Underdogs sure have been barking a lot on the football field lately eh?

As opposed to the wild card round, where we saw all the road teams as favorites, last weekend’s divisional playoff round of the 2009 NFL playoffs set up with all four home teams laying the points. But, as bettors who played the favorites found out, sometimes it’s best to take the path less traveled, or at least it was this past Saturday and Sunday.

The weekend’s biggest underdog, the Arizona Cardinals, played those 9.5-point favorite Panthers in Carolina last Saturday night. The Panthers were almost always favored by as many points all year that betting against them was hard, to say the least. The Cards were champions of arguably the NFL’s weakest division, the NFC West, with a 9-7 record straight up, while the Panthers won the NFC South with a 12-4 mark SU.

Fortunately for Arizona bettors, and unfortunately for Carolina’s, Panthers’ birthday boy Jake Delhomme threw five picks in an awful performance. The resulting 33-13 loss dealt a blow to the betting public, as the Panthers were heavily backed to cover the spread, but as well the straight up loss killed a lot of teaser and moneyline parlay tickets Saturday.

Arizona is now 6-1 ATS when underdogs of 8-points or more and advances to its first ever NFC championship. Who knows, that trend might come in handy if the Cards meet Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLIII, though the line probably wouldn’t get that high.

The Cardinals have the Philadelphia Eagles next after Philly sent the Giants to an early vacation. Remember that quarterback controversy in Philadelphia earlier in the season, when Donovan McNabb was benched in favor of Kevin Kolb? Remember how the New York Giants won the Super Bowl last year?

Both are distant memories now as the Philadelphia Eagles ensured that the Giants won’t be defending their Super Bowl title, covering as +4 road favorite in a 23-11 win last Sunday.

The Under had cashed in 10 of Philadelphia’s last 12 visits to opposing teams’ fields and now you can make it 11 of the last 13, as the Total fell below the 39.5 line. The Eagles are now a 3-point road favorite heading out to Arizona.

This should be an interesting face-off for the 2009 NFC conference championship.

In the AFC, there have been rumblings about how this season’s Baltimore Ravens resemble the championship team that won Super Bowl XXXV. Those rumblings have become even louder after this Saturday’s game against the Tennessee Titans.

Listed as field goal underdogs going into Tennessee, the Ravens defeated the Titans by a final of 13-10, earning a spot in the 2009 AFC conference championship game. How they won is a different story as the Titans outplayed them in almost every area, but not where it counts most, on the scoreboard. Turnovers and penalties torpedoed Tennessee’s day as they couldn’t score points despite decent success moving the ball.

The Under prevailed again when these two meet, as it has now in 12 of their last 16 meetings (Total of 34). The betting public liked the Under, cashing in there, but a straight up dog win resulted in bettors taking another hit overall.

Only one of the favored home teams stepped up and won a game last weekend. The Pittsburgh Steelers beat a Charger team without LaDainian Tomlinson in the lineup.

Underdogs of 6.5-points, the San Diego Chargers looked like they might cover and pull the upset early on, scoring a TD within the first three minutes of the game, but the Steelers clamped down and ensured that Pittsburgh bettors would profit from an eventual 35-24 playoff victory.

SportsBetting.com reported that Pittsburgh was a nice win for the betting public, as they had 75 percent of the volume on the Steelers in the last matchup of the weekend.

Now Pittsburgh hosts the Ravens with an early line of the Steelers -5.

The NFL’s final four is set. Conference championship weekend is teed up and ready to go. You can check out all the lines, prop wagers, future odds and more at SportsBetting.com.

Who will win the conference championship games and advance to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida? SportsBetting.com has the odds.

2009 NFC Conference Championship

Philadelphia Eagles -3 Arizona Cardinals +3

2009 AFC Conference Championship

Pittsburgh Steelers -6 Baltimore Ravens +6

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Philadelphia Eagles Pittsburgh Steelers