NFL Week 6 Odds: Seahawks are underdogs for rumble in the Cincy jungle

Is Seattle “feline” good enough after the bye week to come away with a season sweep against the cat teams?

The last time we saw the Seattle Seahawks play a game, they manhandled the New York Giants in front of the entire NFL audience on Monday Night Football. They were able to savor that win for an extra week with the early-season bye and should welcome back a whole host of injured players as they head on the road to face the Cincinnati Bengals.

Despite the early season struggles, DraftKings Sportsbook has the Bengals as a (-3) favorite. That’s probably an indication of some renewed confidence in the Bengals after beating Arizona 34-20 in Week 5 while the Seahawks were idle.

Seattle is probably right where many people expected them to be at 3-1 but got there in a slightly surprising way by losing the season opener to the Los Angeles Rams before ripping off three straight wins. They still have plenty of room for improvement on both sides of the ball and will be tested by a slightly desperate Bengals team.

Why the early season desperation for Cincinnati? Superstar QB Joe Burrow injured his calf in preseason and aggravated it in the regular season. As a result, he hadn’t been nearly as effective – Cardinals game notwithstanding – and the Bengals 2-3 record is reflective of that. They may also be missing one of their weapons in WR Tee Higgins as he rehabs from a rib injury since he didn’t play in Week 5. There is still plenty of firepower on offense for an increasingly healthy Joe Burrow to work with including Ja’Marr Chase, Tyler Boyd, and Joe Mixon.

The last time Seattle faced Cincinnati was the 2019 season opener at then-CenturyLink Field where the Seahawks escaped with a 21-20 victory. Joe Burrow was still at LSU getting ready to lead them to a national championship on his way to being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The over/under is 46, which seems a bit low to me considering Seattle has scored 24+ points in three straight games and the Bengals look like they may have found something on offense scoring 34 points in Arizona.

Cincinnati holds the lead in the all-time series at 11-10 and have won three of the five games played since the turn of the century. The big question for the Bengals will be which team shows up? The one that only scored 3 points against Tennessee or the one that just whipped up on Arizona?

The Seahawks have been just north of 50/50 coming off of a bye week under Pete Carroll with a 7-6 record but are on a three-year losing streak after the break. Hopefully the returning players will give Seattle a shot in the arm to secure a road win against a wounded yet still very talented Cincinnati Bengals team.