As we open the National Football League playoffs the Seattle Seahawks have slipped by the Los Angeles Rams as the favorite to win Super Bowl LX next month at Levi’s Stadium. The top seed Seahawks are posted with 3 to 1 odds to win it all, the Rams are currently 4-1.
The Rams open the postseason as the fifth seed in the National Football Conference … which is not all that bad of a position other than not likely having the opportunity to host a playoff game. The fifth seed has twice won a Super Bowl, that being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Tom Brady five years ago and back in the 2007 season when the New York Giants came from a fifth slot and beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The advantage of the fifth seed is they get to open the playoffs against the division winner with the worst record.
That beep-beep-beep sound you hear in the background is the Carolina Panthers backing into the playoffs. Carolina had an opportunity to take control of the NFC South Division race four weeks ago when they played the New Orleans Saints and lost for a second time this season to the team that finished last in their division.
Carolina had an opportunity to win their division for themselves last Saturday with a victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and lost. That defeat threw their playoff hopes on the backs of the Atlanta Falcons, who obliged with a two-point home victory over the New Orleans Saints. The Falcons victory yesterday created a three-way tie in the NFC South and based on a better head-to-head record the Panthers got into the playoffs with a tiebreaker procedure.
They won their division with a losing 8 and 9 regular season win/loss mark.
Now they host the team many consider the favorite to win it all, the Rams, and they are getting ten points on the spread. The Rams are only a fifth seed because they are playing out of the best division in football, the NFC West. Their season record of 12-5 is good enough to win any of the other three NFC divisions. The San Francisco 49ers were also 12-5, but trailing Seattle in their division landed them a sixth seed in the playoffs.