Seattle Seahawks at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Written by Jack Jones - Google +

Though the Seattle Seahawks (6-8) have a worse record than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-6), they have as good a shot if not better at making the playoffs. That’s because they sit tied atop the NFC West with the St. Louis Rams, while the Buccaneers trail both the Falcons and Saints in the NFC South which has proven to be perhaps the toughest division in football. Tampa’s only shot at making the postseason is with a wild-card berth, and they trail the New York Giants by just one game. Seattle could even lose Sunday and still have a chance to win the division. The odds for this contest show us a line of Tampa Bay -6.5 over Seattle with a total set of 44 points.

The Bucs are in a must-win situation considering the Giants play the Packers this week, and no matter how that game turns out a loss by Tampa Bay would eliminate them from postseason contention. If St. Louis beats San Francisco on Sunday, then Seattle could lose this game to the Bucs and beat the Rams in their season-finale to win the NFC West. But if the 49ers were to win, then a victory would be vital for Seattle’s playoff chances because San Francisco would own the best division record at 4-1.

All head coach Pete Carroll is worried about is getting a better performance from his defense this week. The Seahawks have given up 74 combined points over the last two weeks, and have dropped six of their last eight games overall while allowing an average of 32.0 points per game during that span. Seattle got off to a 4-2 start this season thanks to solid defense, where they held opponents to a mere 17.8 points per contest.

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck hasn’t exactly been on top of his game, either. He threw for a season-low 74 yards in last week’s 34-18 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and has thrown 10 interceptions over his last four games. Hasselbeck was pulled in the third quarter last week in favor of Charlie Whitehurst, but Carroll says that he will ride the veteran QB this week against Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers also need to get Josh Freeman going after a tough stretch here of late.

Tampa Bay opened the season at 7-3, but have since gone 1-3 over their last four contests. The Bucs suffered a crushing overtime defeat last week in a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions. They had a big opportunity to gain some ground as three wild-card teams in front of them all lost. Tampa Bay has had five defensive players lost over the last few weeks due to injury, and the stop unit could not hold on to a 3-point lead with 1:36 remaining last week. Detroit had lost 26 consecutive road games, but a field goal tied the game as time expired in regulation and the Lions drove down to kick the game-winning 34-yard field goal in overtime.

The Buccaneers trail the Saints, Giants and Packers in the Wild-Card hunt. For any chance to get a spot, they must win out and hope for some help. Tampa Bay will likely ride rookie running back LeGarrette Blound quite a big this week. He has rushed for 747 yards and 5 touchdowns over the last nine games, and put together a 110-yard performance with a score last week against the Lions. Hasselbeck had won three straight starts over Tampa Bay before throwing a career-high four interceptions in last year’s 24-7 loss to the Buccaneers. These teams will be meeting for a fifth consecutive season.

BetUS Projected Score: Buccaneers 25 – Seahawks 19

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