Seattle Seahawks vs. Tennessee Titans Analysis & Pick

The Seattle Seahawks come to Nashville on Sunday for a week 16 battle with the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium. Tennessee came up a little short to the Houston Texans at home last week, 19-16, to fall to 4-9 in a season that has seen a lot of challenges and hardship. Seattle got a well-needed positive development on Monday Night Football, edging the Eagles, 20-17, to get back to .500 and saving their season in the process. Can Seattle perform on the short week in this tough road spot? Or will Tennessee do what it has done on a few occasions this season and upset the apple cart? Let’s break this one down!

The Silver Lining with Tennessee

A 4-9 record will be difficult to sugar-coat for a team that usually is pretty good and overachieves. We haven’t seen it much this season, with dicey QB play, an exploitable defense, and an offense that no longer wields the game-changing factor of Derrick Henry, who really plummeted to earth in 2023. The morale on this team is pretty low, and for good reason. And it seems like the only times they really thrived was when facing other teams that were down in the dumps for the most part.

That might not be an altogether faulty read on the Titans. There has, however, been at least a minor shift as of late. Prior to losing in overtime to the Texans last week, they had won two of three, including a nice upset win over the Dolphins. Eight of the Titans’ last ten games have been one-score affairs, meaning they might not quite be the easy pickings some suspect them to be heading into the regular season home stretch. There has also been a strong home/away dichotomy for this team. When playing at home, the Titans have won all but two games, which both went to overtime. Seattle backers hoping for an easy pounce-spot against the Titans might find things a little harder to come by than what they forecasted.

The Two-Headed Seattle Monster

Their win on MNF notwithstanding, this hasn’t been a great period for the Seahawks, going from 5-2 to 7-7 and dealing with injuries to boot. You see their recent stretch of games, and it has been absolutely brutal—a road game in LA against the Rams, two games against the Niners, the Ravens, the Cowboys, and the Eagles. And while they weren’t really winning until MNF when they saved their season with a win over Philly, they’ve still been delivering for those backing them against the spread, with four covers in the last five weeks. We see a team still playing very hard for Pete Carroll.

Whether the Seahawks can make a real run in this last handful of games depends on a lot of things. And while the falloff from Geno Smith to Drew Lock at quarterback might not be earth-shattering, they’d certainly like to get Smith in there. It seemed like a game-time decision the last two weeks, which is unusual and makes one hesitant to say he will be ready for this game, though it seems like he’d be due to get back into action this week. In either event, Tennessee backers this week might like the cross-conference road-trip where a lot of Seahawks players haven’t even seen this stadium, but in light of who the Seahawks have been playing, is there a chance this just seems so much easier than who they’ve been facing? After spending the better part of two months taking on the best teams in the league, can Seattle benefit from less resistance this week?

Trouble for Tennessee in Week 16

Whereas Tennessee is good for the occasional spark or can even be reliable at a low threshold when taking on other suffering teams, this might be asking too much. To be taking on a team that has something to fight for might not be the best setting for the Tennessee attack to take hold. In their defense, they aren’t giving up. Guys like QB Will Levis (questionable) and a lot of players on both sides of the ball for the Titans are still trying to make a good impression, with a lot of marginal guys trying to show what they can do.

It’s just not going to be easy. And it’s hard to say a Seattle team is healthy when their starting QB is missing games, but they’re looking pretty squared away outside of that. They have both backs ready to go in Zach Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker, II. They have a nice 3-pack of receivers with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and a rookie receiver really coming around in Jaxon Smith-Njigba. And maybe with extra time, they can get a few guys back in the secondary, though their replacements did well against the Eagles on MNF. It’s just that the Seahawks are getting healthier overall, and that’s not good news for a Titans team where most of their wins are against teams dealing with some big issues.

Lay the Points on the Road Favorite

This has the appearance of a “if it looks too easy, it probably is” type of game for the Seahawks. With the teams they’ve been facing and the results they’ve been getting, it’s actually difficult not to forecast success in this spot. But Tennessee can be sporadically-difficult. The Seattle formula for success could potentially not deliver on a Nashville field where some weather is forecasted. It just seems like a strange time to go flat for the Seahawks, and I don’t think their strong showings against exponentially-better teams than Tennessee has been a mirage. I like Seattle to get out of town with the win and cover on Sunday.

Loot’s Prediction to Cover the Point Spread: I’m betting on the Seattle Seahawks minus 3 points.