Seahawks versus Vikings: Our staff sees a glimmer of hope

The 9-2 Seahawks play the 8-3 Vikings on Monday Night Football in week 13. Who is going to win? This is what our staff thinks.

Monday night’s game featuring the Seahawks and Vikings could be the foreshadowing of a playoff game. If the season ended after this week, both teams would be in the postseason. While a loss doesn’t kill either team’s playoff chances, that loss would drop the team back into the fray a bit. So who wins? This is what our staff thinks.

Colby Patnode, contributor and host of the 12th Man Rising podcast

A truly fascinating game. The Seahawks and Vikings could more or less be playing to lock down the #5 seed and at the same time, a win could by either side puts them in a position to get a first-round bye.

Minnesota wants to attack in the ground and create big plays with their 2 monster WRs: Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. But Seattle’s defense has been great the past 2 weeks, generating both pressure on the QB and massive amounts of turnovers since Quandre Diggs was inserted into the lineup. Minnesota will be a good test to see if the pass rush really has turned a corner and Kirk Cousins is better than either Garropollo or Wentz so it could be a battle.

Defensively, the Vikings are a solid unit who can stuff the run and get after Wilson. They have been susceptible to big plays in the passing game, but with a hobbled Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, Seattle may not be in a great position to take advantage.

Ultimately, a prime time game at home with Russell Wilson is typically a good thing for the Seahawks. I think this game will say a lot about these two teams. Both are good, but I’m not sure if either is great. I’ll take Seattle with Josh Gordon catching the game-winning TD late in the 4th quarter.

Prediction: Seahawks 23 Vikings 21

Blake Waldron, contributor

The Vikings haven’t beaten the Seahawks since 2009. The Vikings haven’t won in Seattle since 2006 and that has been their only win in Seattle for the past 30 years. I don’t expect much to change in this week’s matchup. Seattle did a masterful job of covering Minnesota wideouts Diggs and Thielen during last year’s contest and I think it should be even tougher this year for the receivers with the improved play of both Griffin and Flowers. Especially with Thielen coming off an injury expect this Minnesota offense to be slowed by a Seattle defense that’s allowed only two touchdowns and created eight turnovers over the past two games. Russell Wilson will put on an MVP performance on the big stage totaling 3 tds as Seattle cruises to its 10th victory of the season.

Prediction: Seahawks 27 Vikings 17

Geoff Shull, contributor

The Seahawks have been playing some of their best defensive football of the year the last couple weeks. However, against the Vikings I foresee a tough matchup that will test our run and pass defense to a whole new level. Vikings have Kirk Cousins playing the best ball of his career, Stephon Diggs torching opposing secondaries and Adam Thielen finally on the mend. That is not even mentioning the leagues leading rusher in Dalvin Cook. Seattle will need to choose if we want to sell out on stopping the run or stopping the pass. Either way, it will be a difficult matchup to overcome especially given the lengthy injury report the Seahawks dulled out this week.

Prediction: Vikings 27 Seahawks 24

Todd Vandenberg, co-expert

I see good things happening for the gentlemen in Action Green Monday night. It’s true that the Vikings certainly won’t be pushovers. They rank seventh in points scored and sixth in fewest points allowed. Quarterback Kirk Cousins actually took over first place in passer rating from Russell Wilson after last week, so yeah, he’s pretty good. Sounds like a tough game, right? In the Seahawks favor, all three of the Vikings losses have come on the road. Minnesota has faced just four teams with winning records in their 11 games so far. They’re just 1-3 in those contests, only beating the 6-5 Raiders. Considering that the Vikes rank 21st in touchdown passes allowed and no one has thrown more TDs than DangeRuss, I see this as another big win for Seattle.

Prediction: Seahawks 26 Vikings 19

Lee Vowell, co-expert

The Vikings remind me of the 49ers in a lot of ways. Both teams run well and both teams have strong defensive lines, especially the interior of the lines. The difference is that Cousins is playing better than Jimmy Garoppolo and that might give Minnesota the edge over Seattle. True, the game is at CenturyLink, but Seattle is 6-0 on the road this year and just 3-2 at home so I don’t think Seattle has gotten the most from home-field advantage this season. I think the Vikings win a close one.

Prediction: Vikings 24 Seahawks 20