Thursday Open Thread: DVOA Bowl Edition

The two top teams in the NFL by DVOA meet tonight in Seattle for an unusually good Thursday night game. If I were betting this game I would like the Rams +1.5 a lot. This isn’t me being a neurotic Seattle sports fan; I think the Seahawks are legitimately one of the 5 best teams in the NFL this year and may well be #2. But 1)I think there’s a material gap between the Rams and everyone else, 2)unlike the betting markets I think the injury to Cross hurts Seattle more than the injury to Adams hurts LA, 3)as I said before the first meeting I think you have to favor McVay/Stafford over McDonald/Darnold until the latter prove otherwise.

I hope this will result in a reverse jinx, but to go back to a discussion we had on the podcast I would love to know the process behind Kenneth Walker being the 3rd ranked RB by Pro Football Focus, and why I’m not invited to these bacchanals. Walker ranks 45th in success rate and 24th in yards/carry, behind a offensive line that is at least OK. If you want to tell me he’s marginally better than his numbers, OK — I personally don’t see it at all — but better than Jahmyr Gibbs or Jonathan Taylor or James Cook? Absolutely insane.