2008 NFL Wild Card Playoff Picks & Odds: Washington vs. Seattle
Free Sports Picks, NFL Football Picks January 4th, 2008
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The Washington Redskins have been pretty dominant in their past few games. The Seahawks once again get to host a wild-card team before embarking, they hope, on another run to the playoffs.
We have to hand it to Seahawks Coach Mike Holmgren. Holmgren has actually gotten his team into the playoffs every year and coached them in the Super Bowl just two years ago. Lest we forget, Seattle is a small-market team. So, what Holmegren has done with his team shouldn’t be understated.
None of that, however, will help the Seahawks in this situation. Check-out these NFL betting trends:
The Seattle Seahawks are 6 and 2 against the spread in their last 8 games overall.
The Washington Redskins are 6 and 2 against the spread in their last 8 games in January.
The Washington Redskins are 4-3-1 against the spread in their 8 away games during the NFL regular season.
This is a classic first-round playoff game between two evenly matched teams. Or, is it? On paper the Seahawks appear to be the better team, but the truth of the matter is that the Redskins are finally hitting that Joe Gibbs’ peak that comes whenever players start buying into Gibbs’s style.
Once you start believing in Joe, good things happen to you. For those who do not remember, Joe Gibbs won Super Bowls with Mark Rypien and Doug Williams. He also made a fella named Jay Schroeder look like a stud while throwing the ball for Gibbs.
In Gibbs’s system the quarterback needs to not make mistakes and simply keep things going. He’s a classic coach, Joe Gibbs, who relies on tough defense and a terrific running game in order to dominate time of possession.
That’s what I see in this game. The Redskins defense can be dominant at times. The Redskins running game can be flat-out awesome and there isn’t a better motivator in the league than Joe Gibbs.
I expect the Redskins to make a deep run in the playoffs this year - - all the way to the NFC Championship. They will do so by beating the Seattle Seahawks in this game.
Take the Redskins. They are more proven this year against tougher competition and are, without doubt, the more resilient team. They’re also coming into this thing on a roll and that should serve them well in Seattle.