Patriots vs. Seahawks: Latest Expert, NFL Player Predictions for Super Bowl 2015

Football fans eager for a more competitive Super Bowl will enjoy the dissenting opinions on which team will win Sunday's big game.

There's no clean favorite between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, two No. 1 seeds and popular picks to win their respective conferences all along. As of Wednesday afternoon, Odds Shark gives New England just a one-point edge. 

Will Seattle's top-rated defense procure back-to-back titles, or can New England circumvent controversy and return to glory? As always, everyone will spend the week giving their two cents of the final outcome, so let's dive into expert opinions around the Web.

Latest Predictions

As a company loyalist, let's start right here at Bleacher Report, where 16 NFL writers made their Super Bowl predictions. Given the close nature of this matchup, one would have expected an even split, but 11 experts picked Seattle to prevail.

National Lead Writer Mike Tanier, who picked the Seahawks to win by the narrow score of 19-17, anticipates a tough, low-scoring affair similar to the Patriots' last two Super Bowl losses. 

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One thing to keep in mind while trying to predict the outcome of this game is that the scores of the two Giants-Patriots Super Bowls were 17-14 and 21-17. The Patriots had better offenses in those two games than they have this year, and while they were facing defense-oriented opponents, neither the 2007 nor 2011 Giants defense can come close to the 2014 Seahawks in terms of quality. It doesn't make much sense to predict a very high score.

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AFC East Lead Writer Erik Frenz, however, believes New England will adjust to the challenge ahead and find holes within Seattle's swarming defense.

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The Patriots offense has been one of the most adaptable in the league this season, alternating freely and seamlessly between a pass-happy and a smashmouth attack. We've already seen them fare well against good pass defenses by spreading them out, neutralizing the pass rush with a quick-hitting pass attack and allowing Tom Brady to find the favorable matchups. That will probably be the plan of attack this week, with a spread attack to give Brady as many options as possible and allow him to throw away from Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman.

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Only three writers forecasted a double-digit outcome, and interestingly enough, all three came in Seattle's favor. While some analysts remember last year's blowout over the Denver Broncos, everyone rolling with New England cautiously did so by six points or less. 

CBS Sports' eight-person panel proved more torn, as four picked Seattle while the other four sided with New England. One of those to choose the Pats, Pete Prisco, took a simplistic rout in a separate piece, citing the distance between quarterbacks Tom Brady and Russell Wilson.

"The reality is that one is great, and one is simply good," Prisco wrote.

Yet he also talked to San Diego Chargers safety Eric Weddle, who explained to Prisco what makes Wilson such an effective player.

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The biggest thing with Russ is that he is that never-say-die guy. He's going to fight and make plays outside the pocket, more so than inside. Look at all his plays. When he does gun, three-step, five-step or straight drop, five-step, seven-step, he's not that good. That's just reality. I can back it up by the film. He runs around for five seconds and makes a huge play. He's such a great downfield thrower outside the pocket.

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If quarterback play proved the only deciding factor, the Seahawks would not have survived Wilson's four interceptions over MVP front-runner Aaron Rodgers' Green Bay Packers. LeGarrette Blount, Rob Gronkowski and Darrelle Revis, among others, will prove just as essential as Brady to ensuring a New England victory.

Keith Goldner of numberFire.com, via TheMMQB.com, crunched the data to draw an expected conclusion: "In a game that is listed as a pick 'em almost everywhere, our projection is no different. We give the Seahawks the slight edge and a 52.3 percent chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions."

Seattle's defensive advantage slightly offset New England's offensive edge, producing a 24-23 projected score in the NFC champion's favor.

Yet as a reminder of how close these two teams stack up, Pro Football Focus' Mike Clay forecasts a different outcome on a nearly identical tally. He has New England sealing the deal at 24-21, projecting 242 passing yards from Brady in an underwhelming MVP performance. 

The players are mostly too busy preparing for next year or discussing deflated footballs, but Torrey Smith gave Seattle a backhanded endorsement while playfully mocking the Legion of Boom's latest Sports Illustrated cover. 

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They are about to win it all and drop the hottest album of the year pic.twitter.com/dWimD1AUkU

— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) January 27, 2015"

At least he said they're about to win it all. That's all that matters, right?