Seahawks

St. Louis Rams at Seattle Seahawks: 2014 Week 17 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 17 NFL Picks, Rams, Seahawks, Uncategorized

St. Louis Rams (6-9) at Seattle Seahawks (11-4)

The Seahawks had easily the most impressive win of the week last week, going into Arizona, where the Cardinals were 7-0 at home this season and 29-11 ATS since 2007 before the game started, and winning 35-6, despite two missed makeable field goals. Holding a Ryan Lindley led offense to a 58.64% rate of moving the chains isn’t that impressive, but moving the chains at an 80.00% rate on the road against a strong Arizona defense is pretty impressive.

The Seahawks now rank best in the NFL in rate of moving the chains differential, moving them at a 75.65% rate, as opposed to 69.49% for their opponents, a differential of 6.16%. A Super Bowl champion hasn’t repeated in over a decade, nor have they even won a playoff game over that time period. It’s so hard repeating because of complacency, personnel turnover, exhaustion, and the sheer randomness of the NFL, but the Seahawks have a good chance to at least break that playoff win drought. They look like the best team in the NFL right now and they only need to win this game to lock up homefield advantage through the NFC. That would be especially valuable to them because of how good their homefield advantage historically is.

Since 2007, the Seahawks are 47-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 45-21-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by 7.84 points per game at home. This is opposed to a 27-42 record away from home (31-37-1 ATS), getting outscored by 2.80 points per game, a roughly 10.5 point swing. That homefield advantage should help them here as they attempt to lock up the #1 seed. They should win here as 13 point favorites, but whether or not they cover is still up in the air.

While the Seahawks are a great team with a great homefield advantage, this line takes that into account as they are 13 point favorites. And, while their win last week was impressive, the line did move 3 points to compensate as the early line was 10. I love fading huge line movements whenever it makes sense, especially when doing so would also allow me to fade the public, which it would here. Fading that line movement might make sense. The Rams are still a decent team, moving the chains at a 69.57% rate, as opposed to 70.56% for their opponents, a differential of 1.00% that ranks 19th in the NFL. That suggests they should be about 10 point favorites here, before you take into account the Seahawks’ homefield advantage.

The issue is the Seahawks haven’t been as noticeably better at home this season as they have been in recent years. They move the chains at a 75.12% rate at home, as opposed to 68.50% for their opponents, a differential of 6.62%. On the road, they move the chains at a 76.10% rate, as opposed to 70.42% for their opponents, a differential of 5.67%. They’ve still been a tough home team, but I don’t know if a decent Rams team deserves to be 13 point underdogs here. I don’t know if the Rams deserve to be 13 point underdogs anywhere.

This game kind of reminds me of the Seahawks’ week 17 game against the Rams in 2012. They were coming off of a huge 42-13 home win over the 49ers that caused the line in Seahawks/Rams to swell all the way up to 11 and they were only able to win by 7, their first non-cover at home of the season, costing a lot of people a lot of money. I’m taking the Seahawks gun to my head, but I’m not confident at all.

Seattle Seahawks 27 St. Louis Rams 13

Pick against the spread: Seattle -13

Confidence: None

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals: 2014 Week 16 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 16 NFL Picks, Cardinals, Seahawks, Uncategorized

Seattle Seahawks (10-4) at Arizona Cardinals (11-3)

A lot is made about the Seahawks’ homefield advantage in the NFC West, but the Cardinals have had a tough homefield advantage in recent years as well, going 29-11 ATS as home underdogs or favorites of less than 3 since 2007. This season alone they are 7-0 straight up and 6-1 ATS at home. Despite that, the public is all over the Seahawks. I love fading the public whenever it makes sense and it makes some sense here.

The reason I say some sense is because I can’t be confident in Ryan Lindley. On the season, the Cardinals rank 11th in rate of moving the chains differential, moving them at a 70.30% rate, as opposed to 68.60% for their opponents, a differential of 1.70%. Meanwhile, the Seahawks rank 5th, moving the chains at a 75.29% rate, as opposed to 70.31% for their opponents, a differential of 4.98%. That suggests this line at 9 points is way too high. However, they move the chains at just a 67.18% rate in games where they don’t have Carson Palmer active, primarily playing Drew Stanton in those games. That still suggests this line is too high, but while Drew Stanton was a decent and functional backup, Ryan Lindley has never resembled that.

All of his action prior to this year was in 2012, when he completed 52.0% of his passes for an average of 4.40 YPA, 0 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, as the former 6th round pick showed a stunning lack of accuracy. It’s possible that he’ll be better in Bruce Arians system and he’s done a great job of getting the best out of guys, but he didn’t look good at all in limited action against the Rams, completing 4 of 10 for 30 yards. This line is probably still too high, especially given how dominant the Cardinals have been there, but I can’t be confident. The Seahawks are also in a good spot as teams are 95-64 ATS as 6+ point favorites before being 6+ point favorites since 2010. They don’t have any upcoming distractions on the horizon with only a home game against St. Louis left on their schedule. I’m going with the Cardinals, but, again, I’m not confident.

Seattle Seahawks 16 Arizona Cardinals 9

Pick against the spread: Arizona +9

Confidence: None

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks: 2014 Week 15 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 15 NFL Picks, 49ers, Seahawks, Uncategorized

San Francisco 49ers (7-6) at Seattle Seahawks (9-4)

This line moved from Seattle being favored by 6.5 last week to them now being favored by 10. I normally hate going with huge line movements, especially doing so also means siding with the public, because significant line movements tend to be overreactions and traps for the public who go with them. However, in this case, the line movement might be appropriate. The 49ers lost to the Raiders last week and not in a fluky fashion. They lost by 11 and they lost the chain battle as well, moving them at a 67.86% rate, as opposed to 75.86% for Oakland. The Raiders looked like the ones favored by 8 in that one, not the other way around. Sure, they were probably caught looking forward to this contest, but that’s still an inexcusable performance.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, won by 10 in Philadelphia in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score. The Eagles got a touchdown basically handed to them off a fluky blocked punt and the Seahawks won the chain battle, moving them at a 75.61% rate, as opposed to a pathetic 52.38% rate for Philadelphia. That moved the Seahawks into 4th on the season in rate of moving the chains differential, moving them at a 75.19% rate, as opposed to 70.44% for their opponents, a differential of 4.74%. The 49ers, meanwhile, rank 17th now, moving them at a 70.73% rate, as opposed to 70.97% for their opponents, a differential of 0.24%. Even with the huge line movement, this line is still very appropriate at 10 in favor of Seattle.

Rate of moving the chains differential has this line at about 8, but that’s before you take into account Seattle’s fantastic homefield advantage. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 46-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 44-21-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by 7.80 points per game at home. This is opposed to a 26-42 record away from home (30-37-1 ATS), getting outscored by 3.26 points per game. Given that, we might actually still be getting line value with the Seahawks at 10. In 3 trips to Seattle in the Russell Wilson era, the 49ers have lost by margins of 29, 26, and 6 and that was when they were better than they are now.

The Seahawks are also in a great spot as they were projected to be 6.5 road favorites next week in Arizona and that was before the Stanton injury. Teams are 89-63 ATS since 2012 before being 3+ road favorites, 57-36 ATS before being 4+ road favorites, 23-8 ATS before being 7+ road favorites. That’s a little misleading because a game like that coming up usually means that a team has no upcoming distractions. While that line might be appropriate for the Seahawks trip to Arizona, it’s still fair to suggest that the Seahawks might be a little distracted by their upcoming trip to face an Arizona team that still somehow leads the division at 11-3.

On top of the line movement and the public action being on Seattle, the 49ers have three things working for them. For one, divisional home favorites are 25-49 ATS since 2002 against a divisional opponent that they previously beat as road underdogs during that same regular season. It’s a weird trend and it’s a little complicated, but it makes sense when you think about it. In divisional matchups where the homefield advantage decides who is the favorite, generally those two teams are essentially even. Divisional opponents that are essentially even generally split the season series. That seems to happen even if the road team pulls the upset in the first matchup, as the road underdog wins about half the time (39-38) in the rematch and covers at that aforementioned 2/3rds rate. The only problem is that these two teams are clearly not even. The 49ers were only favored by 1 in the first matchup anyway. The Seahawks should have no problem sweeping this season series and could easily win this one by double digits.

The second thing the 49ers have going for them is that teams are 59-39 ATS since 1989 off of a loss as road favorites of 7 or more, including 16-2 ATS as underdogs. On top of that, the 49ers are in their 2nd straight road game. Teams are 111-76 ATS as road underdogs off a road loss since 2008, including 94-54 ATS when it’s their 2nd straight (and not 3rd straight) road game and they next play a home game. Historically, teams cover at about a 65% rate in that situation. This is because teams tend to do better in their 2nd straight road game than their first one, but lines don’t really adjust for this. Teams are 182-195 in their 2nd of two road games since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 0.32 points per game, as opposed to 269-385 in their 1st of one road game since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 3.28 points per game. I still like the Seahawks, but it’s hard to be that confident in them.

Seattle Seahawks 24 San Francisco 49ers 10

Pick against spread: Seattle -10

Confidence: Low

Seattle Seahawks at Philadelphia Eagles: 2014 Week 14 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 14 NFL Picks, Eagles, Seahawks, Uncategorized

Seattle Seahawks (8-4) at Philadelphia Eagles (9-3)

The Seahawks are not nearly as good on the road as they are at home. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 46-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 44-21-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by 7.80 points per game at home. This is opposed to a 25-42 record away from home (29-37-1 ATS), getting outscored by 3.46 points per game. This season, they are 3-3 on the road, as opposed to 5-1 at home. On the road, they’ve moved the chains at a 75.43% rate, as opposed to 74.85% for their opponents, a differential of 0.58%. They’re even worse on the road as underdogs, going 16-25 ATS as road underdogs since 2007.

The Eagles are only favored by a point here, but they’re still favored and they should actually be favored by a little bit more. They rank 8th in rate of moving the chains differential, moving them at a 72.41% rate, as opposed to 69.57% for their opponents, a differential of 2.84%. The Seahawks, meanwhile, rank 8th, moving them at a 75.14% rate, as opposed to 71.55% for their opponents, a differential of 3.58%. And, as I mentioned, they’ve been very average on the road this season.

The Eagles’ offense hasn’t been much worse since Nick Foles went down and Mark Sanchez took over as they’ve moved the chains at a 72.54% rate over their past 4 games with Sanchez as the starter, though they’ve faced four bad defenses, Carolina (29th), Green Bay (30th), Tennessee (31st), and Dallas (26th). It’s not necessarily that Sanchez has been as good as Foles, but their offensive line has simultaneously gotten significantly healthier and LeSean McCoy has gotten going on the ground. Their defense is the reason they’re way they are this season as they rank 2nd in rate of moving the chains allowed, but their offense has remained serviceable with Sanchez under center. This line should be a closer to 3. In spite of that, the public is on the underdog here.

The Seahawks are in their 2nd straight road game, which should help them. Teams are 46-27 as road underdogs off of a road win as underdogs since 2008. This is because teams tend to do better in their 2nd straight road game than their first one, but lines don’t really adjust for this. Teams are 188-195 in their 2nd of two road games since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 0.53 points per game, as opposed to 266-382 in their 1st of one road game since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 3.35 points per game. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 6-6 ATS in their 2nd of two road games. Meanwhile, the Eagles are just 14-26 ATS at home since 2010, though they are 5-1 ATS this season. There’s a lot of conflicting stuff here and I can’t be confident in either side. I’m taking the Eagles gun to my head, but I wouldn’t put money on it.

Philadelphia Eagles 23 Seattle Seahawks 20

Pick against the spread: Philadelphia -1

Confidence: None

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers: 2014 Week 13 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 13 NFL Picks, 49ers, Seahawks, Uncategorized

Seattle Seahawks (7-4) at San Francisco 49ers (7-4)

The Seahawks beat the Cardinals in Seattle in impressive fashion last week, but they are not nearly as good on the road as they are at home. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 46-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 44-21-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by 7.80 points per game at home. This is opposed to a 24-42 record away from home (28-37-1 ATS), getting outscored by 3.76 points per game. This season, they are 2-3 on the road, as opposed to 5-1 at home. On the road, they’ve moved the chains at a 77.18% rate, as opposed to 76.81% for their opponents, a differential of 0.37%.

They’re even worse on the road as road underdogs, going 15-25 ATS in that spot since 2007, including 9-18 ATS as road underdogs off a home game. This is only the 3rd time they’ve been road underdogs over the past 2 seasons, but for good reason (the other two instances were last year in San Francisco and two weeks ago in Kansas City). They aren’t as good as they were last season (the fact that they’ll be without Brandon Mebane and Max Unger this week doesn’t help) and San Francisco is solid.

San Francisco isn’t quite as good as their record, ranking 16th in rate of moving the chains differential, moving the chains at a 71.47% rate, as opposed to 70.98% for their opponents, a differential of 0.49%. However, they’re still solid and Seattle only ranks 9th, moving the chains at a 75.89% rate, as opposed to 72.15% for their opponents, a differential of 3.74%. As I said, they aren’t as good this season, especially on the road. San Francisco definitely deserves to be home favorites here. As they did in their other two instances as road underdogs over the past two seasons and as they did in their previous two trips to San Francisco with Russell Wilson, I expect the Seahawks to lose straight up here.

San Francisco is also in the better spot as their next game is in Oakland. They will have absolutely no distractions with such an easy game coming up in ten days, while Seattle has another tough game in Philadelphia up next, where they could once again be road underdogs. San Francisco, meanwhile, will almost definitely be significant road favorites. Teams are 87-57 ATS since 2012 before being 3+ point road favorites, including 55-33 ATS before being 4+ point favorites, and 23-7 ATS before being 7+ point favorites. I have confidence that the 49ers will win here.

San Francisco 49ers 24 Seattle Seahawks 17

Pick against the spread: San Francisco -1

Confidence: Medium

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks: 2014 Week 12 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 12 NFL Picks, Cardinals, Seahawks, Uncategorized

Arizona Cardinals (9-1) at Seattle Seahawks (6-4)

It takes a lot for me to go against Seattle at home, given how consistently good they’ve been there in recent years. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 45-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 43-21-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by XX points per game. This is opposed to a 24-42 record away from home (28-37-1 ATS), getting outscored by XX points per game. This home dominance has been even more pronounced over the past 3 seasons, since the start of the Russell Wilson era, as they’ve gone 21-2 straight up and 16-7 ATS at home, outscoring opponents by an average of 14.39 points per game at home and beating the spread by an average of 7.09 points per game. Russell Wilson has also been very good off a loss, going 7-4 ATS since his rookie year in 2012, including 4-1 ATS at home.

However, I’m going against the Seahawks here at home for some very good reasons. For one, I think the Seahawks’ home dominance has been priced into this line, to an extent. Obviously their home dominance is no longer a secret, especially since they won the Super Bowl, so betting them at home isn’t as good of a deal as it used to be. This season, since their Super Bowl run, they are just 3-2 ATS at home and there’s been some pretty steep lines along the way, 7.5 point favorites for Green Bay, 8.5 point favorites for Dallas, 5 point favorites for Denver. This has the looks of another one of those types of lines.

Either that are Arizona is just undervalued by the odds makers. I’ve been calling them overrated for a while and I still don’t think they’re as good as their record, but they had a very impressive performance last week against a solid Detroit team, moving the chains at an 80.00% rate, as opposed to 52.38% for the Lions. That pushed them to 9th on the season in rate of moving the chains differential (including 3rd in the NFC behind only Green Bay and New Orleans), as they move the chains at a 73.18% rate, as opposed to 69.44% for their opponents, a differential of 3.74%. The Seahawks, meanwhile, rank 11th moving the chains at a 76.53% rate, as opposed to 73.22% for their opponents, a differential of 3.31%. This line is too high.

Arizona is very well coached on both sides of the ball and as much as the Palmer loss does hurt their offense, their defense has been helped by the healthy returns of Tyrann Mathieu and Calais Campbell. They rank 3rd in opponents rate of moving the chains differential and they’re coming off their most dominant performance of the year. Whether it’s Seattle’s homefield advantage being priced into the line or Arizona being undervalued, the Seahawks aren’t an auto-bet here at home as 7 point favorites.

With that in mind, the Cardinals are in a much better spot this week and are absolutely the right side here. While the Cardinals have a relatively meaningless game against the Falcons up next, the Seahawks have a trip to San Francisco on deck in 4 days on Thanksgiving. Divisional home favorites are 19-52 ATS before being divisional road underdogs since 2002 and favorites are 36-58 ATS before Thursday Night Football. On the other side, teams are 45-31 ATS as divisional road underdogs before being non-divisional road favorites.

Combining the two, teams are 100-61 ATS since 2010 as underdogs before being favorites when their opponent will next be underdogs. Even crazier, teams are 36-13 ATS since 2002 as road underdogs before being road favorites when their opponents will next be road underdogs, including 7-2 ATS since 1989 as divisional road underdogs before being non-divisional road favorites when their opponents will next be divisional road underdogs. I hate going against Seattle at home and I hate going with a public underdog, but there’s just too much stuff in Arizona’s favor that can’t be ignored. They should be the right side.

Seattle Seahawks 16 Arizona Cardinals 13

Pick against spread: Arizona +7

Confidence: Low

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

Seattle Seahawks at Kansas City Chiefs: 2014 Week 11 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 11 NFL Picks, Chiefs, Seahawks, Uncategorized

Seattle Seahawks (6-3) at Kansas City Chiefs (6-3)

The public is all over the Seahawks here and most people assume the defending Super Bowl champs will win straight up here in Kansas City. Then why do the odds makers (who always make money in the long run) have them favored here by 1? Well, it’s because the sharps (who also always make money in the long run) are all over the Chiefs. That’s because the Chiefs are the superior team and at home here. The Chiefs rank 2nd in rate of moving the chains differential at 76.98%, as opposed to 70.34% for their opponents, a differential of 6.64%.

That might sound absurd considering they’re just 6-3, but they have a +66 point differential. They went into San Diego and won. They went into Buffalo and won. They blew out a solid Miami team in Miami (34-15). They blew out a Patriots team that has looked fantastic since (41-14). They took care of business against the Jets (24-10) and the Rams (31-7). Meanwhile, their three losses came by a combined 19 points and two of them came in Denver and San Francisco. The Seahawks, on the other hand, rank 7th moving the chains at a 76.17% rate, as opposed to 72.28% for their opponents, a differential of 3.89%.

That’s before you even take into account that the Seahawks are not nearly as good on the road as they are at home. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 45-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 43-21-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by 7.68 points per game. This is opposed to a 24-41 record away from home (28-36-1 ATS), getting outscored by 3.75 points per game. They’re even worse on the road as road underdogs, going 15-24 ATS in that spot since 2007, including 9-17 ATS as road underdogs off a home game, and 3-12 ATS as road underdogs off a home game and before another home game.

This is only the 2nd time they’ve been road underdogs over the past 2 seasons, but for good reason (the only game was last year’s in San Francisco). They aren’t as good as they were last season (the fact that they’ll be without Bobby Wagner, Brandon Mebane, and possibly Kam Chancellor this week doesn’t help) and Kansas City is very good. Also, while Seattle has Arizona up next (even though it’s a home game, it’s a bigger game for them), the Chiefs have a much easier game in Oakland up next. Teams are 83-57 ATS since 2012 before being road favorites of 3 or more, 53-33 ATS before being road favorites of 4 or more, and 21-7 ATS before being road favorites of a touchdown or more (the early line is Kansas City -7.5). I like to fade the public whenever it makes sense, especially when they’re on an underdog, and it definitely makes sense here. This is my Pick of the Week.

Kansas City Chiefs 17 Seattle Seahawks 9

Pick against the spread: Kansas City -1

Confidence: Pick of the Week

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks: 2014 Week 10 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 10 NFL Picks, Giants, Seahawks, Uncategorized

New York Giants (3-5) at Seattle Seahawks (5-3)

The Seahawks have fallen flat at home in their previous 2 home games, losing as big home favorites to the Cowboys and then beating the lowly Raiders by just 6 points last week as 14 point favorites. However, I still really like them at home. I don’t think those 2 games erase their extensive recent history of home dominance. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 44-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 42-21-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by 7.47 points per game.

This is opposed to a 24-41 record away from home (28-36-1 ATS), getting outscored by 3.75 points per game. This home dominance has been even more pronounced over the past 3 seasons, since the start of the Russell Wilson era, as they’ve gone 20-2 straight up and 15-7 ATS at home, outscoring opponents by an average of 14.09 points per game at home and beating the spread by an average of 7.57 points per game.

The Seahawks’ relative struggles in their last 2 home games are giving us good value here with the Seahawks as they are just 8 point favorites over the Giants. Remember, they were 7.5 point favorites over the Packers, who are much better than the Giants, earlier this season and the Seahawks won very easily. Obviously, the Seahawks haven’t been playing as well recently as they were to start the season, but they’re getting both Max Unger and Russell Okung back from injury, while Byron Maxwell is listed as questionable to return.

Unger, their best offensive lineman, has been out since week 5. Okung missed last week. Maxwell has been out since week 6. They’re getting healthier and I expect them to be playing with a little bit more of a chip on their shoulders this week as they’re kind of getting lost in the Super Bowl contenders discussion. They’re also in a good spot as non-divisional home favorites before being non-divisional road favorites, with a trip to Kansas City on deck. Teams are 80-52 ATS in that situation since 2008. The Seahawks should be the right side.

Seattle Seahawks 27 New York Giants 13

Pick against the spread: Seattle -8

Confidence: Medium

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

Oakland Raiders at Seattle Seahawks: 2014 Week 9 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 9 NFL Picks, Raiders, Seahawks, Uncategorized

Oakland Raiders (0-7) at Seattle Seahawks (4-3)

Despite losing to the Cowboys in their last home game, the Seahawks have still been close to automatic at home recently. Since 2007, the Seahawks are 43-20 at home, including playoffs and they aren’t just having success straight up as they are 42-20-1 ATS. They outscore opponents on average by 7.49 points per game. This is opposed to a 24-41 record away from home (28-36-1 ATS), getting outscored by 3.75 points per game. This home dominance has been even more pronounced over the past 3 seasons, since the start of the Russell Wilson era, as they’ve gone 19-2 straight up and 15-6 ATS at home, outscoring opponents by an average of 14.48 points per game at home and beating the spread by an average of 7.57 points per game.

We’ve been having to pay a serious premium with the Seahawks at home this season, as they were 7.5 point favorites for Green Bay and 5 point favorites for Denver, but I don’t think we’re doing that here. This line is really high at 15, but it’s more than justified. The Seahawks rank 12th in the NFL in rate of moving the chains differential, moving them at a 75.00% rate, as opposed to 73.79% for their opponents, a differential of 1.21%. Meanwhile, the pathetic Raiders rank dead last, moving the chains at a 66.49% rate, as opposed to 76.02% for their opponents, a differential of -9.53%. The next worst team is Tampa Bay at -8.01%.

That suggests this line should be around 13.5, before you take into account the Seahawks’ unique home field advantage and the fact that they’ll probably end the season better than 12th in rate of moving the chains. This 15 point line is more than justified and we’re not paying nearly as much of a premium as we were earlier in the season, likely as a result of the fact that the Seahawks lost in their last home game to Dallas. That’s the exception to the rule with this team at home recently though and Dallas is a very solid opponent. Remember, this team still blew out a very good Green Bay team and handed the Broncos their only loss of the season in their other 2 home games. They should be able to blow out the Raiders easily here.

The Seahawks also have a much easier game on deck as they host the Giants, while the Raiders host the Broncos next week. Teams are 69-55 ATS since 2010 before being double digit favorites, as the Seahawks will almost definitely be over the Giants next week. On the flip side, teams are 59-83 ATS since 2002 as non-divisional road underdogs before being divisional home underdogs. Going off of that, teams are 54-81 ATS before being 3+ home underdogs since 2012, 13-44 ATS since 2010 before being 7+ home underdogs, and 16-41 ATS since 2002 before being double digit home underdogs, as they almost definitely will be next week. That’s because when you have a game coming up like that it generally means one of two things. One, you have a very tough, important game coming up. Two, you really aren’t that good of a football team. Here, I think it’s both. On top of that, double digit underdogs are 22-46 ATS since 2002 before being double digit underdogs.

There are two reasons in favor of the Raiders that prevent this from being a big play in favor of Seattle. For one, they’re in their 2nd of two road games. Teams are 108-70 ATS as road underdogs off a road loss since 2008, including 92-48 ATS when it’s their 2nd straight (and not 3rd straight) road game and they next play a home game. Historically, teams cover at about a 65% rate in that situation. This is because teams tend to do better in their 2nd straight road game than their first one, but lines don’t really adjust for this. Teams are 181-184 in their 2nd of two road games since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 0.10 points per game, as opposed to 254-364 in their 1st of one road game since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 3.28 points per game. Second, teams that are 0-7 or worse are 25-7 ATS as underdogs on the road since 1989. The Seahawks should still be the right side though.

Seattle Seahawks 34 Oakland Raiders 10

Pick against the spread: Seattle -15

Confidence: Low

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

Seattle Seahawks at Carolina Panthers: 2014 Week 8 NFL Pick

stevenlourie 2014 NFL Picks, 2014 Week 8 NFL Picks, Seahawks, Uncategorized

Seattle Seahawks (3-3) at Carolina Panthers (3-3-1)

The Seahawks failed to even win last week as significant favorites in St. Louis and now they’re significant favorites again here in Carolina. I like their chances of bouncing back and getting back in the win column here though. For one, this is the Seahawks’ 2nd of two road games, which tends to be an easier time for teams than a team’s first game on the road. Teams are 177-184 in their 2nd of two road games since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 0.20 points per game, as opposed to 252-363 in their 1st of one road game since 2008, getting outscored by an average of 3.29 points per game. Going off of that, road favorites are 33-22 ATS off of a road loss since 2008 as long as it’s the 2nd of two road favorites, including 15-7 ATS as road favorites off of a loss as road favorites.

The Seahawks also generally do well off of a loss, going 7-3 ATS in the Russell Wilson era. Sure, they were coming off of a loss last week and didn’t get it done, but they could easily have a different result here. The Seahawks are also in a great spot as teams are 68-53 ATS before being double digit favorites since 2002. The Seahawks have an incredibly easy game next week at home for the Seahawks. Sure, they were in a good spot last week before being significant road favorites and didn’t get the job done, but history still suggests they’re due to turn it around here.

However, while I like the Seahawks’ chances of bouncing back and getting the win here, I’m not confident they’ll cover this 5 point spread, even with all of the aforementioned trends in play. This line might just be too high for a Seattle team that has been fairly average this season. They rank just 14th in the NFL, moving the chains at a 75.14% rate, as opposed to 74.59% for their opponents, a differential of 0.55%. Sure, they’re the Seahawks and could easily get it together and end up much higher by the end of the season, but there are no guarantees. Super Bowl winners have disappointed over the past decade and the Seahawks are dealing with significant injuries to guys like Max Unger, Bobby Wagner, and Byron Maxwell.

The Panthers, meanwhile, are moving the chains at a 74.78% rate, as opposed to 77.39% for their opponents, a differential of -2.61% that ranks 22nd in the NFL. That’s not great, but purely looking at rate of moving the chains suggests we’re getting significant line value with the Panthers. I’m certainly not confident because the trends suggest the Seahawks are the right side and the Seahawks could at any bounce back and become what they were last season. This is still a scary football team. The Panthers are my pick though.

Seattle Seahawks 24 Carolina Panthers 20

Pick against the spread: Carolina +5

Confidence: None

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]

[switch_ad_hub]