Sports Betting Blog

It’s been a while since fans could seriously get excited about the Seattle Seahawks game. This season, the Seahawks have managed to turn what seemed like a weak and fruitless start, into an 11-5 record that has given them a pass into the playoffs. And most of this success has come throughout the leadership, performance, and talents of their rookie quarterback Russell Wilson. At 5’’11’ and 206 lbs the 24-year-old rookie has managed to become a sensation in the league, scoring 26 touchdown passes for the season, tying Peyton Manning for the most touchdown passes in a players rookie season. His latest 1-yard TD run with 1:39 left on Sundays game gave Seattle a 20-13 victory over the St. Louis Rams and a perfect 8-0 home mark for the Seahawks. Still, it’s not going to make much of a difference this season, as Seattle was unable to clinch their division title.

They had some hopes, but they relied on the Arizona Cardinals pulling off a stunning upset against the San Francisco 49ers and that just didn’t quite happen. The Seahawks will now have to open up their playoffs run with a difficult road game against the NFC East Champions Washington Wizards next Sunday. Still, if they do manage to win two road games, and if by any chance it is the NFC No. 6 seed that reaches the Championship Game, that is the Minnesota Vikings, they will have a chance to play the conference game at home. So, to be quite frank about this, sure enough, the Seahawks finished the season as the only unbeaten team at home, but that is not really going to make much of a difference in the Playoffs.

The Seahawks had managed to blow off their opponents in the last few games that for a moment or two we sort of forgot that Wilson could actually pull off a come-from-behind win. After all, he was in charge of putting the game back within reach for Seattle and with a stellar performance that included 15 of 19 passing for 250 yards with 1 touchdown pass and no interceptions, he was able to guide the Seahawks into a 20-13 win over Sam Bradford and the 7-8 for the season St. Louis Rams. Seattle played well, however they need to get better defense and protection of their passer if they want to survive the playoffs. For instance, let’s consider that the Rams managed to sack Wilson six times. “It definitely gave us an example of what to expect in the playoffs,” Seattle defensive end Red Bryant said in the postgame press conference. “I would have rather had a game like this in the regular season than to get in the playoffs and not be able to respond like we were able to respond today.” Well, whatever they do, they need to get Russell some more protection and avoid getting him injured.

But the home team was not all about Russell Wilson. They’ve got some good numbers from other folks too. Marshawn Lynch finished with exactly 100 yards on 18 carries. Not bad considering this is actually his 10th game of the season reaching the century mark. Golden Tate chipped in with three catches for 105 yards. Now we’ll have to wait and see what these guys can put up when it matters most.

Let’s go a bit slow with this one. For three consecutive years, the Seattle Seahawks head coach, Pete Carroll, had to strip down his team and try to build it up from scratch. Certainly this was not an easy task and the results had been mix-matched but mostly disappointing. Earlier this season, when Seattle opted to play Russell Wilson as a quarterback, it was unclear what a 5’11’’, 206 pound quarterback was going to be able to pull off in a league where most every quarterback that has made it somewhere is at least 5 inches taller than him. And his debut was certainly not his finest. And that helped create a sense that perhaps once again Carroll would have to dismantle this team in the off-season and give it yet another try. Little did we know that Wilson would kick things up a notch or two in the second half of the season and that his improvement would guide the Seahawks to their first 10-win season sicne 2007 and a playoff berth that at least on paper could keep them rolling for a week or two in January.

The San Francisco 49ers, at 10-4-1 for the season where supposed to be a big test for Seattle. But the truth is these guys made it look easy. The 49ers were coming into this game with one of the best pass defenses in the league. But in a rainy and cold game at the Puget Sound, Seattle’s offense was just unstoppable. Russell Wilson threw a career-high four touchdown passes, in a 15 of 21 pass effort for 171 yards. He has now moved into second place for most TD passes by a rookie this season.

To round things up, Marshawn Lynch scored two first-quarter TDs to build up a huge 28-6 lead in the first half. After the first few plays it was clear that this game would be all about the Seahawks and their effort to give the large and ridiculously loud crowd at the Century Link Field the sort of celebration they deserved. Making it look way easier than it is the Seahawks routed the San Francisco 49ers 42-13 on Sunday night.

Russell Wilson has dramatically improved his game in the second half of the season. For instance, the first 8 games, the Seahawks held a 4-4 record, while the rookie quarterback had 10-touchdown but suffered 8 interceptions. Since then, Wilson has pushed Seattle to a 6-1 record and has scored 15 touchdowns while only suffering 2 interceptions.

A good enough performance that has taken the Seahawks from a 4-4 start into a 10-5 record, including a 7-0 streak at home, that has helped Seattle clinch a playoffs spot. With this win the Seattle Seahawks will most probably end up taking the the No. 5 seed in the NFC. There still remains a small chance of winning the NFC West, if the Seahawks manage to defeat the St. Louis Rams in the season finale at home, once again, and if the Arizona Cardinals can upset the 49ers in San Francisco. Whatever it may be, this is certainly an improvement and this time, they could actually win a game or two down the stretch.

Coming into their matchup against their division rival with a 6-5 record, losing on the road against the Baltimore Ravens was certainly not an option for the Steelers if they hoped to make it into the Playoffs. Considering that for the third straight week, the Steelers would have to find a replacement for the injured Ben Roethlisberger, and that Charlie Batch, a 37-year-old, quarterback would be his replacement, things were looking quite bleak for the home team.

On the other hand, the Baltimore Ravens would have Joe Flacco on the helm and with an impressive 9-3 record for the season, the Steelers were not expected to be much of a threat. After all, this team had been phenomenal at holding their home team advantage. Little did we know that the 15-year-veteran, Charlie Batch, still had some tricks up his sleeve. At least enough to set up a 61-yard drive in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to set up Shaun Suisham and his 42-yard field goal as the game expired to give the Steelers a 23-20 win at the M&T Bank Stadium.

The veteran quarterback, who had been living under the shadow of some very noticeable quarterbacks in the past, didn’t miss a beat to take a few deep breath in his minutes under the sun. “This is big. It was another opportunity for me to come out here and start, which is rare right now,” said Batch in the postgame press conference. So little was expected of Batch that he actually wasn’t Roethlisberger’s first backup. As a matter of fact, had Buron Leftwich not been injured two weeks ago against the Ravens, he wouldn’t had started either of the last two games. “To be able to go on the road and do something that nobody outside of our locker room thought that we could do is big,” Batch said. Oh yeah, it’s a fairly big deal. He finished off the night with 25 of 36 passing for 276 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception.

There is no doubt that he certainly outplayed the Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco. It seems that he was just not able to handle the precision of this defense. Flacco finished the game with 16 of 34 passing for a hundred and eighty-eight yards, with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Now, it’s starting to become a big issue how inconsistent Joe Flacco turns out to be down the stretch. Considering how well they are playing this season, this inconsistency could actually cost them their chances of surviving the playoffs and making it into the Super Bowl.

The Steelers on the other hand, got a break, but they are still on some tricky grounds. With the win over the Ravens the Steelers improved to 7-5 for the season and snapped out of  a two-game losing streak. Sure they kept alive their slim hopes of overtaking Baltimore (9-3) in the AFC North. The teams have split their games this season, with each winning by three points. Check out this next stat if you are planning to take some action if they face each other again: Seven of the last eight regular-season games between the teams have been decided by a 3-point margin.

At 9-3 for the season, the Denver Broncos have proved that their call earlier this year to let go off Tim Tebow and bring back a veteran and experienced quarterback such as Peyton Manning to lead the pack. Sure there were many concerns regarding the 5 neck surgeries that Manning had undergone, and let’s not forget that he was out for an entire season before he made his change from the Indianapolis Colts to play with the Denver Broncos. And yet, not only can you teach an old dog some new tricks, as a matter of fact, an experienced quarterback and amazing leader as Manning can make miracles for a team’s morale. At 9-3 for the season and with a 7-game win streak, the Denver Broncos have now secured their spot for the NFL playoffs.

The Broncos signed Manning at a bargain price. Why, because the team letting him go was unsure if he could deliver. Curiously enough, Peyton Manning now has 29 touchdown passes this season, passing Jake Plummer and John Elway for the most scoring throws in a single season. And he still has four more games to go this season. The offensive prowess of the Broncos is just mind blowing. Truth is that Manning makes it all look too easy. The 36-year-old quarterback completed 27 of 38 passes for 242 yards, completing three touchdown passes and 1 interception. He brilliantly lead the Broncos to a 30-plus point win for the sixth time over their seven-game win streak. Certainly a huge improvement over what we say last season. Sure enough, Tim Tebow was algo able to win the AFC West Title last year, but he did it with an 8-8 record and played close-to-the-vest, low-scoring games.

But it was more than just Manning making the headlines. Mitch Unrein, the second year defensive lineman from Wyoming had a big role in this win. Unrein caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Manning for a 7-0 lead midway into the first quarter. He followed that up with a big hit on Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman that forced a bad throw that ended up in Von Miller’s hads who sprinted for the endzone and gave the Broncos a 10-28 lead late in the third quarter.

Josh Freeman, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, finished the game with 18 of 39 passing for 242 yards with 2 touchdown passes and one interception. “The hype these guys get, it’s well deserved,” Freeman said in the postgame press conference about the defeat. “They get after it. The front four, they do a good job of timing their blitzes. The Denver defense played a great game today.” Oh they certainly did. Let it there be no doubt about that one.

Manning on the other hand didn’t want to celebrate too much. He know he had a good game, but he’s trying to stay focused on the bigger picture. “What I liked about the second touchdown was that Demaryius was seeing the same thing I was seeing,” Manning said to a reporter after the game. “We had another route on. We changed it at the line. We were thinking along the same lines. I like to see the communication, the growth.”