A memorable Week 13 comes to a close on Monday Night Football as the Minnesota Vikings travel to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Seattle Seahawks and the 12th Man. The teams enter tonight’s game separated by just one game. Both currently are in second place in their respective divisions. A win by the Vikings would bring them to 9-3 and a tie for first place in the NFC North with the Green Bay Packers. If Seattle manages to come away with the win they would go from wild card to the one seed in the conference. At 10-2, with a win over the San Francisco 49ers, they would jump to the top of the NFC West and the NFC in one swoop. We already saw first place switch hands in the AFC, could the same happen in the NFC tonight?
In order for that to happen, Seattle is going to need its MVP candidate in Russell Wilson to play at that level once again. Time and time again, Wilson has answered the call when the Seahawks needed him most. Whether it was the fourth quarter or overtime, if the team’s back was against the wall and time was dwindling down, they could always count on their quarterback to find a way to pull out a victory. Aided by wide receivers Tyler Lockett, D.K. Metcalf, and the recently added Josh Gordon, Wilson has one of the most talented sets of wideouts that he’s had in his career. However, despite that firepower and the league as a whole becoming pass-first oriented offensively, Seattle remains one of the few teams that actively seeks out to establish the run. Chris Carson is the team’s workhorse back, they will give him 20-30 carries on mos nights and live with the results. In Week 12, they rode the hot hand and let Rashaad Penny lead the way showing off the depth they possess in the backfield.
Speaking of backfields, Minnesota is led by one of the best running backs in the game today, Dalvin Cook. The Vikings made some coaching changes and with Gary Kubiak taking on a bigger role the team has rededicated itself to making sure the run game is their bread and butter. Cook entered Week 12 as one of the NFL’s leading rushers and is just 158 yards back of the current leader, Nick Chubb. It’s unlikely that he’ll get all those yards tonight, as he’ll likely be the primary focal point of Seattle’s defensive game plan but he is capable of breaking out a game-changing run on any play. In case he is bottled up, the Vikings can turn to Kirk Cousins and the passing game to try and make something happen. They’ll be without Adam Thielen again but they still have Stefon Diggs to test the Seahawks’ secondary. Diggs has had a couple of explosive games so far this season so i isn’t out of the ordinary to see him put together a one-man show. They’ll need their best from the run and passing game if they hope to pull off a road upset against a team as good as Seattle, especially when playing at home.
PREDICTION: Seahawks 24 , Vikings 14
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