NFL Betting: New Orleans Saints at Seattle Seahawks
The NFL Divisional Playoffs are set for this weekend and in this writeup we’ll take a look at one of the more intriguing games on the card as the New Orleans Saints travel from the ‘Crescent City’ to take on the Seattle Seahawks. These teams have a lot of recent history–it was just a couple years back that the Saints were shocked by the 7-9 Seahawks as a -9′ point road favorite–but now the home team is considered the top choice to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
There’s definitely a lot of reason to like Seattle here. They had no trouble beating New Orleans during the regular season, winning 34-7 and dealing the Saints their worst loss of the regular season. New Orleans is coming off a close game in Philadelphia and must now travel cross country for this contest while Seattle was idle by virtue of their divisional title win. Seattle’s offense is productive and dependable behind talented young quarterback Russell Wilson and they have the best statistical defense in the NFL. And then there’s the home field advantage–over the past two seasons the Seahawks have won 15 of 16 games at home going 12-4 against the spread.
Ironically, it’s that formidable home field advantage that has us on the Saints here. More specifically, it’s the public’s perception of that advantage which has made this price just too high. The Seahawks were -6′ point home favorites during the regular season and although Seattle has continued to play well it’s not like New Orleans has regressed. A compelling case can be made that the Saints are a better team than they were in the previous game. At any rate, we’d rather take more than a touchdown with an improving defense coached by Rob Ryan and the entry of Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham. Graham is now arguably the best tight end in the league and should be a frequent target of Brees. The myth that the Saints ‘can’t play outdoors’ has been disproven and they’ll be in this game throughout. And while our gut instinct tells us that Seattle steals a narrow victory an outright New Orleans win is a possibility.
BET NEW ORLEANS SAINTS +8 OVER SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
