Super Bowl 49: Why the Seahawks will win and cover the spread

A look into why the Seattle Seahawks will win and cover the spread in the Super Bowl.

Defense wins championships is too simplistic a reason why the Seattle Seahawks will win their second straight Super Bowl. Of course, the defense did its part in destroying Denver last year, a game when Seattle closed as small underdogs, just what oddsmakers tracked by OddsShark.com predict will happen in Super Bowl 49.

But there's more. Seattle has won eight straight, including the epic rally to beat Green Bay in the NFC title game, going 6-1-1 ATS over those eight games.

Seattle is a 2-point underdog at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. In that role, the Seahawks have been awesome at 19-4-1 since September 2011.

New England's offense has steamrolled through the competition so far this postseason with a 35-31 win over Baltimore and a 45-7 win over Indianapolis. But while Baltimore's defense is certainly respectable, the Patriots have not faced a defense that comes close to Seattle's level yet.

After allowing a microscopic 273.6 yards per game and 14.4 points per game last year, the Seahawks were once again best in the NFL in both categories allowing only 267.1 yards per game and 15.9 points per game in 2014.

New England has come up short in its last two trips to the Super Bowl going up against tough New York Giants defenses. They have also limped to a 1-5-1 ATS mark in the franchise's seven Super Bowls.

In addition to having the best defense in the league today, Seattle's offense is also very effective. Bettors that put too much stock into one bad game from Russell Wilson last week shouldn't ignore how flawless he usually is as a game manager, or how well he played in the closing moments with the game on the line.

Marshawn Lynch is a proven big-game back that will test New England's defense in a way that no running back this postseason has been able to do.

The Seahawks entered last year's Super Bowl as a 2-point underdog as well, and plenty of hype surrounded Peyton Manning and how the Broncos would be able to solve Seattle's stingy defense. Seattle put that theory to waste with a 43-8 blowout win.

Going up against another elite quarterback this time around, look for the Seahawks to once again come out on top with an outright win as a 2-point underdog at the sportsbooks.

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