New Orleans Saints vs Seattle Seahawks Preview
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Saints at Seahawks NFL Lines
Date/Time: Saturday, January 8, 4:30 PM ET
Venue: Qwest Field, Seattle, WA
Broadcast: NBC
New Orleans Saints vs. Seattle Seahawks NFL Betting Lines from Bodog.com
Money Line: Seahawks (+475) Saints (-650)
Spread: Saints -10.5
Over/Under: 44.5
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New Orleans Saints vs. Seattle Seahawks Preview
The Seahawks (7-9) are the first team in NFL history to win their division with a losing record, but all of that does not matter now in the playoffs where they face the defending champion Saints (11-5). NFL lines have the Saints as big 10.5-point betting favorites in this game with a total of 44.5.
This season both teams were not great wagers with each going 7-9 ATS.
In their last games of the season the Seahawks beat the St. Louis Rams 16-6 to win the NFC West and the Saints lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-13.
Seahawks’ head coach Pete Carroll has yet to name the starting QB for this game and this week both Charlie Whitehurst and Matt Hasselbeck have taken reps in practice. With starter Hasselbeck hurt for the last game against the Rams Whitehurst filled in and played pretty well going 22/36 for 192 yards with a TD and 0 INT. What is important is that he did not throw a pick and he made few mistakes.
Hasselbeck has been the starter all season and led Seattle to the 2006 Super Bowl, but in his last 4 games he has 2 TD and 8 picks. It is also interesting that his 2 best games in the last 6 seasons have both come against the Saints. Seattle lost to New Orleans in a week 11 loss and he passed for 366 yards.
New Orleans has issues of their own, as this season’s leading rusher Chris Ivory was recently put on IR and is done for season. Also, RB Pierre Thomas is out of the post-season with an ankle injury. However, in the Saints’ loss to Tampa Bay RB Reggie Bush looked like the Bush of last season with 70 yards rushing and 55 receiving yards. On top of that he averaged a legit 7.8 yards per carry.
In the 2 teams’ meeting in week 11 Seattle simply could not contain Drew Brees, who passed for 382 yards with 4 TD and 2 INT. He has a couple of big play WR’s in Marques Colston (84 rec 1,023 yards 7 TD) and Lance Moore (66 rec 11.6 yards 8 TD), who each averaged over 11 yards per reception this season. They will be going up against a Seattle pass defense that has struggled all season and only ranks 27th in the league.
The big question is will Brees get any help? Bush and RB Julius Jones will have to carry the rushing offense and even though the Seattle run defense only ranks 21st in the league they held the Rams to only 47 rushing yards in their season finale win.
One key in this game is the pass rush of Seattle. They have been decent this season ranking 13th in the league with 37 sacks. They have to pressure Brees and not give him time in the pocket to tear apart the secondary.
It does not matter if Whitehurst or Hasselbeck gets the nod, as whoever is playing will be facing a Saints passing defense that ranks 4th in the league. If the Saints’ secondary can contain Seahawks’ leading WR Mike Williams (65 rec 751 yards 2 TD) they will likely be in good shape since the 2nd leading WR is Ben Obomanu and he only has 30 catches on the season.
The Seattle rushing offense only ranks 31st in the league, but they racked up 141 rushing yards in the win over the Rams. They may have to run the ball well again against New Orleans and their 16th ranked run defense to have any chance in this game.
Seattle only beat one team all season that had a winning record and they will not beat one in the playoffs. The Saints have a much better offense and with Bush 100% they are dangerous yet again. Look for the Saints to totally dominate this game and they will win and easily cover the 10.5-point spread.
Betting Trends
New Orleans is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games as a road favorite and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games as a favorite of 10.5 or greater and Seattle is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games as an underdog and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games as an underdog of 10.5 or greater.
Pick: Saints -10.5
