NFC Divisional Playoffs Betting – Dominant Defenses Meet as Panthers Face Seahawks

Carolina Panthers at Seattle Seahawks (-10.5, 40 o/u)

It’s been a tale of two seasons for the Seattle Seahawks (12-4, 7-1 home). Early on, they appeared to be following the Super Bowl winner’s curse of not returning to the playoffs (let alone the big game), going 3-3 over the first six weeks. However, the defending champs have gone 11-1 since that time, with its defense sparking the turnaround. Over its last six games, the Seahawks only gave up three touchdowns and an average of 6.5 points per game.

Head coach Pete Carroll wasn’t surprised by his team’s slow start.

“It’s been difficult for people, and the history of it shows you that it’s hard to come back and get yourself back into this kind of position again,” said Carroll.

Nor was he surprised by the turnaround, though. “It just took us longer than we would like, but the thing that happened this year just happened in different order than it did last year,” added the coach.

The Seahawks benefited from the Arizona Cardinals’ freefall at the end of the regular season, taking home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. This week, Seattle hosts the Carolina Panthers (7-8-1, 3-4-1 away), who have struggled all season on offense.

While quarterback Cam Newton has settled down of late, throwing seven TDs to only four picks over his last four games, he did have an untimely interception last weekend in a Wild Card victory over the Cardinals.

“We have to play better than we have,” said Panthers Head Coach Ron Rivera. “We just have to be smarter than some of the things we did out there. We have to protect the football.”

The good news for the Panthers is its defense, which over the last five games is keeping offenses to only 11.8 PPG (and only giving up 238.2 yards a game). Last weekend, they held the Cardinals to an NFL-record 78 yards of total offense en route to an 27-16 ATS win (as 6.5-point favorites).

It’s because of the Panthers’ defense that the play in this game is Carolina and the slew of points (+10.5).

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)