Seahawks vs. Cardinals: NFC West Betting Preview & ATS Pick

Seattle Seahawks (7-5 SU, 5-6-1 ATS) vs. Arizona Cardinals (6-6 SU, 8-4 ATS)
NFL Football Week 14
Date/Time: Sunday, December 8, 2024 at 4:05PM EST
Where: State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona
TV: CBS

The Seattle Seahawks come to State Farm Stadium for a big week 14 NFC West showdown with the Arizona Cardinals. This division race is tight where teams can now ill-afford a loss, especially to a division rival. On Sunday, the streaky Seahawks won their third game in a row with a 26-21 win on the road against the Jets. For all their issues this season, including a putrid stretch where they dropped five of six games, they find themselves atop the division for the moment. The Cardinals held that position a short time ago but now have some ground to make up after dropping their second in a row on Sunday in a tough 23-22 loss on the road to the Vikings when a late Minnesota TD snatched a possible victory from the Cardinals. Can they bounce back at home, or should we go with the hotter Seahawks? Let’s break it down!

A Look at Their First Game

Looking at the first game in divisional rematches carries some weight when it was a few weeks ago. In week 12, the Seahawks beat the Cardinals in Seattle, 16-6, in a game that came up well short of meeting expectations on offense. Arizona’s Kyler Murray threw for 285 yards, connecting with TE Trey McBride 12 times, but between the mistakes and their inability to run the ball a lick, they mustered two measly field goals on the day. Seattle and Geno Smith weren’t much better, with one TD pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba representing most of their offense, with a good chunk of it on the day coming from a pick-six of Murray.

With that game being so recent, it’s hard not to glean something from it while also thinking it was an odd result that likely won’t be replicated this week. Arizona, while they can’t be criticized too harshly for nearly beating the Vikings on the road, is now in a spot where they need to start getting some positive results or risk undoing all the good they created up until this point. To lose two games to the division-leading team to fall further behind, a loss here would deposit them in a bad spot where their margin for error would shrink to nothing, whereas a win puts them right back near or at the top. But Seattle is a streaky team and when they get rolling, they can be a difficult team to dissuade.

Paying Attention to Defense This Week

The urge is to look at offense. On both these teams, the perception is that these are squads whose offenses are better than their defenses. The players you notice on both sides are all offensive players. And neither team has a “D” that really elicits fear when projecting success from the opposing offense. We’ve seen results this season that substantiate it. But sometimes, there’s a subtle shift. Not only do we have the very defense-heavy result of their first meeting a few short weeks ago, but some other results suggest maybe we should put more emphasis on the other side of the ball.

After seeing the Seahawks defense get sideways during their 1-5 stretch where opposing offenses were really having their way, we’ve seen them snap into form the last handful of weeks. A San Fran team that put up 36 on Seattle earlier in the year could only come up with 17 at home against Seattle a few weeks ago. We have the two-field goal allowance to this Cardinals’ team a few weeks ago. Then on Sunday after watching the Jets jump out to a quick 14-0 lead, the Seahawks’ defense tightened up and kept the Jets’ offense in stitches for the rest of the day, the only points allowed after that coming from a special teams TD. At the same time, with 7 of their own points coming on a pick-six, the Seattle offense hopes for better this week. Frankly, on the road isn’t always the best time to get behind this Seahawks’ offense, and with this being their second road game in a row, it’s something to keep in mind.

The Arizona defense is hoping to flex their muscles, as well. It has been since October 20 that this Seattle offense has surpassed 21 points in scoring. Arizona is also a defense that is easy to overlook. It’s a unit bereft of stars with enough shaky moments this season in people’s memories to make overlooking them an acceptable thing to do. To their credit, they were pretty solid in this matchup the first time around and looked good in stretches last week, albeit in a losing cause to the Vikings. Still, in their last four games, they’ve allowed 54 combined points, and those anticipating a picnic lately against this group have found themselves empty-handed.

Take the Points

In a game where picking a winner leaves you torn, maybe taking a three-point cushion isn’t the worst move. It’s still hard to feel too comfortable taking Seattle. If any offense seems more likely to turn production into actual points this week, it’s Arizona. They’re at home, and if they clean things up, they should get better results. I just think their own offense is going to run into more extreme resistance this week and that a more healthy Seattle offense can squeeze out enough juice to stay within a couple of points or maybe even vie for the win. I’ll take the Seahawks in this one.

Loot’s Prediction to Cover the Point Spread:

I’m betting on the Seattle Seahawks plus 3 points.