Arizona Cardinals vs. Seattle Seahawks (-3, 57)
Breakdown: Things were very different for these two teams when they last met a month ago. Seattle was undefeated at the time, but blowing their 10-point 4th quarter lead to the Cards in that last meeting sent both teams in very different directions. Arizona now holds 1st place in the NFC West while the Seahawks are stuck in 3rd with the loss to the Rams last week. The Cards are 4-1 in their last five after stumbling to 2-2, while the Hawks are 1-3 in their last four after getting off to a 5-0 start. If there were ever a must-win game for Seattle, this is it.
Despite being one of the hottest teams in the NFL lately, I don’t have the Cards as high on my power rankings (15th) as most people. A lot of people may think I’m crazy for not holding them in higher regard but let me explain my position. Of the nine teams that are 6-3, Arizona has the lowest combined opponent’s winning percentage (40%), they 3rd lowest comb. opp. win pct. among their wins (38%), and the lowest comb. opp. win. pct. among their losses(46%).
Seattle, on the other hand, has the 3rd toughest total opp. win pct. (51%), the 2nd best among their wins (42%), and the 2nd highest among their losses (68%). The Hawks have only lost to good teams, but the Cards have beaten both them and my Bills with 4th-quarter comebacks, so they are clearly dangerous and on the rise. Call me nuts, but Seattle has had better quality losses and the tougher competition thus far.
The usual 12th man boost won’t be there at the newly named Lumen Field (bleh) but Seattle needs this one in a bad way and I know they remember blowing the last game. Their defense played its best game last week vs the Rams but it was the offense that let them down this time. The return of Carlos Hyde should help take some pressure off Russell Wilson and open up the playbook a bit more. Arizona has one of the worst run defenses in the league, so I expect SEA offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to attack them there much more than Buffalo did. I won’t count Kyler Murray out of a game ever again, and betting against him is a risky proposition, but I gotta believe the Seahawks are going to step up when they need it the most, and part of the plan is to blind the Cardinals with the hyper-green color rush jerseys.
Pick: Seahawks
Against the Spread: Seahawks
Over/Under: Under 57