Will the Hawks stay on the road to success?
It’s week three of the 2024 NFL season and the regular season is already in full swing. On Sunday evening at 10:05 p.m., the previously unbeaten home team in Seattle will host the Miami franchise, which not only lost a game last week. Due to the current conditions, the betting odds for the Seahawks are lower than for Miami.
The Hawks are leading the NFC West as they are the only team in the division with two wins. In week two, the franchise, led by rookie head coach Mike Macdonald, defeated New England in overtime. For the Seahawks’ third win against the Dolphins, the odds on the three-way market do not offer any value due to the clear favoritism.
A win against Miami is particularly likely because the franchise from Florida will have to play without quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Last week, Mike McDaniel’s team not only lost the Thursday night game against Buffalo by the margin of 10-31, but also their established playmaker due to a concussion. As a result, quarterback Skylar Thompson will lead the visitors onto the field, which makes the prediction for the guests in the duel between the Seahawks and Dolphins much more difficult.
Seattle Seahawks – Statistics & current form
That’s what you call a great start! The Hawks followed up their 26:20 win against the Broncos with a 23:20 win against the Patriots. The offense is working very well on different levels, because in week one, success was mainly due to Rungame, on the second game day it was playmaker Geno Smith and the passing game.
Who replaces running back Walker
Running back Kenneth Walker was unable to play against the Patriots due to injury, and so the Hawks only managed a meager 46 rushing yards. However, it is also true that New England, last week’s opponents, have one of the best run defenses in the league so far. Running back Walker’s use was only canceled a few hours before the game last week. For the Seahawks’ game against the Dolphins, our prediction is that he will be absent again. Zach Charbonnet could replace him.
However, this offense also has plenty of potential in the passing game. The wide receiver corps, consisting of Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, is certainly among the crème de la crème in the NFL. The latter two have already had 18 targets, and Smith has looked for them twice as often as Lockett. These three receiving targets make the offense difficult to read. That’s why this unit is once again capable of scoring 20+ points. However, the odds for the Seahawks to score at least 20 points against Miami are only at a manageable level when compared to the various bookies.
The defense allowed 20 points twice in a row at the beginning of the season, but played very strongly in pass defense. Now, however, a different caliber of offense awaits them on paper, even if it must be assumed that they will not be able to display their usual skills due to the quarterback issue. Without wanting to anticipate the Miami part: on the ground, the matchup could actually favor the guests, because on average, the Hawks’ defensive unit allowed 142 rushing yards per game!
Key Players:
- QB: Geno Smith
- RB: Zach Charbonnet
- WR: DK Metcalf
- TE: Noah Fant
- K: Jason Myers
Miami Dolphins – statistics & current form
If the offense of Mike McDaniel’s team is to be summarized in one word, “speed” would probably be the right choice. This applies not only to the wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, but also to the backfield around running back De’Von Achane. While the 22-year-old didn’t come into his own at all against Jacksonville in week one, he shone last week with 96 yards and 4.4 yards per carry. Since the matchup against the aforementioned rushing defense of the Hawks will suit him, we predict that he will have the 100-rushing-yard game of the season.
It is an open secret that the Rungame must play a bigger role in the game plan for the upcoming matchup. With Thompson, the team won’t be able to bring the same offense and explosiveness to the field as they did with Tua. But let’s look ahead at the 247th pick of the 2022 NFL Draft. He has started three games for the Floridians so far, including one in the playoffs. During that time, he completed 45 of 89 passes for 461 yards. He also completed one touchdown pass, while three balls were intercepted by the opposing defense. These statistics are by no means intimidating – even less so when you consider that the offensive circumstances were similarly good even back then.
Tua, who has since been placed on the franchise’s injury reserve list and will therefore be out for at least four weeks, is one of the fastest quarterbacks in the entire NFL to throw the ball. Last season, he completed passes he threw within 2.5 seconds of the snap for 7.8 yards per pass! Only Brock Purdy was ahead of him in this statistic. But Thompson is not that kind of playmaker, which is why we expect the Fins offense to suffer a certain drop-off. That’s why we are placing a bet between the Seahawks and Dolphins that the guests will not be able to score 17 points. We highly recommend Betway for this option, where we found the best odds for it in comparison to the other bookmakers.
Defensively, there are definitely positive things to report, as they allowed only 139 passing yards on average against the Jaguars and Bills’ good passing offenses. Only four teams had better pass defense in the opening weeks, including their next opponent. So that also suggests that a lot will happen on the ground in this matchup!
Key Players:
- QB: Skyler Thompson
- RB: De’Von Achane
- WR: Tyreek Hill
- TE: Jonn u Smith
- K: Jason Sanders
Seattle Seahawks – Miami Dolphins Head-to-Head / H2H Record
The first of what is now 16 games took place in 1977, when both teams were in the AFC. Seattle was a member of this conference in the period up to 2001 and faced the Fins eleven times during this period, three times in the playoffs. In 2002, the Hawks moved back to the National Football Conference, so there have only been five duels in the past 22 years. Of those meetings, the Seahawks have won three times against the Dolphins and the betting odds reflect a 72 percent chance of them winning again on Sunday night.
Seattle Seahawks – Miami Dolphins Tip
With up to 6.5 points, the home side are favorites at Lumen Field, and we can absolutely see a scenario in which the Hawks cover this. With our main recommendation, however, we are still going in a different direction and tend towards a tip on few points.
The over/under for this game is set at 41.5 points, which we consider too high. Both defenses will try to take away the opponent’s passing game, and so an intense game on the ground is to be expected. This in turn extends the teams’ scoring drives, which is why we expect a low-scoring game. We don’t expect more than 41 points in any case.
