Carolina at Seattle

Contenders or Pretenders? You read here last week how I think Seattle's overrated. They went 3-0 to confirm what a lot of people thought they knew going into the season - that Seattle was this year's Carolina Panthers and headed for the Super Bowl. But even a cursory analysis last week showed that their wins came against horrible teams while their next two games were against toughter opponents. The Seahawks lost all three. Then, they lost to Arizona last week. Now they are laying 8 points today - wow! It's too much. Seattle is reeling but there's a chance that they'll still be looking past Carolina a bit. Let me explain... With Carolina's woes, Seattle could be chalking this up as a win and looking ahead to two key road divisional games that follow. Meanwhile, Carolina's season is over. The pressure is off and the best they can hope for now is to play the spoiler role. And, to play for pride. How much pain would dissipate if they could go on the road and win as an eight point dog after everyone has written them off? Yes, Seattles the better team. But I think they're in a bad situation here. They are questioning themselves. Head coach Mike Holmgren said this week, "The mood stinks right now." Really bad offensive teams, following multiple games in which they haven't scored many points, tend to bounce back nicely ATS in their next game. This, I think, is due to getting good line value which is definitely the case here. Bet 110 to win 100 on the Panthers +8 and throw down 50 to win 140 on a surprise straight-up win.