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The Seattle Seahawks are stateside once more after their overseas jaunt to Deutschland. They will look to defend Lumen Field from the the visiting Las Vegas Raiders.
Seattle’s former AFC West foes have historically kept a tight rivalry with the ‘Hawks. The Raiders lead the all time series 29-26, but have not claimed a victory since the 2010 season. Since then, the Seahawks have won the last two meetings in dominant fashion.
Going into this year, Las Vegas looked to be among the shortlist of potential AFC darkhorse candidates. After sneaking into the playoffs last year, the Raiders made plenty of splash moves in the offseason – such as trading for star receiver Davante Adams and signing pass rush specialist Chandler Jones. So far these moves have not materialized into anything meaningful as Vegas is a disappointing 3-7 on the year.
Two of Vegas’ three wins have come against the similarly 3-7 Broncos and everyone in the Pacific Northwest is well aware of how Denver’s 2022 season is going.
Las Vegas may be 3-7, but this is a team perhaps a little better than their record might suggest. They have suffered dramatic second half collapses to a historic nature. In 628 games before 2022, the Raiders only had three games where they blew a 17+ point lead. This year alone they have matched the franchise total with three games with a blown 17+ point lead. Had the Raiders been able to hold on to any of these leads, they could be in the midst of a drastically different season.
So, Vegas may not be as terrible as their record says, but make no mistake: this is a game the Seahawks should win, and must. Right now they are tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the division lead at 6-4 and given the Niners’ Week 2 victory over Seattle, they hold a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Simply put, teams who have aspirations to win their division need to defend home field from inferior opponents. Expect the Raiders to give a respectable fight, but a well-rested and motivated Seahawks team to prevail.
Prediction: Seahawks over Raiders 31-23.
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