NFL: Seahawks lead back to stumble in Seattle?

NFL expert Tom Selwyn (@Tom_Selwyn) shares his expert opinion on the best bets available from Monday Night Football in Seattle.

Minnesota Vikings @ Seattle Seahawks | Tuesday 3rd December 2019, 01:15 | Sky Sports

A nice match-up this week as we get two second place teams who’re desperate to keep pace with their division leaders. Both the Vikings (8-3) and the Seahawks (9-2) seem certain to make the play-offs at this point, but are currently in the Wildcard positions and wouldn’t be getting a home game.

So this game has huge implications when it comes to play-off seeding, but instead of looking at the result I’m going to focus in on Seattle’s running game for my pick this week.

There’s been a bit of a situation brewing over the last few weeks with the Seahawks’ lead back, Chris Carson. In the last three games, Carson has fumbled four times (taking his total to seven on the year). Although only one of those fumbles was lost, Seattle’s head xoach, Pete Carroll, seems to have finally lost patience and Carson only carried the ball eight times for 26 yards last week, compared to 14 carries and 129 yards for his back-up, Rashaad Penny.

I’m still expecting Carson to be the starter in this game (the Seahawks are certainly saying he is), but Penny is bound to cut into his workload after last week’s performance and I think Carson’s line is a bit too high in some places. I’ll be taking the Under 71.5 on offer (it’s 63.5 in some places).

Not only should Carson be in more of a backfield share with Penny, but the Vikings are one of better teams when it comes to stopping the run. They are currently ranked 6^th in the league, giving up 94.2 yards a game.

This should be a fun game between two very good teams and hopefully we’ll see more of a committee in the Seahawks backfield to limit Carson’s numbers.