Football Bets 01/30
going for gould
Kurt Kuklewicz
Believe it or not, we pick Football bets too (and basketball, baseball, cricket, tiddlywinks, futbul when my cousin Zack tells me what to do, Swiss hockey league when you first wake up and need a quick bet to place on the thinking tank, etc.). Today's games for the conference finals are not easy to pick. And honestly, I'm thinking that both of the favorites in today's game will win, but I would not bet on anything deciding the spread or the final result of the games. I could see literally any combination of the four teams as a potential Super Bowl. Therefore, I calculated things likely to happen today and go with reasonable prop picks for each game.
Robbie Gould o1.5 field goals (+100)
The man is perfect in his career for postseason field goals, and we are reminded this every single time he is talked about in a game now. The Rams are a much better team on defense since the first time the 49ers met in the season. Gould only kicked (and made) one field goal in that game. The 49ers also can move the ball with Deebo Samuel and Elijah Mitchell, George Kittle working the seams, etc. There will be plenty of opportunities for field goals. If you are slightly less confident in this, there is a spread of 6.5 kicking points which is about (-115) for the over currently at the time of this article. Betting on a kicker is fun assuming they have chances. If this was Tyler Bass, the under would be promptly taken based off how many times the Bills go for 4th and short, limiting his chances at kicking points. Kyle Shanahan has done this a few times this year but he does not have a huge history of going for it and may settle for a couple of field goal attempts in the game. The only worry is that the game gets out of reach and FG attempts are not as meaningful. Also, Sean McVay can be aggressive with his play calling, so if he makes a couple non-obvious 4th down attempts and converts, Kyle could be trying to match him and "coach-up" to his aggressiveness.
Tee Higgins o69.5 receiving yards (-115)
There's a good chance that Chase is going to draw a lot of attention today, especially after completely roasting the Chiefs for over 266 yards receiving and 3 TD in their week 17 matchup on January 2nd. This should free up the field a bit for one of Tyler Boyd or Tee Higgins. Tee has been the hotter of the two of them recently. He also ate his Mom's hamburger helper before the game today, and this always correlates to a good game performance for him. But seriously, Diggs was shut down last week, but Gabe Davis was wide open several times downfield. He caught four touchdowns (and they still lost, we still feel terrible for him!). Analyzing Tee's stats and he has been hot and cold from time to time this season, but he's mostly been hot recently. When he played the Chiefs earlier in the season, he had 62 yards receiving on 3 receptions. The 5 games before that, he had over 100 yards receiving 4 out of 5 times. There's a very good chance he goes over 100 yards receiving this game.