Seahawks vs Eagles MNF Week 12 – Injury, Odds Analysis

Monday Night Football doesn’t put an end to the NFL matchups this week as the longest sports betting week in NFL history continues as Philadelphia Eagles travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks. The sportsbook gives the home-dog Eagles nearly a touchdown. Our NFL injury report breaks down all the injuries and gives NFL picks for Monday’s matchup of flawed NFC teams.

The last time the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Seattle Seahawks, Andy Reid was coaching Philly, and Mike Holmgren was coaching the ‘Hawks. (Barack Obama would be elected president two days later. Coach Pete Carroll was living on a SoCal beach having the time of his life.) The last time the Seahawks beat the Eagles it was last year’s Wild-Card game where Pete Caroll sent Doug Pederson packing with a perfunctory 17-9 win.

Seahawks vs Eagles Game Betting Lines

Seattle Seahawks

Seattle welcomes back RB Chris Carson from a foot injury that kept him out for November until his game. With the return last week of Carlos Hyde, the Seahawks’ running-back corps is back to strength. This affords more time for Travis Homer to rest his knee for a second consecutive week; he’s been declared out. (Backup RB Bo Scarbrough ripped his hamstring during last Thursday’s game and he’s done for the season.)

Like most weeks, the majority of the offensive line shows up on the injury report and works their way back off it again by week’s end. That’s mostly the case again here, except starting RT Brandon Shell didn’t make it back from an ankle injury sustained late last Thursday, and the team deemed him out. Fortunately, C Ethan Pocic has cleared concussion protocol and can return this week because his backup C Kyle Fuller (ankle) is listed questionable after missing the entire practice week. Same for backup OG Jordan Simmons (calf), and neither he nor Fuller should be expected to be active. On the plus side, both starting LG Mike Iupati (back) and RG Damien Lewis (hip) worked their way off the injury report by Saturday and are expected to start.

Seattle designated two wide receivers questionable. Freddie Swain missed the end of the practice week but not for injury-related reasons. He’s expected to play, unlike David Moore (hip) who was limited at the end of the week. Moore is a game-time decision and worth checking on the inactives list.

Finally, on the defensive side of the ball the Seahawks welcome back CB Shaquill Griffin from a hamstring injury that’s had him off the field for all of November. His return is especially helpful as CB Quinton Dunbar (knee) was lost to injured reserve just before last Thursday’s game. Also listed questionable for Monday night is CB/S D.J. Reed (foot). Check his name too, but he missed the entire practice week and seems unlikely to be active.

Philadelphia Eagles

According to reports, quarterback Carson Wentz (skill) is broken, but the team won’t put him on the injury report. Technically, they can’t because he’s not really physically hurt, just broken. Badly enough that coach Doug Pederson thinks it’s a good idea to start introducing actual game snaps to Jalen Hurts. Hey, it’s against the worst pass defense in the league by a long shot — is there a better time?

Probably, since the Eagles are tweaking their O-line for the 10th time in 11 games. This week, they lost starting LT Lane Johnson after his latest return lasted only a game and a half, and ankle surgery has concluded his season. And they dispatched backup OG Sua Opeta to the injured reserve for his back problems.

So, the new plan has Jordan Mailata filling in for him, moving Matt Pryor one spot to the right from guard to tackle. And (the best part) even though Jason Peters’ turf toe flared up badly enough to limit him from Saturday’s practice and have him listed questionable, he’ll not only play, but do so as the sixth different right guard this season. Surely they’ll find the winning permutation one of these weeks.

The Eagles activated both RB Corey Clement and DE Vinny Curry from the COVID injured reserve list, and they should be active.

Out again this week on the defense is S Rudy Ford (hamstring).

Also, don’t expect TE Zach Ertz on the field though he’s active. It’s suggested he’ll be practicing for the week before this return. (Ertz is slow to get back from this one. That previous sentence is verbatim what we wrote about him last Sunday.)

Leans

Nothing drives changes to NFL point spreads like injury news, and there’s no exception here. Once word came out about the Eagles’ plans at quarterback and offensive line, this one climbed from 5½ to to the current 6½. We can only lean to the Seattle Seahawks -6½ here, but hate the price. We’d take the chance that money will come for Philadelphia as the game approaches and would prefer to wait for a -6. Maybe the big-money bettors aren’t buying Eagles +6½ this week (having been burned the last two weeks) but if we had to guess, they’ll be back at least once more Monday night.

From an open of about 52½, bettors whacked the total with under bets and this number now sits at 49. While the weather forecast motivated some of that move, we’ll buck the trend and lean over 49. Updated forecasts indicate the worst of the wind will be over by game time though it will be wet. Single-game must-have-action six-point teaser of the night jumps off the board: Seattle Seahawks -½ and Over 43.