Last month’s meeting between the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks featured endless fireworks on Sunday Night Football. The two teams combined for over 1,000 yards of offense and Arizona won the rollercoaster affair 37-34 in overtime on a Zane Gonzalez field goal.
It’s round two tonight in Seattle. PointsBet Sportsbook is dealing the Seahawks -3 with a total of 57.
“I think it’s going to be great football game,” PointsBet senior sports analyst Andrew Mannino told NBC Sports. “Not only because of the Cardinals’ ascension, but the overall ascension of the NFC West and how good all those teams look right now. This is a fantastic matchup on Thursday night."[[ad:athena]]
Bookmakers absolutely love when the side and total are getting popped both ways on a primetime game. It makes for a lot less stress because the bottom line will likely be A-okay no matter what.
“We’re seeing pretty balanced action,” Mannino reported. “The spread bets are slightly favoring the Seahawks and the moneyline bets are slightly favoring the Cardinals. Cardinals bettors are sliding those three points and taking the extra 50 cents of value on the moneyline thinking they can win outright.
“We have a couple bigger bets on the Under,” he added. “The majority of our bet count is on the Over at 64 percent. But about 61 percent of the money is on the Under. I expect the funds to balance out a bit more by game time, but the Under bettors have backed their confidence a little more forcefully in the early going.”
The other fascinating angle in this game involves the NFL MVP race. Kyler Murray‘s stock has risen quite a bit over the last few weeks and Russell Wilson‘s has dipped after three losses in four games. What will happen to the odds if Murray (+700) balls out and beats Wilson (+225) on national television again?
“The number would certainly come down, especially if he wins a shootout against another favorite in Russell Wilson,” Mannino explained. “I would expect Wilson to drift out maybe to +500 or +550. Kyler Murray would come in maybe just a bit under Aaron Rodgers at +275 or so.”
Elsewhere, PointsBet has been peppered with bets on the underdog Atlanta Falcons for Sunday’s meeting with the New Orleans Saints. The market opened New Orleans -5.5 with no Drew Brees and it’s already down to -4.5 and -4 at some shops. PointsBet will be rooting for Jameis Winston and the Saints to protect the house this weekend.
“Stranger things have happened,” Mannino said before a quick chuckle. “The early action is pretty one-sided right now in favor of Atlanta. We’ll likely be Jameis fans on Sunday.”
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