Marshawn Lynch to miss Seahawks’ wild-card game at Minnesota

First here’s my pick from The FAQ.

In the week leading up to the Vikings’ overtime victory over the Rams in early November, the talk was that this would be like two teams looking in the mirror because they shared so many similarities. What’s different this time? Despite their success at the betting window, 71% of public bettors are now backing the Seahawks to cover the spread in today’s game.

Minnesota still has plenty to feel good about in this game. The Seahawks won in Minnesota on December 6, 38-7. Vikings WR Adam Thielen was active after sustaining a shoulder injury against Green Bay last week…. There’s still too much fight in this Seattle team to go out yet. Lynch has rushed for more than 100 yards in six of his 10 career postseason games. Kickoff is at 1:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan 10 and will air on NBC.

If the Vikings beat the Seahawks, the Cardinals will host Minnesota no matter what happens in the later wild-card game.

Christine Michael will get the start in Lynch’s place.

For Seattle, Russell Wilson has been kept in check so far.

Few things are as great as the NFL playoffs, and nothing is as great as football in the snow and freezing cold, so Seahawks-Vikings on Sunday should be awesome.

Sitting at 11-5 Straight Up (SU) and 13-3 Against The Spread (ATS), the Vikings will look to improve heading into Week 18.

Last playoff game: Seahawks lost Super Bowl 28-24 vs. New England Patriots, Feb. 1, 2015. Munnerlyn said about his first season with the Vikings.

Minnesota must step up defensively and slow down Wilson if they are to be any chance of progressing to the divisional round. He completed 21 of 27 passes for 274 yards with three TDs while Bridgewater was 17 of 28 for 118 yards with an interception. Ryan’s punt was downed by the Seahawks at the 9-yard line. The offense has averaged 32 points over past seven games and the defense has 11 takeaways. Wright continually makes plays around the ball for Seattle and has forced four fumbles during the 2015 season. He’s first in league history with 4,000-plus yards passing, 500-plus yards rushing and 30-plus TDs passing in one season. (Mike Zimmer challenged the spot on the play, but the ruling was upheld.) Anthony Barr made a big stop on Russell Wilson on the next third down, and the Seahawks had to bring in Jon Ryan…broken nose and all…to punt it away.

When the Seahawks are playing well on defense, they play one of two ways. It’ll be hard to keep Seattle’s offense off the field this week. The receiver set a team record with 14 touchdown receptions.