NFL Betting Picks: Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks

Added on Sep 23, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Sunday football action offers up a NFC West matchup between the 1-1 Arizona Cardinals and the 0-2 Seattle Seahawks. Seattle has opened the season with a pair of losses on the road while the Cardinals beat Carolina at home and lost a hard fought game at Washington in Week 2:

Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks
September 25, 2011 1:00 PM Pacific

The Seattle Seahawks aren’t much of a team but, then again, neither are the Arizona Cardinals. That’s why we’re very skeptical of the pointspread pricing in this game. It’s tough to justify making Arizona a -3′ point road favorite. From a pointspread perspective, they’ve been a very poor investment in both situations. On the road, the Cardinals are 7-10 against the spread since 2009. As a favorite, they’ve fared even worse going 5-10 ATS. They’ve also been clobbered by divisional opponents, posting a record of 4-8 ATS since 2009.

The Seahawks have shown a profound home/away bias in recent years. On the road, they’re an embarrassment (4-15 ATS since 2009) but at home they’ve actually shown a profit for their NFL betting ‘investors’. Since 2009 they’re 11-6 ATS/10-7 SU in the ‘Jet City’ and a respectable 7-6 ATS against divisional opponents. The Seahawks have been a poor choice as an underdog (7-19 ATS since 2009) but you can make a compelling case that they should be the favorite in this matchup.

Seattle’s quarterback situation is unsettled, but Arizona’s isn’t much better. The Cardinals could be without running back Beanie Wells this weekend–he’s listed as ‘questionable’ on the most recent NFL injury report. With four of Seattle’s first six games on the road–and the other home game against a talented Atlanta Falcons team–this is the Seahawks best opportunity for a victory in the first 1/3 of the season. Arizona isn’t as good as they’ve looked so far this season and Qwest Field is a tough place to play in any circumstance. There’s still a few +3′ prices to be found and obviously that’s advantageous due to the significance of three as a ‘key number’. We look for the Seahawks to win outright but grabbing Seattle at +3′ gives us a nice margin for error if they fall short. All in all, the wrong team is favored here.

Bet Seattle Seahawks +3′ over Arizona Cardinals