Seahawks vs. 49ers best bet for NFL Wild Card Weekend
By Josh Yourish
Kyle Shanahan was probably a little disappointed to see that he doesn’t get to beat up on the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs again this year after Green Bay lost to Detroit on Sunday Night Football.
The Seattle Seahawks were happy about that result though. Geno Smith’s Seahawks were able to sneak their way into the playoffs after nearly doinking away their hopes against the Rams. Their 19-16 overtime win, plus the Packers loss, sets up a date in San Francisco with the 49ers.
The No. 2 versus No. 7 matchup in the NFC is the early game on Saturday, so the NFC West is kicking off the playoffs. The Niners have already beaten Seattle twice and they’re big favorites to do it again. Here are the odds for Game 1 of Super Wild Card Weekend.
Seahawks vs. 49ers Odds, Spread and Total
San Francisco and Seattle Betting Trends
- San Francisco is 11-6 ATS
- Seattle is 7-10 ATS
- The Under is 4-0 in Seattle’s last four games
- Seattle is 1-7 ATS in its last eight games
Seahawks vs. 49ers Prediction and Pick
Back in Week 15, the 49ers cruised to a 21-13 win over Seattle that could’ve been much worse, but it seemed that San Francisco took their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter.
The Niners ran the ball all over Seattle’s defense and Nick Bosa wrecked the game. Bosa bullied Charles Cross and ended the game with just one sack, but six pressures, two QB hits and three hurries. He was as impactful as you can be off the edge and it was the worst game of Cross’s rookie year.
Cross finished with a 16.0 pass blocking grade on PFF, that’s out of 100 and is by far his lowest.
Cross will need to be much better in this one if Geno Smith is going to have a chance against the NFL’s No. 1 defense.
Smith is a Pro Bowler and he set the Seahawks record for passing yards in a season, but he’s been crashing back to earth lately. Over his final four games his yards per attempt was 5.9, that’s 33rd over that stretch.
Seattle has leaned on Kenneth Walker II to carry the offensive load and he’ll need to be big in this game. The problem is, San Francisco has the No. 1 run defense in the league.
The 49ers are also going to want to pound the rock. I imagine they’ll try to protect Brock Purdy a little bit in his first playoff game. Seattle is 30th in the league in opponent rushing yards per game for the season, but in the team’s final three games the Seahawks were one of the 10 best run stopping units.
They went from 150.2 yards per game for the season to 99.3 yards per game over their final three.
I expect both teams to run the ball a lot and for the clock to run. If Seattle can keep defending at this level, then they’ve got a shot. I like San Fran to win, but don’t trust it to cover 10 points against a divisional opponent that it is seeing for a third time.
The under is 4-0 in Seattle’s last four games and I think that trend carries over into the postseason.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change