The Seahawks open as home favorites against the Falcons for Week 3

The first game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons was played in the Kingdome on November 7th, 1976. The home team won, 30-13.

The Seahawks and Falcons played again on October 29th, 1979; this time at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta (obviously). The Seahawks won, 31-28.

The third matchup was on October 13th, 1985, in Seattle. Atlanta came out on the wrong end of a 30-26 score.

Round 4 was in 1988, and Seattle came out on top again, 31-20.

Fast forward to 2022.

Sunday’s matchup will be the 21st meeting between these 2 teams.

The Seahawks have won 12 of the previous 20 games, including a 12-6 mark in the regular season.

Will it be 13 out of 21 after Sunday’s matchup?

The oddsmakers at DraftKings Sportsbook say, “Yes,” with Seattle opening as a 2-point home favorite - which is sort of a backhanded compliment since it implies that Atlanta would be favored on a neutral field.

And, honestly, they’re probably right. I mean, we all saw the game against the San Francisco 49ers - or at least know what happened (spoiler: it wasn’t good).

Meanwhile, 350 miles south of Levi’s Stadium, the Falcons, after digging themselves a 25-point hole, scored 24 points over the game’s final 25 minutes and very nearly handed the defending Super Bowl Champions their second loss of the year. It took a late interception and a fumble recovery, but the Los Angeles Rams managed to hold on for a 31-27 victory, and sent Atlanta home with an 0-2 record.

Will Atlanta be 0-3 a week from now?

A better question might be Can Seattle score at least 27 points?

Why 27?

Because it took 27 points for the New Orleans Saints to beat the Falcons, by a single point, in Week 1, and 27 points is where the Falcons landed in their failed comeback against the Rams.

My gut says that Seattle (-140) will need at least 27 points to beat the Falcons (+120) at Lumen Field on Sunday.

Given the fact that Seattle’s offense has now gone scoreless for 6 straight quarters, that seems like it might be asking a little too much.

That said, it wasn’t a coincidence that I started this article with a trip down memory lane. As was previously mentioned, the Seahawks have faced the Falcons 20 times prior to this week’s matchup.

But here’s some new information ...

In 15 of those 20 games, the Seahawks have scored at least 27 points, and Seattle’s average against Atlanta is 27.55.

So, historically, the answer is, “Yes, Seattle can score at least 27 points.”

Will they though?

The oddsmakers have set the Over/Under on the game at 42.5 points so ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Note: I was going to stop there, but here are a couple of other potentially noteworthy items for those of us who might be thinking about placing a wager ...

One. Atlanta has scored an average of 25.6 points in the 20 games against the Seahawks ... which is only 1.95 points fewer than Seattle has averaged ... which is pretty much exactly what the opening line for Sunday’s game is.

Two. Seattle is 4-5 against the Falcons under Pete Carroll overall, but 4-3 against them in the regular season.

Kickoff is a 4:25 PM Eastern Time on FOX