World Bowl XXXI Preview

World Bowl XXXI

Portland Storm (16-2) vs New Orleans VooDoo (17-2)

Point Spread: New Orleans -6

Portland: Offense 10th Defense 4th
New Orleans: Offense 2nd Defense 1st

Playoff Records:Portland 29-19 New Orleans 23-20

World Bowl Records:Portland (4-2) (Won: XVI, XVIII, XX, XXX; Lost: XXIV, XXV) New Orleans (0-5) (Lost: III, VII, XVIII, XXVII, XXX)

Head to Head: New Orleans and Portland have each won 5 of 10 games against each other. New Orleans is 5-3 vs Portland in the regular season, winning in 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992 while Portland won in 1996, 2000, and 2004.

In the World Bowl, Portland is 2-0 vs New Orleans, winning World Bowl XVIII after the 1991 season and World Bowl XXX last year.

Injuries:Portland 5 probable, 3 questionable New Orleans 3 probable

Prediction:New Orleans 28 Portland 17

Portland seems to have New Orleans' number lately, winning the last 4 times they've met including Week 16 of this season and last year's World Bowl. The Storm have scored 17 points in each of their 2 playoff games but won because their defense has been strong. They face New Orleans, who have given up exactly 3 points in each of their playoff games while averaging nearly 40 points a game on offense.

Normally with a game between 2 strong teams I'd pick a closer score but the VooDoo are destroying their opponents this post season. New Orleans is the healthier team with the better team stats as well.