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The Seattle Seahawks have stumbled at times at home this season after years of dominance at CenturyLink Field, but in Week 13, they got a huge win. The Seahawks outlasted the Minnesota Vikings 37-30 and with the win move into first place in the NFC West.
If you bet on the Seattle Seahawks, you got a huge boost courtesy of Vikings kicker Dan Bailey. The Seahawks trailed 34-24 when Kyle Rudolph leapt high in the air to haul in a Kirk Cousins touchdown pass with 7:14 to go in the fourth quarter. The score cut the lead to 34-30, pending Bailey’s extra point. Bailey then promptly missed. The Seahawks added a field goal late to put the game away.
The point spread had some modest movement this week, but it was sitting at a field goal as of kickoff. If you bet the Vikings +3, or even bought an extra half point to get them +3.5, you came up short due to the stinking kicker. Sure, the Seahawks added three more points, but if Bailey makes that kick, there’s a decent chance the Vikings punt and try for a defensive stop instead of turning it over on downs in their own territory. We’ll never know for sure.
The Seahawks improve to 10-2 with the win and now sit atop the NFC West by virtue of their win over the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara back in Week 10. The Vikings drop to 8-4 and sit one game up on the Los Angeles Rams for the second wild card berth.