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NFL Week 16 Betting – Seattle Smells Blood in Arizona

John Benson

by John Benson in News

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:40 AM PST

Seattle Seahawks (-7.5, 36.5 o/u) at Arizona Cardinals

A bloodbath is what most are expecting when the recently resurrected Seattle Seahawks (10-4, 4-3 away) take on the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals (11-3, 7-0 home) in Glendale on Sunday Night Football (8:30 p.m. Eastern).

The Seahawks’ defense has to be salivating at the idea of playing against a Cardinals offense run by inexperienced quarterback Ryan Lindley. Last weekend, Lindley was pressed into action after Drew Stanton was carted off the field with a knee injury. (Stanton, himself, was pressed into action a few weeks prior when Carson Palmer was knocked out for the year.)

Lindley – who played in six games for the Cardinals in 2012, completing 52% of his passes and throwing for 752 yards – is confident, despite struggling in relief during week 15.

“It’s night and day,” Lindley said. “The amount I’ve learned and not only grown as a person in two years, but from these guys – [coach Bruce Arians], from Carson, from Drew. I’m a totally different person and totally different player from that point.”

That’s good news to Cardinals fans because they will need Lindley to be a totally different player from what they saw two seasons ago if Arizona is going to upset Seattle.

The Seattle defense is allowing an NFL-best 272.4 yards per game and the Seahawks comes in as arguably the hottest team in the league. They have won four straight in dominant fashion, including handing the Eagles their first home loss of the year in week 14 as one-point dogs.  A win for the Seahawks on Sunday (along with a loss or tie by the Eagles, Lions, or Packers) would clinch a fourth straight playoff appearance for Seattle.

A win would also give Seattle the division lead with just one game to go in the regular season, and would likely result in Arizona having to play its first playoff game on the road.

Both teams realize the importance of Sunday’s game.

“That’s not stuff we talk about. It’s so obvious why we don’t talk about it,” coach Pete Carroll said. “We’ve been preparing for championship games all season long and playing like they are, and the more you do that the more comfortable I hope we feel with the big setting that this one brings and all the hype that people are going to put on it.”

Look for Seattle’s defense – which has piled up 16 sacks in the last four weeks – to wreak havoc on Lindley.

As enticing as the massive home dog may be here, the low total is just too hard to pass up. Take the over (36.5).

(Photo credit: Mike Morris (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)

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