Saturday, February 1, 2014

Eric’s Pick: Super Bowl XLVIII



Eric Meyer

It all comes down to this. Super Bowl XLVIII features the top two seeds from each conference. Denver boasts the league’s best offense and Seattle holds the league’s best defense. It doesn’t get much better than this.

There has been a lot of talk about who will win the matchup of the titans. Will Denver’s offense overpower Seattle’s vaunted secondary or will Seattle’s defense dominate and leave Peyton Manning befuddled? I’d say nether. Both units are two good to be completely ineffective.

I believe Manning will have his moments putting together a couple nice touchdown drives. I also believe Seattle’s defense will have their share of great plays, including a turnover or two. I believe these two units will play to a draw, per se. I see Denver scoring between 17 and 23 points in this one. That’s a respectable total, but not a dominating showing by any means.

As usual, this game will be decided by the teams’ respective weakest links. Seattle’s backbone is their defense, but their offense can be either excellent or anemic. The same can be said for Denver’s defense, which has been great in the playoffs after being shaky for most of the regular season. Can Denver’s defense contain Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch like San Francisco and New Orleans did?

Not-so-random, not-so-baseless predictions

Peyton Manning throws two “touchdown ducks,” but Richard Sherman also picks him off once.

Bottom Line

I don’t expect the Seattle offense to blow the doors off the Broncos, but I do think that their offense is being underrated. Critics point to the lack of success in their previous two games, but New Orleans and San Francisco had top five defenses. Denver’s defense has played better, but I think Russell Wilson’s legs will create too many opportunities and Beast Mode will break through to keep the chains moving. Seattle’s defense will do the rest to contain Denver’s offense and the Seahawks will win.

Eric’s Pick: Seattle beats Denver, 28-20

Eric’s MVP: Marshawn Lynch, just so he’ll have to talk to the media after he gets back from Disney World.

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