Nate Silver Makes His Super Bowl Prediction

Betters beware: Number-crunching guru Nate Silver has made his prediction for the Super Bowl. Sitting down at ESPN's First Take, the Five Thirty-Eight blogger forecast a matchup between the New England Patriots and—believe it or don't—the Seattle Seahawks. Silver's hosts didn't question his Pats pick, but the NFC's No.5 team? "In terms of the balance overall between offensive and defensive play, Seattle had that best balance throughout the year," Silver said, and "in the second half, were blowing people out by 50-to-7 scores and so forth."

But Silver said the Denver Broncos are the second-best team in the NFL, so the AFC championship will be the de facto Super Bowl, reports the Huffington Post. Which means, of course, that Silver would take the Pats to win it all. (More Nate Silver stories.)