{"id":17043,"date":"2011-08-11T09:55:33","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T14:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17043"},"modified":"2011-08-11T09:54:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T14:54:23","slug":"pro-football-handicapping-seattle-seahawks-at-san-diego-chargers-preseason-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pro-football-handicapping-seattle-seahawks-at-san-diego-chargers-preseason-preview-17043\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Football Handicapping: Seattle Seahawks at San Diego Chargers Preseason Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seattle Seahawks at San Diego Chargers<\/strong>
\n Thursday, 8\/11\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN<\/strong>
\n Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 San Diego Chargers -4.5<\/strong>
\n Current Betting Line:\u00a0 San Diego Chargers -3<\/strong>
\n Opening Total:\u00a0 37<\/strong>
\n Current Total:\u00a0 34.5<\/strong>
\n Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Chargers<\/a>
The San Diego Chargers open up the 2011 preseason against the Seattle Seahawks Thursday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seattle begins the second year of life under former USC head coach Pete Carroll, as the team aims to reach the playoffs for a second consecutive year.\u00a0 The Seahawks won the NFC West with a 7-9 overall and advanced into the 2010 playoffs, only to be eliminated by the Chicago Bears in the Divisional round by a 35-24 score.\u00a0 It was definitely a successful season due to beating New Orleans, 41-36, as a 9.5-point home underdog during the Wild Card round.\u00a0 Seattle posted a 6-3 ATS mark at Qwest Field, including covering both games as a home favorite.\u00a0 The \u2018over\u2019 was 11-4-1 in the squad\u2019s 16 regular season games.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks begin life without longtime quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who has moved on to Tennessee, opening the door for former Minnesota backup and starter Tarvaris Jackson.\u00a0 \u00a0 Seattle is expected to play its starters for a quarter tonight, which will allow fans to see Jackson, wide receiver Sidney Rice and tight end Zach Miller on the field.\u00a0 Once the first 15 minutes has played its way out, signal-caller Charlie Whitehurst is expected to take over followed by third string quarterback Josh Portis.<\/p>\n

San Diego was unable to make last year\u2019s playoffs despite having one of the most talented teams in the league.\u00a0 The Chargers will be looking to gain revenge from a 27-20 road loss to the Seahawks in Week 3 of last year, as they allowed two special teams touchdowns and turned the ball over five times.\u00a0 Some new faces will be in the defensive huddle this year, led by veterans Bob Sanders and Takeo Spikes.\u00a0 With the loss of Brandon Siler and Kevin Burnett to free agency, Spikes will be leaned on to supply veteran leadership.\u00a0 Sanders was a surprising signing due to this injured past, but may end up being the best free agency signing in the league if he stays on the field.<\/p>\n

The Chargers offense will not have many adjustments to make, losing only one starter, as running back Darren Sproles is gone.\u00a0 San Diego led the NFL in yardage and will be piloted by quarterback Philip Rivers once again.\u00a0 The former NC State star became the first signal-caller to throw for 4,000 yards and surpass a 100.0 quarterback rating for three consecutive seasons.\u00a0 He will be looking to surpass his career-best 4,710 yards that was set last season.\u00a0 Head coach Norv Turner has expressed that he\u2019d like the running game to shoulder more of the load in 2011, as second-year back Ryan Mathews grows more comfortable with the offense.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t even think about betting on this game until you find out what the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports are doing, as season-long packages are currently available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seattle Seahawks at San Diego Chargers Thursday, 8\/11\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 San Diego Chargers -4.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 San Diego Chargers -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 37 Current Total:\u00a0 34.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Seattle begins the second year of life under former USC head coach Pete Carroll, as the team aims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[1114,1287,1035,298,417,5231,446,5232],"class_list":["post-17043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-norv-turner","tag-pete-carroll","tag-philip-rivers","tag-san-diego-chargers","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sidney-rice","tag-tarvaris-jackson","tag-zach-miller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17044,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17043\/revisions\/17044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}