In this Week 17 regular season finale, the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks meet at University of Phoenix Stadium. The NFL’s fourth-leading passer, Carson Palmer (4,542 yards, 34 TDs), is a player to keep an eye on in this game. It will air Sunday, Jan 3 at 4:25 p.m. ET on FOX.
The last meeting between the Cardinals and Seahawks came in Week 10 when Arizona defeated Seattle 39-32. Michael Floyd had a good outing in that game, pulling in seven receptions for 113 yards and two TDs. Larry Fitzgerald had a great game as well, adding 130 yards on 10 catches. Doug Baldwin had a great performance for Seattle in that game, grabbing seven receptions for 134 yards and one TD.
The Seahawks are a three-point underdog against the Cardinals and the Over/Under (O/U) for the matchup is sitting at 47 points.
Sitting at 13-2 Straight Up (SU) and 9-6 Against The Spread (ATS), the Cardinals will look to improve heading into Week 17. In their five most recent matchups, the Cardinals went 5-0 SU and 3-2 ATS. Arizona’s offense is averaging 425.6 total yards over the last five games. As for the Arizona defense, a few key matchups could decide this game. The Cardinals defense could cause a lot of problems for the Seahawks. The Cardinals have the fifth-best home pass defense in the NFL and give up 209.1 passing yards per game at home. The Seahawks will have to keep Arizona from hitting their quarterback. The Cardinals average the most sacks per home game in the league with 3.4. In the third quarter, Arizona is resilient, putting up a league-leading 10 points during the third frame of home games. Special teams is a weakness for Seattle that the Cardinals may use to their advantage. On average, the Seahawks have allowed 99.3 return yards per game.
Shifting to the opposition, the Seahawks head into Week 17 with records of 7-7-1 ATS and 9-6 SU. Over their last five games, the Seahawks have a SU and ATS record of 4-1. Seattle has made opposing defenses suffer as of late, averaging 31 points per game over the last five games. This improved stretch brought its season average to 25.8 PPG. Seattle has performed well against defenses over the past five games, putting up an average of 405.8 total yards during that time. Over the last five games, the Seahawks turned up their scoring defense as well, allowing an average of 280 yards per game.
Predictions: SU Winner – Ari, ATS Winner – Ari, O/U – Over
Notes
Arizona is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games.
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Arizona’s last 5 games.
Arizona is 13-2 SU in its last 15 games at home.
Arizona is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games at home.
Arizona is 2-4 ATS in its last 6 games when playing Seattle.
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Arizona’s last 6 games when playing Seattle.
Arizona is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games when playing Seattle.
The total has gone OVER in 10 of Arizona’s last 11 games when playing at home against Seattle.
Seattle is 8-2 SU when leading at the half this season. Arizona is 10-1 SU when taking a lead into halftime.
Seattle is 3-2 SU in games where it wins the turnover battle this season, and only 3-4 SU in games where it loses the turnover battle.
The Arizona defense has forced an average of 2.2 turnovers per game this season. Seattle is an even 2-2 SU when turning the ball over at least 2.0 times in a game.
Dating back to last season, Seattle is 7-4 SU against NFC West opponents, while Arizona is 7-5 SU against divisional foes.
Seattle is rated higher in the ground game on both sides of the ball. Its third-ranked rushing attack will face the fourth-ranked run defense of Arizona, while its third-ranked run defense will look to contain the sixth-ranked rushing game of the Cardinals.
