Week 11 of the NFL season has arrived, and we have a great matchup to get things started.

Tonight, we see the Seattle Seahawks host the Arizona Cardinals in a battle of 6-3 teams.

It’s been less than a month since these two teams met on Sunday Night Football in a game that saw the Cardinals win 37-34 in overtime.

So, let’s cross our fingers and hope for another good one.

Seattle Seahawks vs Arizona Cardinals

Line: Seahawks -2.5

Total: 57.5

 

WHERE’S THE FLAVOUR?

The first five weeks of the season were all about Russell Wilson. Let Russ cook, the people said. And he did.

The quarterback was on pace for a career year through the opening five weeks of the season, with 19 touchdowns and just three interceptions as he led a 5-0 Seahawks team.

Since then, Seattle has gone 1-3 and Wilson has turned the ball over 10 times while passing for nine touchdowns.

Week 10 was an especially frustrating game for Seahawks fans and bettors as the team posted a season-low 16 points against the Los Angeles Rams, and stud wideout DK Metcalf had just two catches for 28 yards.

Funny enough, it wasn’t the worst game of his season. That came in Week 6 when these two teams first met, and he was held to two catches for 23 yards. In fact, three of Metcalf’s worst games of his career have come against this Cardinals secondary.

In three games against Arizona, Metcalf has accumulated three catches for 29 yards on 10 targets.

But sometimes you need to throw numbers like these out the window.

Seattle is coming off a game where the offence struggled, and they didn’t get the ball to their biggest playmaker. I think that will change. I like Metcalf to go over his number of 77.5 yards tonight and like over 5.5 receptions.

With the Seattle running back situation still up in the air, and the expectation of this Cardinals team being able to score on the Seahawks, I think Seattle will need to pass tonight and will need Metcalf to step up.

It’s worth noting that the last time we saw these two teams on the same field, Tyler Lockett popped off for 200 yards, 15 catches, and three scores.

Arizona will do a better job of keeping him in check tonight, opening up room for the 6-foot-4, 229-pound wideout from Ole Miss.

 

ALL KYLER, ALL THE TIME

Week after week, Kyler Murray has proven that he is that dude.

By now, you all have seen his game-winning touchdown pass on Sunday, and for the sake of my editor reading this (a Bills fan), this will be the last mention of that play.

Instead, let’s focus on something else.

Murray’s 67.1 rushing yards per game has him sitting 13th in the league amongst all players.

He’s currently averaging more rushing yards than Clyde Edwards-Helaire (65.1), Todd Gurley (64.9), James Conner (61.8), and Alvin Kamara (54.0).

He enters this game with an over/under of 57.5 yards, I like him to get over that number.

Murray entered the league as a duel-threat player but didn’t use his legs as much in his rookie season as he is this year. The 2019 first-overall pick has six games this season with nine or more rushing attempts, a number he reached just three times in 16 games last season.

On top of that, the 5-foot-10 quarterback has eclipsed 57.5 rushing yards in all but two games this season, including in Week 7 when he ran for 67 yards on 14 rushes against the Seahawks.

I like taking the over on this rushing prop for a same reason I liked taking the over in the Metcalf prop.

Both of these players are capable of breaking off one major gain. For Metcalf it could be a deep bomb from Wilson, or a 70-yard catch and run.

All Murray has to do is make one man miss, get into the secondary, and there might not be any stopping him.

 

The Line

The Seahawks enter this game as a two-and-a-half-point favourite and this number feels just about right.

As TSN Edge’s Dom Padula pointed out in Thursday’s Morning Coffee, the Seahawks are 18-3 straight up in home prime-time games since they drafted Wilson back in 2012.

I also like the Seahawks tonight because Wilson has never dropped two games to the Cardinals in the same season and has never lost three games in a row during his time in the NFL.

Wilson and head coach Pete Carroll are a perfect 6-0 after dropping consecutive games.

I expect Wilson and this Seahawks offence to get things going in the right direction tonight and come away with a key divisional win.

Props: Metcalf over 77.5 receiving yards, Kyler Murray over 57.5 rushing yards

Pick: Seahawks

Pick ATS: Seahawks -3