Seahawks vs Saints: 3 bold predictions for Monday Night Football
By Lee Vowell
Rashaad Penny gains 80 yards and a touchdown
My hope and fear for week 7 when it comes to the Seahawks offense is the same thing. That is that Pete Carroll and Shane Waldron (who figured out at halftime against the Steelers that maybe trying to run the ball wasn’t a bad thing) will think they have found an answer to the offensive woes that have caused the offense to be inconsistent in 2021. This means Seattle forcing the run against the Saints.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Seattle needs to start off the game running and maintain a good level of that throughout the game but going heavy run would be a mistake. First of all, there is the previously noted statistics that the Saints are first against the run this season. New Orleans allows 3.3 yards a carry, 79 yards a game (second in the league) and has given up just 4 rushing touchdowns (sixth in the NFL).
So why is Rashaad Penny going to do pretty decently against the Saints? (And to be fair, predicting Penny to actually play in a Seahawks game might be the real bold prediction.) I will be honest: I don’t have a good reason. In week 5, the Washington Football Team’s Antonio Gibson gained 60 yards against the Saints but on 20 carries. Penny isn’t going to get that many carries, at least he shouldn’t.
But I think Penny gets about 10 carries and has a couple of runs of around 20 yards and this gets him 80 for the game. Penny will also score on a 3 yard run on a pitch from Geno Smith.