What does Nate Silver think of the Seahawks, Broncos and the Seattle-Denver showdown Sunday?
A lot, it turns out. The guy who made his name predicting presidential and other election outcomes weighs in on his website “Five-thirty-eight.com”
He believes the Seahawks are 3.5-point favorites Sunday, considerably less than the Vegas line, believes they still rank at the top of the NFL in his complicated “ELO rankings” and calculates they have a 71 percent change of making the playoffs.
Here’s part of what Silver says:
“This week, Elo has the Seahawks as three-and-a-half-point favorites against the Broncos, compared to four-and-a-half or five points in the Vegas line. That reflects a bigger difference of opinion than you might think; a four-point Broncos loss (as in Seattle 21, Denver 17) is a plausible enough outcome. But to reiterate, we’re not recommending any bets. Among the many factors that Vegas considers but Elo doesn’t is that the Seahawks have historically had a large home-field advantage.”
He even calculates every NFL team’s probable final record. Interesting stuff.
Read all of what Silver wrote here.
And if you’re killing time before the game, here are national media picks for the game and NFL power rankings.
Look for what the national media writes after the game on the Take 2 blog Monday morning.
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