NFL Betting – Four Reasons The Packers Won The Super Bowl

The Green Bay Packers are atop the NFL betting world after a win at Super Bowl XLV! They’ll bring home Lombardi’s Trophy and here are four reasons why it happened:

NFL Betting Reason No. 1: Aaron Rodgers

Championship games in the world of professional football have generally been decided by quarterbacks, but they’re even more reliant on quarterback play now that the NFL’s rules are geared to promote the passing game and high-scoring offenses. Green Bay defensive coordinator Dom Capers, coaching in his first-ever Super Bowl, said he’d focus on stopping Pittsburgh’s passing game, not its running game, and he generally succeeded in that endeavor. However, things were different on the other side of the divide. The Packers’ passing game torched Pittsburgh’s blitz packages and laid waste to the Steelers’ outflanked secondary. Rodgers, playing in his first Super Bowl, threw frozen ropes on a consistent basis and left Pittsburgh’s back line of defense scrambling for most of the evening. Had Green Bay receivers James Jones and Jordy Nelson not dropped several passes (Jones dropped a touchdown pass and Nelson dropped multiple balls in key situations), Rodgers would have eclipsed 400 passing yards on Sunday. As it was, he still kept sticking passes between the numbers of his receivers; Rodgers’ consistency was the biggest key to Green Bay’s winning performance.

NFL Betting Reason No. 2: Greg Jennings

On a night when Jones and Nelson had the dropsies and fellow receiver Donald Driver got injured, Jennings – the Packers’ best remaining receiver – carried the workload. Jennings made two terrific touchdown catches, one of them after taking a huge hit from Steeler safety Troy Polamalu. It was Jennings who repeatedly rose to the occasion precisely when Green Bay desperately needed a big play. Rodgers needed a reliable target when his third and fourth receivers couldn’t do the job. Jennings provided that boost to his quarterback, and Green Bay couldn’t have won Super Bowl XLV without it.

NFL Betting Reason No. 3: Tramon Williams

While Charles Woodson got knocked out of the game with an injury in the second quarter and Sam Shields got injured to the point that his physical capabilities were diminished (Shields still played, but he got smoked by Pittsburgh’s Mike Wallace on a fourth-quarter touchdown pass that sliced Green Bay’s lead to 28-23), there was still one anchor in the Packer secondary during the second half of Super Bowl XLV. Williams played a horrible game on special teams; he muffed one punt (though he recovered the muff), allowed a second punt to bounce 20 yards, and committed a personal foul after allowing that second punt to bounce 20 yards. Williams robbed his team of ample field position, but he more than made up the difference with his stellar play as a cover corner. Williams broke up multiple passes from his spot on the field, repeatedly limiting options for Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Williams broke up Roethlisberger’s final fourth-and-five pass to seal the Packers’ win in the final minute. At a time when Green Bay’s secondary was alarmingly thin, Williams produced the huge plays that enabled the Packers to hang on for the win.

NFL Betting Reason No. 4: Charles Woodson

Before Pittsburgh nearly erased an 18-point deficit, the Steelers had to fall behind by 18 points in the first place. Woodson was at the center of Green Bay’s 21-3 surge in the game’s first 28 minutes. Woodson completely shut down Pittsburgh’s prime playmaker, Hines Ward, the MVP of Super Bowl XL in 2006. It was only when Woodson left the game with an injury late in the first half that Pittsburgh began to move the ball with regularity. He wasn’t around for the finish, but Woodson helped Green Bay gain the upper hand and limit Pittsburgh’s margin for error the rest