Winter weather has descended on at least a pair of outdoor National Football League sites today. In Baltimore, where the Ravens host the Los Angeles Rams, both rain and high winds are expected. The same in New York, for the Jets game against the Houston Texans.
It is not the weather that has thrown the Seattle Seahawks off course, it is an injury to quarterback Gino Smith. The last thing the Seahawks needed in their 2023 return match against San Francisco is a missing quarterback.
Early in the week, right up to Friday, this looked like a prime spot for the Seahawks to give the talented 49ers a game. Seattle had lost to San Francisco on Thanksgiving, 31-13, in their home stadium and now trail the division leading 49ers by three games. The point spread had to be set by the books to dissuade San Francisco money and the double-digit underdog role for Seattle was somewhat balancing the betting.
Today, Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll is still holding out hope that Smith can start at quarterback, but that appears more a ploy to force the 49ers to prepare for Smith even though he is not going to be available.. We know this because on Friday afternoon, the point spread on this game jumped from Seattle getting 11 points to San Francisco favored by 13½. While Carroll is using the chance of Smith making this start for competitive reasons, the line move clearly indicates the Seahawks will be led by a Seattle backup quarterback … which is Drew Lock.
Want to know what it feels like to bet on Lock? It is a lot like betting on Mitch Trubisky, and we saw what happened to him against a 2-10 New England Patriots team on Thursday night.
With Smith at quarterback, the Seahawks looked like a solid proposition to stay within the bloated point spread. With Lock behind center with an even larger line, not so much.
Three weeks ago the Detroit Lions hosted the Chicago Bears and the visitors gave the NFC North Division leaders all they could handle before surrendering the game’s decision, 31-26.
Last week, the Lions shot out of the gate with 21 points early in the game against the New Orleans Saints, then allowed Dennis Allen’s team back into the game before surviving the contest with a 33-28 victory.
What’s going on here with a Lions team that has spent the season atop their division and opened the campaign with a road win over the Kansas City Chiefs?
What is going on with Dan Campbell’s much improved squad is they are suffering from a common problem for a team new to winning, pressure down the stretch. The Lions 9 wins this year matches the number accumulated by the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, only the Philadelphia Eagles have more victories in the NFC. But, now, with the prospects of winning home field advantage for the playoffs in their conference, the Lions are feeling the pressure. Since their bye on the first Sunday in November, the Lions have edged the Los Angeles Chargers by three points, the Bears by five, lost to the Packers and barely got the win last week after jumping to a 21-0 lead.
What does that mean?
It means today, they miss the close win and take it on the chin at Soldier Field.
The public doesn’t agree with that assessment of the Lions, Detroit (-3) over the Chicago Bears is their most bet game of the week. The second and third most popular plays are the Houston Texans (-3) over the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers (-13½) over the Seattle Seahawks.
The Qoxhi Week 14 selections are now posted on this site, and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour before the day’s first kickoff, that contest will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.