Early Super Bowl Preview: Saints at Colts
Written by Greg Waters
Thu, 28 Jan 2010
Category sportsbook
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For anyone that pays attention to NFL power rankings throughout the season, the writing for this matchup has been on the wall for months. As I’m sure you’ve all heard, Indianapolis will meet New Orleans in Super Bowl XLIV and for a lot of bettors it truly is the two teams that most deserve to be in the show.
Online sportsbooks have the current line at Colts -6 with a Total of 56. Once the opening line was posted, money showed up quickly on the favored Indianapolis Colts at SPORTSBETTING.com. The Colts continued to be the side most players were looking at, as over the fist couple of days of wagering action 70% of the money is on Peyton Manning and crew. The Over/Under betting volume has been pretty balanced, with a slight lean to the Over.
Indianapolis was 14-0 before sitting Peyton Manning down in a Week 16 loss to the New York Jets while New Orleans went 13-0 before heading into the playoffs on a three-game losing streak. Looking at results from the past two weeks it appears that for coaches Caldwell and Peyton, this was all part of the master plan.
The Colts made things up to their fans with wins over Baltimore and the Jets. In the Big Easy the Saints returned to their regular season ways, averaging 38 points per game in wins against Arizona and Minnesota. It’s the first time since 1993 that two No. 1 seeds have met in the Super Bowl.
Manning’s offense is capable of moving the ball against any opponent. When coverage on WR Wayne and TE Clark is too tight, Manning goes to his youngsters Garcon and Collie to move the chains. If RB Addai needs a spell, rookie RB Donald Brown is there to take carries. But the biggest difference between what the Colts have faced lately (since basically Week 10) and their super bowl opponent is that the New Orleans team is capable of answering right back when Indy drives down for a score.
New Orleans scored 510 points during the regular season and has a deep scoring threat matched by a running game that combines speed, quickness and power. RBs Thomas and Bush carried the ball 21 times for 69 yards last week vs. the massive Viking D-line wall and will no doubt find success against the average Colts front seven, too. Minnesota’s coverage was breaking down and became even worse after CB Griffin was injured. The Colts were stable against a vanilla passing game from the Jets but are going to be challenged trying to keep pace with speedy WRs Colston, Henderson, and Meachem.
Pass rush from veteran Colt linemen Freeney and Mathis will need to be at its best but QB Brees does not go down often and in the NFC Final Brees was sacked just once.
When online sportsbooks released the opening lines for this game the public attention flowed towards the favorite and the "Over", as it often does in primetime, stand alone games. There is one undeniable fact for bettors on this game and that is that without the benefit of five turnovers, New Orleans would likely not even be involved in this conversation.
The Over/Under number of 56 is the highest total ever released for a Super Bowl and in six games since 1994 when the total was 50 points or higher, results were just 1 over to 5 unders.
We will likely see more line movement in the next week as the build-up towards the big game continues to grow.
Be sure and click the link below for hundreds of prop-style bets available on Super Bowl XLIV.
link: http://wheretobet.com/redirect/sportsbetting.com-205/all