Super Bowl XLIX Betting Preview – Seahawks Slight Dogs to the Pats

New England Patriots (-1, 48 o/u) vs. Seattle Seahawks

There’s plenty of bulletin board material going into Super Bowl XLIX with the New England Patriots (12-4) facing the Seattle Seahawks (12-4).

However, Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount added more this week when discussing the Seattle Seahawks’ defense, which is allowing only 15.9 points per game.

“I don’t care about them being the top defense, that doesn’t bother me,” Blount said. “They were good enough to get here, just like we were good enough to get here. They’re not immortal. They can be beaten.”

He added, “Obviously they’re a pretty good defense … so we are going to put a plan together to hopefully make sure we come out victorious.”

Despite Seattle’s vaunted defense, the defending champs have shifted from 2.5-point favorites to one-point underdogs over the past ten days. Seattle’s lackluster performance in the NFC Championship Game is at least partly to blame for scaring away bettors; Seattle edged out the Packers despite its offense only playing about five minutes of decent football all game.

If the Seahawks are going to repeat as Super Bowl champs, they will need a better day out of quarterback Russell Wilson. The young pivot passed for 209 yards with one TD and four picks against Green Bay. But don’t expect the uber-confident Wilson to be questioning his abilities.

Instead, Wilson has reverence for what he and the team have accomplished.

“To win the Super Bowl last year, to go against a great quarterback in Peyton Manning, who I have so much respect for, plays the game the right way, does it better than anybody could probably ever do it, and then to face Tom Brady this year,” said Wilson. “[They’re] two guys that I’ve looked up to since I was a little kid. It’s a tremendous honor to be on the same field and to play two of the greatest guys, the greatest players to ever play the game.”

Despite all of the talk surrounding the Patriots’ high-flying offense, the Seahawks usually find a way to get the job done these days, especially in the big games. That’s why the play is the Seattle money line (+100).

(Photo credit: Philip Robertson from New York, NY, USA (Loudest crowd roar at a sports stadium Seahawks-10) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo may appear cropped.)