It’s another Seattle Seahawks game day!
Week 15 is here and the Seahawks are in control of their playoff fate. Win out and you’re the No. 1 seed, do anything else and you’re likely playing on the road throughout the postseason. While the Seahawks are on the rise, the Indianapolis Colts have fallen off the No. 1 seed race and are just trying to make the postseason. How quickly 7-1 with a Daniel Jones career turnaround can become 8-5 and relying on Philip Rivers to save your season.
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It’s time for some game predictions, but let’s first look back and be awed and amazed at my predictive powers from the win over the Atlanta Falcons.
Bold prediction: Seahawks get a special teams touchdown
Score! Rashid Shaheed made me prophetic.
Seahawks offense prediction: Someone other than JSN gets a receiving touchdown
Cooper Kupp ends the drought!
Seahawks defense prediction: Kirk Cousins held under 200 net passing yards
Didn’t even clear 200 without the sack yardage lost.
Falcons prediction: Bijan Robinson breaks one explosive play
Explosive runs are commonly defined as 10+ yards. He had one carry for 11 yards, his literal only explosive play.
Final score prediction: Seahawks take the Falcons seriously, pull off another road win
I predicted a 34-16 win in which “the 2nd half turns an uncomfortably close game into a rout.”
Bold prediction: Seahawks force an opening drive turnover
For as much as the Seahawks have been great with taking the ball away, the one thing they haven’t done is get a turnover on the opening possession. They’ve come close by intercepting Kyler Murray on the second possession of the first Arizona Cardinals game, but that’s that. The Colts have generally been great at taking care of the ball, but they had three giveaways against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week and their season seemingly turned for the worse after six turnovers versus the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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What better way to welcome Philip Rivers back in the NFL than to strip sack him or force an errant throw leading to an interception? Let’s see it happen. I sense Nick Emmanwori will be involved. Emmanwori was only an infant when Rivers was drafted by the Chargers in 2004.
Seahawks offense prediction: At least 5 explosive pass plays
Indianapolis is dealing with a depleted cornerback room. Sauce Gardner is out with a calf strain, Charvarius Ward is on IR after another concussion, and they started the year with Xavien Howard as a starter and he retired midseason. In recent weeks, the Colts have been near the bottom of the league in rate of 15+ yard pass plays conceded. For the sake of this column, we’ll up the explosive pass play to 20+ yards, which is generally standard.
With conditions not looking as daunting for kickoff as initially expected, the Seahawks should be well within their rights to air it out. Jaxon Smith-Njigba will get his numbers, but can we see more explosives to Rashid Shaheed and Cooper Kupp? What about a long-awaited seam pass to A.J. Barner? There will be opportunities against a vulnerable secondary, although if I’m Sam Darnold I’m watching out for the talented Cam Bynum, who’s been a good pickup for the Colts as a free agent from the Minnesota Vikings.
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Seahawks defense prediction: Seattle keeps the “No 100-yard rushers allowed” streak alive
The longest run of not allowing a 100-yard rusher belongs to the Seahawks, whose last slip-up came against James Cook of the Buffalo Bills last October. They were really close to seeing that streak end against Kyren Williams in the Los Angeles Rams loss this year, but close ain’t a streak-buster.
Jonathan Taylor is the NFL’s leading rusher and through the midway mark of the season he was getting MVP and Offensive Player of the Year chatter. MVP was always a longshot and OPOY is looking unlikely due to Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s superb season, but Taylor is still a phenomenal back with great speed, balance, vision, and elusiveness.
All of that said, he’s been unable to really dominate since that 244-yard masterclass against the Atlanta Falcons. The Chiefs held Taylor to 58 yards on 16 carries, he had a decent 85-yard day on 21 attempts against the vaunted Houston Texans D, and was limited to 74 yards on 21 carries (with a TD and lost fumble) in the loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. To make matters worse, Colts right tackle Braden Smith is now on IR.
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Seattle’s run defense has been superb all season, and while Taylor may very well be that special back to break the streak, it also likely entails the Colts having extended periods of game script in which they can keep running the ball. If there’s little threat coming from the passing game, what do you think the Seahawks will do instead? Exactly.
Taylor will have some moments but not enough to hit the century mark.
Colts prediction: Philip Rivers doesn’t finish the game
This is not my advocating for any bounty hunting on Rivers or rooting for Rivers to get hurt. I’m predicting that Rivers will start the game and won’t be able to finish it, whether due to performance, injury, a combination of the two, or the mid-game epiphany even for someone as fiery as him that he is, indeed, too old for this shit.
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Doesn’t it sound ridiculous that this is a thing? I don’t care how much Rivers knows Shane Steichen’s offense, he sure as hell doesn’t have the chemistry with most of the players on the Colts roster, probably hasn’t been vigorously dissecting opposition NFL film during retirement, and the odds of his body holding up over a full game at 44 years old are slim. This dude is insanely tough and didn’t miss a start after becoming the Chargers’ starter in 2006, but let’s get real about what he’s dealing with.
Game prediction: The Seahawks win, obviously
If they lose this game this is the new worst loss of the Mike Macdonald era. Worse than the loss to the awful New York Giants last season. The Colts are not a bad football team but they are an injured one at key positions and have been in a worrying run of form. Their high-flying, high-scoring offense has ground to a halt and that tends to happen when your starting QB plays with a broken leg until his other leg’s Achilles snaps.
Seahawks 34-10 over the Colts, and the game is probably over at the half even if it’s something like 20-3. Seattle’s self-destructive turnover problems and having any cracks in the run defense against the outstanding Jonathan Taylor are the only ways I can see Seattle losing this one.
That’s all from me! Share your game predictions in the comments section.
