Seahawks vs Saints: 3 bold predictions for Monday Night Football
By Lee Vowell
The 2-4 Seahawks play the 3-2 Saints on Monday Night Football. New Orleans has a great defense while Seattle’s defense is quite the opposite. It’s actually a bit odd to think about but if Seattle is able to defeat New Orleans Monday both teams will have the same record. How?
New Orleans ranks first in the NFL in defense, first in average-yards-allowed per rush, second in QBR-allowed. While their offense is 28th in yards per game, quarterback Jameis Winston is fifth in the NFL in quarterback rating (108.1). Winston also has 12 touchdown passes versus just 3 interceptions. That relatively low interception amount for Winston is leaps and bounds better than he normally is.
The strange thing, however, is that Sean Payton and the Saints coaching staff doesn’t seem to really trust Winston all that much. Winston is 31st in pass attempts (116). This is odd as the Saints average only 4.0 yards per carry which is 19th in the NFL. This appears to mean that while New Orleans should expect not to do tons on the ground, whatever they do is better than having Winston throw the ball.
The main issue for the Seahawks is not having Russell Wilson, of course. I don’t think that Seattle would be able to do much against the Saints defense even with Wilson but without him, it doesn’t really matter how much the Saints do offensively on Monday, they might just be able to beat Seattle in a low-scoring game.
But football games tend to turn out differently most times than one expects heading into the game. Here are three predictions for what will happen on Monday Night Football in week 7.