St. Louis at Seattle

The Hawks are hot. Mike Holmgren knows that it’s win-or-lose-his-job-time and he’s got his team playing accordingly. Defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes has done a tremendous job in the first two games which has contributed to Seattle winning by an average score of 33 to 5! St. Louis continues to struggle and would be 0-2 if not for one of the dumbest plays and colossal mental farts of all time last week (a San Francisco receiver running the final 7 seconds off the clock instead of sitting down for the game-winning field goal). The odds-makers have made this a pick ‘em and thrown Seattle three points for home field advantage. What a joke! My Matchup Power Ratings indicate that the Seahawks should be a much, much bigger favorite in this one. On top of it all, Seattle qualifies for a handful of excellent trends. For example, small favorite home teams off shut-out wins are 15-2 ATS over recent years. Until Mike Martz figures out that to win, he needs to get the ball in Marshall Faulk’s hands more than a few times a game, I don’t expect the Rams to win much. Take Seattle to easily cover in this game.