NFC West Preview and Predictions for Week 1

[Sarlacc83]

Seahawks -8

Hollywood...can you break down the numbers for me?
I never understood the plus or minuses...

Just my assuming the line at 8pts. Basically, if we were betting you'd get the Packers and 8 points. So, say, if the Pack lost by 7 you'd win the bet. The last actual line in the game I saw was Seahawks -5.5. I think were about a FG better than that.

To clarify, just in case NJ is asking for it, the minus (-) sign means the team is favored, but the number is the winning point differential you'd have to overcome to win the bet. So maybe it helps to think of it this way: to win, you need the Seahawks winning score - Packers losing score to be more than (>) 8.

Formula. IFF (if and only if) WS - LS > Point spread, then win, where winning score (WS) is the team you bet to win. (I'm not sure if this the actual reason for the way the line is set, but it's how it works best for my memory.) So, if the Seahawks had 41 and Green Bay had 17, you'd get 24. Point spread in the above scenario is 8. So IFF 24 > 8 do you win. Which is clearly the case.

Does that help?

(Edit: If you wanted to get really nerdy, then you could also keep the -8 and do losing score (LS) - winning score (WS), which would have to be more negative than -8, so in the above scenario, 17 - 41 is - 24, but that might be getting too confusing.)

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

Well put Sarlacc.

I should have said Seahawks -8.5 honestly, eliminating the possibility of a push. (Tie)

 

[HansGruber]

The Seahawks are going to destroy green bay and it won't be all that close

 

[NJSeahawk]

Thank you both for explaining that...was always too ashamed to ask for clarification