The Seattle Seahawks have a reputation for having a tough home field advantage. To be sure, CenturyLink Field is one of the loudest and most imposing venues in the league but for whatever reason the Seahawks have underachieved somewhat there in recent years both SU and ATS. This season in particular, they’ve been at their best in their travels away from ‘The Jet City’. This season they’ve gone 7-1 SU/5-1-2 ATS on the road and this performance is a likely reason that they’ve been bet up to -1.5 road favorites against the Eagles in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia opened as a -1 point home chalk but the roles have been flipped in subsequent betting. The money appears to still be coming in on the Seahawks as several books are showing Seattle at -2 and -2.5. They could hit or even surpass the key number of 3 by game time. The Eagles sure didn’t do much to instill confidence in the betting public this year. They were in a year long battle with Dallas for the NFC East crown aka ‘the division no one wanted to win’. For a time it appeared that the NFC East winner would come in with a record of .500 or lower but the Eagles won four straight down the stretch to end up at 9-7.
Even with a four game winning streak, there’s not a reason to assume that the Eagles have much in the way of momentum. For one thing, the wins during the season stretch run sure didn’t come against the league’s ‘best and brightest’. Philadelphia beat the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys at home and took victories over the Washington Redskins and Giants on the road. Before that, they lost 3 straight and 5 of 7 both SU and ATS. Of note in their latter 3 game losing run was a 17-9 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
In a ‘quick rematch’ situation the question becomes: “what has happened in the interim to change the competitive dynamic of the game”? The Seahawks are about the same but the Philadelphia injury situation–already ugly at the time of the previous game against Seattle–is downright grisly now. They’ve been hit especially hard at the skill positions on offense. Their top three wide receivers are out along with the top two running backs on the depth chart. Tackle Lane Johnson and Pro Bowl tight end Zach Ertz are listed as ‘questionable’ after leaving last week’s game against the Giants. They’ve also lost Pro Bowl right guard Brandon Brooks to IR.
Seattle has had their own injury issues and particularly at the running back position. Down to only rookie Travis Brooks at the RB position the Seahawks called on the ‘cavalry’ in the form of retired Marshawn Lynch along with Robert Turbin. Pass rush monster Jadeveon Clowney has had injury issues but as of this writing Pete Carroll says he’ll play against the Eagles on Sunday.
At this stage of the season, every team has to deal with injuries. Seattle’s Russell Wilson has shown a better ability of dealing with makeshift lineups throughout his career. Carson Wentz is certainly a capable quarterback but there’s little he can do given the Eagles horrific injury situation. Seattle is the better team and they should win and cover here.
