More Bettingchoice Superbowl Analysis

It is very difficult for the neutral NFL fan not to cheer on Pittsburgh to victory in the Super Bowl. Why I personally would enjoy watching a Steelers victory is it would be great to see Bill Cowher finally win the big game after so many years at the helm. Also it would be a very fitting end for Jerome Bettis to retire in his hometown at the very top. Fortunately the omens do look promising for Pittsburgh. Thanks predominantly to New England Patriots, the AFC have been the dominant force in the Super Bowl. There is also the added bonus of a bye week for the Steelers who despite winning three consecutive road games most likely needed the extra time to recover from the added workload. Although this is technically a road game for both AFC and NFC representatives, Ford Field is not far from Pittsburgh and so those terrible towels will not be difficult to spot. The reduced Seahawk fans will take away the noise advantage that played such a factor throughout the regular and postseason back in Washington. Even still Pittsburgh have proven rather adept at winning in difficult spots - Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver. Playing on the artificial surface away from the home surrounding should prove a bigger disadvantage to Seattle. Pittsburgh have only recently played in a Dome when beating the Colts, as opposed to the Seahawks last indoor match back in week 5 against St.Louis. The Steelers have also shown they are a quality road organisation, losing only very narrowly in Baltimore (with Tommy Maddox under centre) and during the regular season in Indianapolis (with only a half fit Ben Roethlisberger at Quarterback). Seattle's three defeats all came on the road starting with Jacksonville in week one, Washington and Green Bay (admittedly at a time when the number one seed was all but secure). What cannot though escape our attention is the narrow escapes in San Francisco (27-25) and Tennessee (28-24), two of the poorest NFL teams in 2005. While Seattle have too much talent on offence not to trouble the scoreboard on a fairly regular basis, Pittsburgh should consistently overpower the Seattle defence. Although much good has been written about the Seahawks, I am still not completely sold on them and expect to see the Steelers overpowering the undersized Seattle front seven and finding plenty of success on the ground, accompanied by a strong passing attack. Unlike against Carolina Panthers when Seattle concentrated all their efforts on stopping Steve Smith, Pittsburgh have too much depth at wide-receiver and a power running game to negate whatever defensive tactics are thrown at them. I would also not count out the Seattle special teams unit being exposed on kick and punt returns time and again. Having established that Pittsburgh are a solid selection, it only remains to work out what market holds the greatest appeal. As the last two Super Bowls have been decided by a field goal, it would be quite some feat for a third successive game to finish the same way. For that reason taking the Steelers with a four point handicap cannot be discounted. What though looks a better bet is the half-time/full-time market which sees 11/10 available for the AFC champions to be leading both at the interval and at the end of the fourth quarter. The form guide certainly backs this up with six of the last seven Pittsburgh games following this trend.