Packers Invade 12th-Man Territory to Battle Seahawks
The Green Bay Packers have been a pretty good road team with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. But they'll face an ear-shattering challenge Monday night when they battle the Seahawks and their 12th man up in Seattle (8 pm ET, ESPN).
Can Green Bay follow up its winning effort vs. Chicago last Thursday with another one in its first road game of this season? Or will Seattle follow up its demolition of Dallas with another winning effort vs. the Packers?
ADVERTISEMENT: Bet the MNF and pocket a bonus up to $250 when you visit Bovada today before kickoff.
Green Bay opened this season by equaling its loss total of last year, falling 30-22 at home to San Francisco. The Packers got outrushed that day 186-45 and lost outright as six-point favorites.
But last Thursday Green Bay looked a little bit more like the Super Bowl contender it supposedly is, beating the Bears 23-10. The Packers ran the ball for 106 yards, picked off Jay Cutler four times and covered the spread as five-point chalk.
On the other side of this matchup the Seahawks opened this season with a tough 20-16 loss at Arizona. Seattle outrushed the Cardinals 115-43 and held the ball for almost 34 minutes, but came up short on a late drive inside the Arizona 10-yard-line.
Last week, though, the Seahawks crunched the Cowboys 27-7. Seattle returned a blocked punt for a score, outrushed Dallas 182-49 and held the ball for nearly 35 minutes on its way to winning outright as three-point home dogs.
In fact, so far this season NFL home underdogs are 11-6 straight-up and 12-5 against-the-spread.
No doubt about it, the Seattle's 12th man creates problems for opposing offenses. But over the last four seasons the Seahawks are only 15-17 SU, although 18-13-1 ATS, at what they now call CenturyLink Field.
Over that same span Green Bay is 17-15 SU and 19-13 ATS on the road.
As for the betting on Monday's game most online sportsbooks opened Green Bay as a 3.5-point road favorite over Seattle, with an 'over/under' of 47. But as of Monday morning most books had taken the hook off the Packers, and cut the total to as low as 44.