The 2022 Las Vegas Raiders are an odd team. Their record says that they suck, yet they’ve lost a lot of close games, including a very narrow loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on the road, but then they also got beat down badly by a bad Saints team.

They have talent on offense with Devante Adams, Josh Jacobs, and Derek Carr that they can be pretty dangerous to deal with, but they are paired with a miserable defense on the other side of the ball. Hence, their 3-7 record. They can score points, but they give up a lotta points. This is the 2022 Raiders.

Conversely, the Seahawks are sitting with a respectable 6-4 record, with a pretty good offense led by Geno Smith, DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and rookie phenom Ken Walker III (affectionately known as K9), and a defense that isn’t as bad as the Vegas’s. Geno Smith is flirting with MVP votes, and K9 is a leading contender for NFL Offensive Rookie Of The Year; that’s how good they’ve been through ten games.

Given the fact that this game is being played in Seattle, and the Seahawks are rested coming off of their bye week, Seattle should win this game on Sunday, even with the Raiders coming off of their dramatic come from behind win in Denver (thank you, Raiders for that, by the way). The Broncos and the Seahawks are two very different teams. One is a team that is in complete disarray after heavy expectations were placed on them with the Russell Wilson trade, and the other is a total surprise (in a good way) playing with house money (pun intended).

Therefore, I am going with conventional wisdom, and I am picking the Seahawks to flourish in this one against the Raiders on Sunday. I think they are primed to do it. They’ve had time to dive into this opponent, and they are motivated to make a playoff run during this final seven game stretch of dive where they will be playing five of those games on in front of the Twelves.

After getting stunned by Tampa’s ground game in Germany, I think Clint Hurtt and Pete Carroll get their defense back to playing fast and furious against the run, and I think that will likely force Carr to beat them from the pocket against a secondary that is up and coming. I’m positive that Devante Adams will get his (he’s that good), but if I’m to match these two offenses against these two defenses, I think Seattle’s defense is much more likely to have the better day. This leads me to why I feel most likely Seattle is going to win this one at home.

Geno Smith is due a monster game. He’s had a few big ones already this season, but at home and against this Vegas secondary with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, and his stable of tight ends? Yeah, I suspect Geno is going to put on a show, especially with K9 getting back to his explosive ways. The weather won’t likely favor the pass game, it looks to be wet and cold, but I don’t think that stops Seattle’s offensive attack in this one. They will be ready for it.

I see the Seahawks winning fairly comfortably, with maybe a 31-17 final score. I think their defense get turnovers that leads to points for the offense. I think the offense plays a good game of keep away from LV’s offense with K9 running and Geno playing a stellar game of quarterback efficiency, and I think this is going to be a fun game for the Twelves to watch.

As for Vegas, I believe this team is desperate for a reset. I think they missed an opportunity to have promoted their interim head coach last year into a permanent position this year. He was popular with the players, they were a fun underdog because of how the players rallied for him, and I just don’t think Josh McDaniels is the guy to lead them to where they want to go. If I’m Mark Davis, I’m going to cut my losses with McDaniels at the end of the season, and I am going to be prepared to make Sean Payton a very lucrative offer to take over the franchise in order to finally get it back to their glory days that are now decades ago.

Because here are the cold hard facts about the Silver and Black. The Seattle Seahawks, over the last decade, have been more like the feisty Raiders of old than the Raiders have been, and it can not been disputed. Their offenses have largely been explosive like those teams coached by John Madden, Tom Flores, and Art Shell, and their LOB defense was as sticky and fierce as any Raider defense was back in the seventies and early eighties. They played it almost the exact same way.

The Raiders have been a team living on reputation for years with Gen Xers and Boomers who knew who Lyle Alzado was, but their kids and grand kids have no knowledge of those years and players. They need that to change. John Madden was an iconic culture guy. McDaniels is not.

So, it’s time for Seattle to do their old AFC West rival a solid, and beat them down in order to make Davis’s decision at the end of the season an easy one. Seahawks need to mash them up like a pot of boiled potatoes this Sunday.

I think they will. It’s the right thing to do for Seattle and Vegas.

Go Hawks.