NFL Picks Week 7: Seahawks Cardinals ATS, Predictions, Psychic Outcomes

Ahhh, the bye week. Even when you're just a sports-fantatical, degenerate gambling blogger, it's good to take a few days off, reflect upon your season, rest your weary keyboarding fingers, and work out the kinks in what has been a bumpy 2013-14 NFL season thus far. Although I haven't written since Monday, I have been hard at work cruising the Internet in search of someone, anyone, that has had some consistent success this year. If I can't heal your woes, I'm not afraid to refer you to someone who can.

My first stop - mostly because they're a multimillion dollar industry now and their writers can afford the time to get articles up by Monday night - was the Bleacher Report where I found the confident Alex Kay saying something along the lines of "I sure hope you took my advice last week on the underdogs sure to cover, because there's even more money to be made this week..." and so on. Upon further review, Mr or Mrs. Kay did nail the recommended picks, but (much like us) that was about it, going 4-11 ATS overall with the rest of their picks.

Next I found a promising SBNation author who was a little more honest, saying his 7-7-1 ATS record brought him back down to earth after a couple of stellar weeks had helped skyrocket his overall record to 40-45-2. My search went on like this over the past couple of days with some encouraging headlines like "Five Hundred at Last," "I Knew the Jags Would Cover," and finally my new favorite new site Sports Grid's "Perfect last week, so Expect Disaster." Sure enough, at sportsgrid.com they have a Friday Five sort of thing that went undefeated in Week 5, but only 3-2 ATS last week.

Looking at their Expert Picks Grid, however, you will find some consistent success with Matt "Not an Expert" Rudnitsky and Pete "Where I Live the Games Start at 10 AM So I Know the Early Results. Sadly, upon closer inspection, Marco and I would only be able to get a job on their team if their Cat on a Roomba mysteriously dies. Watch your back, Kitty Cat. Watch your back. 

Long introduction pretty freakin' long, the only solid, consistent advice I can send your way is to watch games closely, follow news stories regarding player health and personnel changes, keep up with human interest stories about off-field issues, and most importantly, keep studying your GRE vocab words and go back to grad school.

In the meantime, however, there's a football game on in about ten hours, and although I won't be posting all of our picks until tomorrow morning, I would be remiss if I didn't get this one to you before kick-off. For those of you who are used to getting our picks by Thursday, trust me - if recent history has anything to say about it - you'll be fine without them. Now let's talk The Battle of the Birds in the dessert. 

ARIZONA CARDINALS (+6.5) over Seattle Seahawks: The Seattle Seahawks come into this Thursday Night showdown with a 5-1 record and first place all to themselves in the NFC West. They are also 4-2 ATS on the year, although they come into their match-up with the Cardinals on a two-game ATS losing streak, dropping a game SU to the Indianapolis Colts two weeks ago and then failing to cover the 13 point line against the visiting Titans last week. 

The Arizona Cardinals, on the other hand, are 3-3 on the season, in third place in the NFC West, but have been a solid bet at 4-2 ATS, including 2-0 SU/ATS at home. The Cardinals are coming off a twelve point loss at San Francisco in a game that was much closer than the final score until late turnovers cost the Cardinals the 11 point cover.

Last season, the Seahawks ran all over the Arizona Cardinals en route to a 58-0 blowout, which probably explains why 80% of the public bettors has moved this line from -4.5 where it opened to the -6.5 points you can get today. Russell Wilson  and Marshawn Lynch are both capable of putting up big numbers on the ground and could give the Cardinals some trouble. This Arizona unit, however, has a much improved rush defense, allowing only 3.5 yards/carry including games against the likes of Frank Gore, Chris Johnson (okay, bad example), and Reggie Bush. 

Speaking of bushes, let's not beat around one - Seattle has been money the past three seasons cashing backers checks to the tune of 74.5% (38-13-1 ATS) since the beginning of 2011. In a division rivalry game on a short week, however, we're taking the underdog because they have two chances to win - once straight up and once with the backdoor cover. With only two home games so far, the Cardinals are going to relish being back in the desert, and relish the opportunity to climb within a game of the division-leading Seahawks. Besides, like my three year-old daughter always says, "Cardinals are much prettier than Seahawks." That's money in the bank right there, my friends.

Take the Pretty Birds and the OVER.