{"id":12057,"date":"2011-01-02T01:10:38","date_gmt":"2011-01-02T06:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12057"},"modified":"2011-01-02T01:10:38","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T06:10:38","slug":"sunday-night-nfl-pick-seahawks-vs-rams-game-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/sunday-night-nfl-pick-seahawks-vs-rams-game-preview-12057\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Night NFL Pick: Seahawks Vs Rams Game Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Rams at Seattle Seahawks, Qwest Field, Seattle, WA
\nSunday, January 2, 2011, 8:20 pm EST, TV: NBC
\nOpening Line: Seahawks -1
\nCurrent Line: Rams -3
\nOpening Total: 42
\nCurrent Total: 41.5
\nMoney Line: Rams -155 \/ Seahawks +135<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Seahawks
St. Louis RB Steven Jackson hopes to make it back to the playoffs for the first time since his rookie year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Few could have predicted that the NFC West division title would be decided by the Seattle Seahawks (6-9) and St. Louis Rams (7-8) in the last game of the regular season on Sunday Night Football.\u00a0 But that is exactly the case for two teams that have succeeded mostly behind a first-year quarterback and first-year head coach.<\/p>\n

The Rams (-3) have seen rookie quarterback Sam Bradford stay healthy and develop into one of the most promising young players in the NFL.\u00a0 Bradford has already broken Peyton Manning\u2019s rookie mark for completions with 335, as he has enabled his team\u2019s offense to score over 100 points more than a year ago during a miserable 1-15 campaign.\u00a0 He has also gotten a lot of help from Pro Bowl running back Steven Jackson, who is seeking a return to the playoffs for the first time since his rookie year in 2004.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Seattle head coach Pete Carroll enjoyed a lot of early-season success in his first year with the team before tumbling through a 1-5 stretch heading into the finale.\u00a0 The Seahawks started the season 4-2 but could still become the first team in a non-strike season to make the playoffs with a losing record by beating the Rams.<\/p>\n

Carroll knows what the league is all about from prior head coaching stints in New England and New York, so he realizes an opportunity to get into the postseason is just that and can give a team new life.\u00a0 Unfortunately for him, he will likely be forced to play quarterback Charlie Whitehurst in such a critical game since Matt Hasselbeck remains injured.<\/p>\n

Whitehurst has made six appearances for Seattle this season, and only one of them has resulted in a victory.\u00a0 The lone win came in relief of Hasselbeck in Week 10 after he had thrown for 333 yards en route to a 36-18 rout of Arizona.\u00a0 Whitehurst had 53 passing yards in that game against the Cardinals and has cleared the century mark only once this year.<\/p>\n

Defensively, the Seahawks have struggled during their recent skid, surrendering 34 points or more in all five of the losses.\u00a0 The OVER has cashed in their last eight games, including a 38-15 loss at Tampa Bay last week.<\/p>\n

The Rams broke a 10-game series losing streak to Seattle with a 20-3 win in Week 4.\u00a0 They have covered just one of the last seven meetings with the UNDER going 4-2-1.<\/p>\n

If you are betting this Sunday Night Football game between the Seahawks & Rams, be sure to check out the winning NFL picks packages we offer.\u00a0 You can also get free winners on our free NFL picks page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Rams at Seattle Seahawks, Qwest Field, Seattle, WA Sunday, January 2, 2011, 8:20 pm EST, TV: NBC Opening Line: Seahawks -1 Current Line: Rams -3 Opening Total: 42 Current Total: 41.5 Money Line: Rams -155 \/ Seahawks +135 Few could have predicted that the NFC West division title would be decided by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":4208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2508,1930,1922,4296,417,863,2990],"class_list":["post-12057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-free-nfl-pick","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-seahawks-rams-preview","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-st-louis-rams","tag-sunday-night-football-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12113,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12057\/revisions\/12113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}