for over 300 yards just once this season, in the 27-21 loss at San Diego. The Bengals running game got a boost this year with running back Cedric Benson who finished the regular season with 1,251 yards and six touchdowns.  And then there is Chad Ochocinco, everyone knows he has talent, but if he could just shut up for 5 minutes.

The Jets will be starting rooking QB Mark Sanchez.  Sanchez is only the third rookie quarterback to start a playoff game since 2000, the others being Atlanta’s Matt Ryan and Baltimore’s Joe Flacco. Ryan fell to Arizona in his debut, while Flacco led the Ravens past the Dolphins, 27-6.  Not only will the Jets be starting a rookie QB, they also have a rookie head coach in Rex Ryan.  Ryan has become the 11th rookie head coach to lead his team to the playoffs since 2000.

Marvin Lewis is making his second career playoff appearance. His first was in the 2005 Wild Card game against the Steelers. The Bengals suffered a 31-17 and Carson Palmer suffered an ACL tear in the first half, ultimately sealing the Bengals fate.

The forecast for today’s game is highs in the 20’s with a slight chance of snow.  Whoever shows up with the best defensive scheme and running attack will win this game.

So who covers the spread in this AFC Wildcard game?  It’s very easy to find out.  Try FiveStarPick.com tonight for just ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking pro football winners exceeds your expectations.  We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness.  It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread.  Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.

Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com