Seattle Seahawks at New England Patriots: Week 10 Preview

Feb 1, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; New England Patriots strong safety Malcolm Butler (21) intercepts a pass intended for Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette (83) in the fourth quarter in Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

Many people picked this as their matchup for the Super Bowl this year and the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots don’t aim to disappoint.

No doubt there is still plenty of bad blood between the two franchises. The Seahawks must still be feeling the sting of how the Super Bowl ended for them in early 2015, just one bad call away from a second-straight title. Instead Malcolm Butler became an instant star and the Patriots won their fourth Lombardi trophy of the Brady-Belichick era.

Background:

Odds are that horrific feeling will never truly leave most of the Seahawks veterans who were there, but beating the Patriots in New England would be a nice consolation prize. Of course that’s way easier said than done. As usual they are at the top of the AFC and practically invincible at home. Seattle has had their hands full with some less-than-competitive teams the past few weeks. Can they put together a near-perfect 60 minutes of football? That’s what it will take.

Key Injuries:

Julian Edelman (foot) – The ever-nifty and productive Patriots wide receiver has battled injuries since last season. This latest one is a foot problem that kept him limited in practice all week. He’s questionable for the game. Knowing Edelman he’ll likely try to make a go of it. Whether or not he can be effective against that solid secondary is another question.

Christine Michael (hamstring) – Week after week the Seahawks are missing Marshawn Lynch more and more. It felt like they had some quality pieces to help replace him but so far that hasn’t been true. Thomas Rawls is already declared out for the game and now Christine Michael was a late addition to the injury report with a tweaked hamstring. There aren’t many options left to hand the ball to.

Matchup to Watch:

Bobby Wagner vs. Rob Gronkowski

With Kam Chancellor still injured, the job of trying to contain that star Patriots tight end will likely fall to the star Seahawks linebacker. Bobby Wagner is athletic and fast enough to stick with Gronk in coverage and has enough size to not get blanketed. Of course it takes more than that to stop him. Still, this will be the showdown that could result in those three or four plays that swing the game either way. If Wagner can win the majority of them, the Seahawks may have a chance. If not, well the results are predictable.

Prediction: Patriots win 28-24

The worst thing a team can be when playing Bill Belichick and the Patriots is one-dimensional. That is exactly what the Seahawks aim to do. They can’t run the football hardly at all, so one can bet New England will sell out to blanket those Seattle receivers to a point where Russell Wilson has few options available. Tom Brady will get out to a fast start and do enough late to secure the win.

Home/NFL Hot Takes