2005 Seattle Seahawks NFL Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Coming off a 10-6 playoff season in 2003, the Seattle Seahawks were full of optimism for the 2004 season as were many members of the sports handicapping community who posted blogs at online sports betting websites about Seattle being a “go with” team on their list of football picks each week.

Seattle was in good form early and started 2004 with three consecutive wins and covers against the sports betting odds. Many online sports betting bloggers were touting the merits of Seattle and how they were making a killing on this team. The general media was touting head coach Mike Holmgren and defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes geniuses. All of the hype was going to end up being one of the great con jobs witnessed in many pro football seasons.

In their final fourteen games of 2004 (including playoffs) Seattle would beat the sports betting odds just TWICE! This was a sports handicapping equivalent of the 1929 stock market crash, or perhaps a crash equivalent to Enron. No matter how you look at it, Seattle blew apart many sports betting bankrolls and far too many members of the sports handicapping community were slow to figure out the horrible value of this team, and kept coming back for more week after week with their football picks.

It all started in Seattle’s fourth game in which they blew a huge lead and lost to St. Louis 27-33 in an absolute shocker. A loss at New England followed, but was expected. A loss at Arizona, however, was not as Seattle was installed as a 6.5-point chalk by the sports betting odds makers. At that point it was a sports handicapping fact to anyone with an open mind that this team was overvalued.

After splitting their next two games against the sports betting odds Seattle once again proved to be a team that commanded rip off sports betting odds as they failed to cover as 9.5-home chalks in a 24-17 win over Miami. Back to back home losses to Buffalo and Dallas confirmed Seattle as a pretender, rather than contender and yet the Seahawks still commanded high sports betting odds, mostly due to sports betting players that, for whatever reason, still believed in them. Seattle finished the season with three consecutive home failures against the sports betting odds. Overall the Seahawks were 4-10 against the sports betting odds as chalks, demonstrating poor value.