Week 1 Score Prediction: Seahawks 27, Patriots 16

Over 300 Seahawks fans made 12 predictions about Week 1

Of the first 300 people to respond to the first Pack-12 Seahawks questionnaire of the season, only nine predicted that the Patriots will win on Thursday. That may even sound like a lot, but isn’t it fair to say that Seahawks fans would have been much more pessimistic or skeptical a couple of years ago, if not at points of last season?

Now 97-percent of you believe that the Seahawks will comfortably beat last year’s AFC Champions. That’s progress.

The average score, as explicitly stated already, was 27.4 to 15.5. Just six people boldly went over 40 points, and zero Seahawks fans believe the team will fail to reach double digits. Basically 2/3rds of you landed in the 20s and 1/3rd in the 30s.

On the Patriots, the answers were much more consistent, as 30% of you predict that New England will score exactly 17 points. Another 17% predict 13 points. I think it is probably more likely that the Seahawks will hold the Patriots to single digits than it is that Seattle will score over 40.

This should not be an easy game, so any final with the Seahawks ahead will be satisfactory.

What I’ll monitor after the game:

• Did the Seahawks score more or less than 27.4?

• Did the Seahawks allow more or less than 15.5?

Of course, I’ll also track the individual predictions:

Sam Darnold, 251.8 passing yards

Jadarian Price, 77.5 rushing yards

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 101.4 receiving yards

I won’t track these just to see if we were right or wrong, but to monitor how expectations change during the season as new data points are created in real time. If Darnold struggles on Wednesday, how much could that impact expectations of him going into Week 2? If Price rushes for 120 yards, how does that change the way fans think of him?

Obviously, if George Holani or someone else were to have a big game, the names on the survey would have to change as well.

Speaking of, here were your answers for Offensive and Defensive standouts:

Offensive Player of the Game:

• QB Sam Darnold, 43.3%

• WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 36.7%

• RB Jadarian Price, 9%

• WR Rashid Shaheed, 5.7%

• TE AJ Barner, 3.7%

• WR Cooper Kupp, 1.7%

Ironically, Kupp had a better Super Bowl than JSN and Shaheed combined. It doesn’t mean that he’ll do the same against the Patriots this time, but if we were betting on this, I’d like those longshot odds.

Defensive Player of the Game:

• DT Byron Murphy, 35%

• DE Leonard Williams, 27.7%

• LB Ernest Jones, 17.3%

• CB Devon Witherspoon, 16%

• S Julian Love, 4%

We know that the answer could end up being someone not on the list, such as Josh Jobe or Drake Thomas. There are plenty of worthy options. But of these ones, fans are expecting it to be someone on the defensive line.

Interestingly, there’s a heavy burden on Love now as the only healthy safety on the 53-man roster now that Ty Okada is missing practice as of Sunday. It’s “iffy” that Nick Emmanwori will play, putting D’Anthony Bell in position to possibly start just days after he was added back to the practice squad.

Most Receiving Yards Among These Options Only:

• WR Rashid Shaheed, 51%

• TE AJ Barner, 40.3%

• WR Cooper Kupp, 8.7%

Shaheed led the Seahawks in receiving once (Falcons) and was second once (Colts) and wasn’t even close in any of his other games with Seattle. Expectations are sky high going into this season because of Shaheed’s chance to get a full offseason in with the team, so fans are looking forward to seeing results. If that doesn’t happen immediately, like Shaheed has one catch for 10 yards or something, I expect there to be some panicking about his contract.

Even if it’s rational to be patient.

Special Teams Player of the Game:

• P Michael Dickson, 64.3%

• RET Rashid Shaheed, 20.7%

• K Jason Myers, 15%

Hard to believe a kicker’s stock could tank from the preseason, but we’d be foolish to think that’s having no impact on Myers here. Dickson was phenomenal in the playoffs last year however and pinned the Patriots at the 6 or better three times in the Super Bowl, so that doesn’t hurt his score.

Patriots Stats:

• QB Drake Maye, 216.5 yards

• WR A.J. Brown, 67.7 yards

• Patriots rushing, 85.1 yards

One person left the comment “Who cares?” on A.J. Brown’s stats, which could be a fair question without context. The context is that fans usually care when the Seahawks shut down the other team’s number one receiver. When Richard Sherman was the best corner in the league, it mattered to go back and see that he didn’t allow anybody to get 100 yards on him.

If we get to Week 6 and nobody has had 100 receiving yards against the Seahawks, that will become a narrative to track.

Maye had over 217 passing yards in 14 of 17 games last season, and two of four playoff games. He had 295 passing yards in the Super Bowl, but a lot of that came in garbage time.

The Patriots were held under 85 rushing yards six times, including the Super Bowl (79 yards). AJ Brown had over 67 yards eight times last year and that was with Jalen Hurts.

What other predictions do you have? Do you agree with these results?

Based on how this week goes, we’ll decide how to form these Pack-12 questions in the future. You’ve submitted hundreds of ideas, so I have plenty of changes to consider already.

Seaside Joe 2735