And then there were four.
The Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears are the final teams standing in a wide-open NFC with a chance to represent the conference in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium.
Armed with home field, Seattle (+115) is the slight favorite, followed by Los Angeles (+155), Chicago (+650) and San Francisco (+900).
If you can stomach Sam Darnold — my FOX teammate Henry McKenna ranked him No. 8 of the eight remaining playoff QBs you can trust — there’s a lot to like about the Seahawks. They’re a defensive juggernaut and general manager John Schneider has been a Jedi with his last five first-round picks.
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Seattle is a 7-point home favorite Saturday night against San Francisco and the total hasn’t really budged off 45. The Niners won the Week 1 meeting 17-13 while the Seahawks shut things down in Week 18 with a 13-3 victory.
Both meetings sailed Under.
“San Francisco is right there in the conversation for the worst playoff team left,” respected bettor and “Deep Dive” host Andy Molitor told me Wednesday. “The [George] Kittle injury is a huge blow, too. That’s massive injury No. 5 for a Niners team that’s already had 10 smaller ones.”
Molitor’s first bet this week was a two-team, six-point teaser. He’s got the Seahawks -1 to Indiana -2.5. Both legs must cover to cash.
The other NFC game pits the Bears and Rams in Chicago. The first point spread I saw on the game was Los Angeles -4.5 last Sunday night.
It didn’t last long.
Bettors fired early on Chicago +4.5 and +4 to drive the market to its current price of Los Angeles -3.5. I’m telling you, the Bears are morphing into America’s underdog. That’ll certainly happen when a team wins seven games despite trailing in the final two minutes. Improbable stuff.
“Some teams are just blessed late,” Molitor cracked.
“The most baffling part is the defense. Caleb Williams over-performing a little? Fine. He’s got the arm, the tools and the weapons. But the defense sucks. And yet in some of these wins, they’re getting the other team off the field.
“It’s difficult to quantify.”
Most notably, wise guys blasted the Under at Soldier Field. Bettors gobbled up Under 51.5, 51, 50.5, 50, 49.5 and 49. Why, you ask?
Wind.
Meteorologists are forecasting wind gusts from 20 to 30 miles per hour Sunday night with bone-chilling temperatures that’ll feel like 2º.
“Some of this Under steam may also be Matthew Stafford’s hand injury,” Molitor said. “They brought up his hand every time he threw the ball against Carolina. We get it. We saw it. Now he’s on the injury report.
“It sucks going outside when it’s cold. It sucks worse when you’re older.”
Translation: Bet against the Bears at your own risk.
“I don’t know if I can touch the game,” Molitor admitted. “The Rams have a huge advantage offensively against a bad defense. But I don’t love Stafford outdoors in these conditions. It could end up being really foolish.”
Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and the BetMGM Network. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. Watch him on FOX Sports’ Bear Bets and follow him on X @spshoot.
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