New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks Betting Odds & Point Spread

Written by Steve Janus on December 4, 2008

At the start of the season, this week’s match up between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahaws could have been billed as the meeting between two teams headed for the playoffs. While the Patriots are still very much in the playoff race at 7-5 on the year, the Seahawks, at just 2-10 this season, won’t be playing past the final week of the regular season. Last time out the Patriots were embarrassed at home by the Pittsburgh Steelers, suffering a 10-33 loss. The Seahawks had lost a string of close games leading up to last week’s 9-34 collapse against Dallas. The betting odds for the game have been set at New England -4.5 over Seattle with the total set for 43 points.

This isn’t the Patriots’ offense from a year ago, but without their starting quarterback New England has still managed to put up respectable numbers this year. The Pats are averaging 23 points per game on 355 yards of total offense. On average, New England is rushing for a robust 131 yards per game while backup-turned-starter Matt Cassel and the New England passing attack have connected for 225 yards per game. It’s a far cry from the Patriot offensive machine from just a year ago, but they’ve been effective enough to keep the Pats in the playoff hunt.

As with the offense, the New England defense hasn’t been as dominant has it has been in the past. The Pats are giving up 21 points per game and just over 315 yards of total offense per game. The running defense has been merely average, allowing opposing running backs to average about 4 yards per carry and rack up 123 rushing yards per game. The secondary is giving up just 212 passing yards per contest, but they have had a tendency this season to give up the deep pass. New England shouldn’t have much of a challenge this week as the Seahawks own one of the worst offensive teams in the league right now. The Patriots are 4.5 point favorites on the road this week.

It’s been a rough year for the Seahawks. A lot of the problems can be attributed to injuries, but don’t underestimate the effect of playing for a lame duck coach can have on a team. The woes start on the offensive side of the ball. Scoring just 18 points per game on 257 yards of total offense, it’s no wonder they’ve only been able to grab 2 wins this year. The running game Seattle has been average at 108 yards per game on 4.3 yards per carry, but the passing game has been an embarrassment. As a team, the Seahawks are completing only 52 percent of their passes and gaining a meager 149 passing yards per game. They don’t really have a chance against anyone with those kinds of numbers.

Things just keep getting worse for the Seahawks as we move to the defensive side of the ball. Seattle is giving up 26 points per game and 387 yards of total offense. Looking for a bright spot, you’d be hard pressed to find one, but, if you had to choose one, it’s been the rush defense for the Seahawks at home. In Seattle they are giving up only 101 rushing yards per game at 3.4 yards per carry. Beyond that, most of the numbers for the Seahawk defense are unimpressive or just plain bad. It’s hard to believe the Seahawks are only 4.5 point underdogs on Sunday.

There isn’t much going for Seattle right now. They don’t have a lot to play for and they haven’t performed up to this point, so there is no reason to believe they would start this week. The Patriots would love to add another win and, though they’ve had to make the long road trip to Seattle, they should do just that.

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