Seahawks versus Eagles Wild Card: Our staff feels hopefulness

The Seahawks travel to Philadelphia to play the Eagles in the Wild Card round. Who will win? Here are our staff’s best guesses.

Both the Seahawks and Eagles are an injured bunch. But both are still capable of winning Sunday’s Wild Card game with the players still healthy. And both teams could defeat the next team they play as well. Who is going to win on Sunday, though? Here are our thoughts.

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

Colby wrote a whole bit about the game which you can read here. But he thinks if the defense plays well, Seattle will come away with the victory.

Prediction: Seahawks 27 Eagles 24

Geoff Shull, contributor

The Eagles are coming into this wild card matchup red hot off a 4 game win streak. They have been successful despite a plethora of injuries. Meanwhile, Seattle finished the regular season with the best record for a wild card team. Seattle is also dealing with a lengthy list of injuries. I’ve heard this game labeled as the “Infirmary Bowl” due to the abundance of injuries. It will really come down to which team wants it more.

With Seattle on the road (7-1 record this season) and finally getting Quandre Diggs back to healthy,  I think the defense will find its swagger once again. Look for Seattle to make a statement in this victory.

Prediction: Seahawks 32 Eagles 17

Karley Sibert, contributor

The Seahawks have not been playing well lately so I don’t expect a whole lot to come out of this game against Philadelphia. If we wanted to get technical, the last road playoff game that Seattle has won was in 2015 in Minnesota, which is concerning. Thankfully it seems that Jadeveon Clowney and Quandre Diggs will be able to return to the lineup for the first time in weeks. But the winner of this game will ultimately be up to Russell Wilson and the Seahawk’s offense, who must come up with a winning gameplan to beat the Eagles top 10 defense.

Prediction: Seahawks 20 Eagles 17

Todd Vandenberg, co-expert

Seahawks – Eagles Redux. I see this as a director’s cut, rather than a sequel. The Hawks won’t have Chris Carson or Rashaad Penny, but based on their second-half performances against the Niners, Travis Homer and Marshawn Lynch will be able stand-ins. Seattle dominated the first game, until they suffered one of their all-too-typical late-game collapses to make the contest “interesting”. Expect more of the same, as Eagles tight end Zach Ertz will ignore his recently bleeding kidney – yikes – to get the Seahawks for over 100 yards and a score. It won’t be enough, though, as Seattle will prevail in the end. Hah, got through an entire prediction without mentioning Russell Wilson once – oh darn. Okay, he’s important too.

Prediction: Seahawks 27 Eagles 23

Lee Vowell, co-expert

Last year Seattle played the Cowboys in the Wild Card game and went way too conservative on offense to start the game. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Seahawks let Russell Wilson loose and throw deep to Tyler Lockett and Doug Baldwin. I think Brian Schottenheimer needs to throw caution to the wind and don’t try to call the game so tightly. Let Wilson throw often and early. If the defense allows just 20 points, Seattle should move on to round 2.

Prediction: Seahawks 21 Eagles 20