Yahoo Sports host Jason Fitz, senior NFL reporter Charles Robinson and senior betting analyst Ben Fawkes preview the Week 5 showdown between 3-1 teams. Check out the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Uh, Buccaneers Seahawks, that’s a good game, 23 and 1 teams.
Uh, what do we make of this one, Ben?
Are we, are you buying Seattle at this point at 3-1?
The Seahawks are number one in DVOA right now through 4 weeks.
I mean, they are the best team in the NFL by the advanced metrics.
Obviously those will change, but when this opened, Seahawks minus 2.5 at some books.
Sharp money pushed it up.
It’s now Seahawks minus 3.5.
This is still a difficult situation for the Bucs.
Baker Mayfield’s banged up, Mike Evans out, long way to travel, you know, very good home field advantage for the Seahawks.
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Seahawks also off that mini bye because they played last Thursday.
So I think it’s a good spot for the Seahawks.
If somehow Seattle was able to engineer the number one seed in the NFC.
I might kind of lead into that a little bit because they have such an immense home field advantage playing, um, you know, with the 12th man, and, but again, we talked about this in the Minnesota um segment.
I don’t know about Sam Dar I was so confident in Sam Darnold, and then we watched ultimately what happened when he got pressured by the Detroit Lions late in the season, got pressured by the Los Angeles Rams late in the season.
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I, I, I don’t know if I can really put and right, and the see now that I’m less concerned about that just because I feel like and now with the trade deadline, you do have the ability to go out and get another player and, and I feel like some receivers.
They are more plug and play, um, than maybe other positions that you might go out and grab.
If you want to grab a running back, you want to grab a receiver, I think you can get those guys at the trade deadline, and they can become big factors for you in December and January.
Um, but yeah, you’re right.
I mean, it’s other than Jackson Smith and Jigba and, and Sam Darnold, and then obviously, you’ve got Charbonnet and Kenneth Murray in the backfield.
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That’s really where that offense is going.
And the one thing that doesn’t stun me about Seattle is that DVOA, that defense, particularly, it, it always sticks in my head.
Ravens players, after Michael McDonald left as the defensive coordinator, were asked about his defense.
A couple of them noted at the time, it took two years to really get comfortable in it because of what they were asked specifically to do.
I don’t think it’s shocking that we’re seeing Seattle take that big leap forward because that is a coach showing his strength to that defense.
I think that’s very good.
Yeah, I’m telling you right now when he took the job in Seattle, Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay were both like, oh God, man.
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Like they did not want him to take that job.
They know what kind of mind he brings to the table, the type of coach he is, the mentality, the culture builder he is, um, you know, he’s, he, uh, they’re very familiar with him, so this is not a surprise to them.
And I just remember when he took the job and I went through training camps that offseason.
You could tell they weren’t pleased.
They had hoped he would end up in another division, and now we’re kind of seeing the results of that.