Seattle Seahawks

WhatIfSports NFL Week 7 predictions: Seahawks upset favored Cardinals

Published Oct. 18, 2016 3:30 p.m. ET

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Each Tuesday, WhatIfSports.com's NFL simulation engine generates predictions and box scores for every NFL game for the coming week. Our highly sophisticated algorithms simulate every play of every game to produce each team's likelihood to win. Each matchup is simulated 501 times.

To account for injuries and roster moves announced late in the week, we will be re-simulating games on Thursdays through the season.

Note: Our predictions use the latest available team and player information, while NFL SimMatchup includes all players that were or will be available at any point during the 2016 season so that theoretical and "what if" scenarios can be simulated.

Week 6 in Review

Week 6 wasn't great for the NFL simulation engine. Only one of the seven road teams we predicted to get the win actually came through. We ended up 7-8 (46.7 percent) picking straight up and 5-7 (41.7 percent) against the spread. Fortunately, our "Game to Watch" and "Against the Spread" highlighted picks were right on the money.

Nailed It: Seahawks 26 - Falcons 24. For the biggest game of the week, our engine was one point away from being perfect. We predicted the Seahawks would beat the Falcons by an average score of 25-24 in a matchup between two of the NFC's best teams.

Wide Right: Dolphins 30 - Steelers 15. Like just about everyone else out there, our engine expected the Steelers to cruise to an easy victory, winning 76.6 percent of the time. Instead, the Dolphins and Jay Ajayi pulled off one of the most surprising upsets of the season and captured the win.  

Track our 2016 performance or view our accuracy last season.

Week 7 Game to Watch

Seahawks at Cardinals: The Cardinals are playing better as of late, coming off a convincing victory over the New York Jets on Monday night. On a short week with the Seahawks visiting, however, our engine is siding with Russell Wilson and company to get the road win in surprising fashion. We have the Seahawks winning 57.5 percent of the time by an average score of 27-24. 

Week 7 Against the Spread Pick

Redskins (+1) over Lions: The Redskins have ripped off four straight victories and have seen massive improvements in the run game during that stretch. That's bad news for the Lions, who are giving up 4.7 yards per carry on the season (24th in NFL) and are allowing quarterbacks an insane 119.3 QB rating against them, the worst number in the league. The Redskins have enough firepower to pull off the road victory here.

Fantasy Radar

Fantasy Start -- Hunter Henry, SD: The rookie tight end has quickly become one of Philip Rivers' most trusted targets, and it seems very likely the Chargers will be playing from behind against Atlanta. We have Henry pegged as the second highest scoring tight end this week in our projections. 

Fantasy Sit -- T.J. Yeldon, JAX: Even in a great matchup against a bad Oakland defense, our projections want you to shy away from Yeldon. It's Chris Ivory (8.1) who is projected to do most of the scoring, with Yeldon (6.9) missing out on goalline opportunities. 

Fantasy Add -- Joe Flacco, BAL: For you QB streamers out there, our projections have Flacco as the highest scorer in all of Week 7. That's not necessarily an endorsement of Flacco, but more of an indictment of the Jets horrid pass defense, which will be coming off a short week. Flacco has flopped in a few good matchups this year, but our engine is full-go on him in this one. 

For more fantasy football tips, view our Week 7 player projections.

For additional content, view our Week 7 NFL Power Rankings, NFL archive or sortable weekly NFL predictions.

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