Both teams come into this game with their own strengths and at 3 losses a piece we saw where each team was most vulnerable. For Denver it's their defense particularly in pass coverage and for Seattle it's their run defense. The teams that showed success in beating Denver this season had to control time of posession and to do that you have to pick up third downs and have a QB that has poise in the pocket. Russell Wilson has been fantastic, but he just simply does not have the weapons to stay on the field. Their offense really struggled down the stretch and they were ranked 18th in third down offense converting just 37%. San Diego who gave Denver all kinds of issues was 2nd and had more of a pocket passer in Phillip Rivers. San Diego was also 2nd in TOP where Seattle is 17th.
To beat Seattle you have to be able to stop their running game and you have to be able to pound the ball because their pass defense is just so good. However, Denver's rushing attack has been hit or miss, but for Seattle they have not faced an offense with this many weapons all year. When you look at the opponents they have faced they have faced on 1 team in the top 10 in scoring and that was the Colts who they lost to. They only faced 2 teams in the top 10 in yards per play and Denver is #1. While they are great in pass rush and pass coverage Peyton Manning is just too smart and he'll let Richard Sherman take away Demaryious Thomas he still has Welker, Decker, and Julius Thomas and others while Monte Ball and Knowshown Moreno have shown explosiveness towards the end of the year as well. Seattle is weak against the rush ranked 13th and Arizona showed as well did Tampa as two poor rushing teams ranked 28th and 26th in ypc that you can run at this defense as both teams ran for over 139 yards on the road. The Seahawks are small in their front 7 and only played 4 teams in the top 10 all year in rushing ypc while on average they faced an opponent ranked 19th.
For Denver their key is to stop Marshawn Lynch and in my prop package I go on extensively on how they were very good against top 10 rushing attacks. Seattle is ranked 13th in ypc and Denver held many of the 9 top 10 rushing attacks under control while going 8-1 against those teams with their only loss coming at the hands of Tom Brady who had a great come back. Denver ranked 7th in ypc allowed and 4th in yards allowed on the season and really buckled down in the playoffs. I really think this defense played better than I gave them credit while Seattle's offense played worse than I thought they would. Denver's strengths are much stronger than Seattle's and I do believe Seattle has more weaknesses that Denver can exploit. Denver has far too much experience and the NFL is now an offensive league I don't care how cold it is it seems as though the offensive team forces its hand much more often than the defensive team and that favors the Broncos big. I would not be shocked if we saw the Broncos run away with this game, because I just don't think Seattle can score with Denver.
