Odds: Seattle Seahawks open as home underdogs against Cardinals for Week 6

Fresh off a gutting 39-32 road loss to the New Orleans Saints in the second of back-to-back early start games in Week 5, the Seattle Seahawks are set to host the division rival Arizona Cardinals at Lumen Field in Week 6. Arizona , for its part, enters the game having lost 20-17 to the Philadelphia Eagles after missing a short field goal that could have sent the game to overtime. Perhaps the Ghosts of Glendale have cursed the playing surface of State Farm Stadium beyond just injuries.

In any case, when the two teams face off Sunday it will be in Seattle and not in Arizona, so there’s no need to talk about the upcoming six year anniversary of the 6-6 tie in the desert on October 23, 2016. Instead, it’s possible to focus on the fact that through the first five weeks of 2022 the Cards and Hawks are currently tied for last place in the NFC West with the Los Angeles Rams, though by way of tiebreakers Seattle falls to last.

Of those three teams, only the Rams have a victory over a division rival, thanks to their win over the Cardinals in Week 3, giving Los Angeles the division winning percentage tiebreaker, and putting them in second place. That leaves Arizona and Seattle to decide the bottom two spots based on the conference winning percentage tiebreaker, and in that area the Cards are 1-2 while Seattle is 1-3 against division opponents. Therefore tiebreakers put the Cardinals in third and the Seahawks in last place.

Thus, the gravity of the first edition of Beak Week in 2022.

Whichever team wins is guaranteed to not be in last place in the NFC West entering Week 7, so the players should be fired up. Hopefully the Seattle defense will be fired up, as they are set to enter the game as the 31st ranked defense in the NFL, surrendering an average of 30.8 points per game. On the flip side, the team is averaging 25.4 points per game, and between the inability of the Seahawks to stop Taysom Hill on the ground and Kyler Murray’s speed and elusiveness, betting the over (51 as of writing) seems a safe bet. Given what the Seattle defense has shown in the past two weeks, Arizona could potentially come close to exceeding that number by itself. Just kidding. Sort of.

Back the game, however, the Seahawks are 2.5 point underdogs at home at DraftKings Sportsbook for the second time in three home games. They opened as home underdogs against the Denver Broncos in Week 1, but were favored over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 3. Here’s to hoping the trend of bucking the spread continues in Week 6.

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