NFL Overreactions: Patriots will take on Seahawks in Super Bowl LX
USAT’s Prince Grimes breaks down the NFL Championship weekend and prepares for Super Bowl LX with the Patriots and Seahawks.
Sports Seriously
Intelligence used to be organic. Now it’s available with some artificial flavoring.
The artificial intelligence (AI) movement continues to take over the world, moving into every walk of life you can imagine. Now it’s not just about creating grocery lists or reminding you of a friend’s birthday. It’s also making picks and predictions for the biggest football game of the year.
With Super Bowl 60 just around the corner, everyone has a take on how they think the game will play out when the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots clash at Levi’s Stadium.
As if the talking heads, analysts, sports bettors, conspiracy theorists, film studiers and more weren’t enough, we decided to get AI’s take on what will happen in the big game.
USA TODAY Sports used the following prompts to generate Google Gemini’s predictions for Super Bowl 60:
- Can you predict the winner and score for Super Bowl 60?
- Can you predict who will be the Super Bowl 60 MVP?
Here’s a look at what Gemini cooked up for the NFL’s season finale, as well as some human-crafted analysis for each of the chatbot’s answers.
Super Bowl 60 predictions: Gemini AI picks winner of Patriots vs. Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks 24, New England Patriots 17
AI’s take: “While the Patriots’ defense is allowing fewer than 9 points per game this postseason, the Seahawks’ offensive balance—featuring All-Pro Jaxon Smith-Njigba and a physical run game—is slightly more dynamic. Plus, Sam Darnold has been playing with ‘nothing to lose’ energy that might finally exorcise the ghosts of his past.”
Our take: The Seahawks are the popular pick to win Super Bowl 60 and for good reason. They were the best team in the regular season and have been easily the best team in the postseason. New England’s defense certainly shined in the first three rounds, but that did come against some struggling offenses and with the added weather benefit in the divisional round and AFC championship game.
Seattle proved to be unstoppable on offense against the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, which could be the difference. The Patriots reached the Super Bowl despite scoring just 54 points in three games, while the Seahawks posted 72 in just two games. Granted, New England was facing three defenses that were top-10 in fewest yards allowed, but Seattle also fits that bill as well.
It’s hard to fault the chatbot for siding with the best team in the biggest game.
Super Bowl MVP: WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks
AI’s take: “Seattle wins a close, defensive battle 24–17. Sam Darnold plays efficient, turnover-free football, but Jaxon Smith-Njigba finishes with 11 catches for 145 yards and the game-sealing touchdown, taking home the Pete Rozelle Trophy.”
The chatbot noted that Smith-Njigba is the “best playmaker in the NFL this year” and a “target hog” while making the argument. It did say that Darnold would be the safe pick if Seattle wins, calling the quarterback’s candidacy “the ultimate redemption story,” even though it sided with the star receiver to take home the award.
Our take: Interestingly enough, Gemini opted to throw a wrench into the MVP voting. Quarterbacks have been the Super Bowl MVP in seven of the last 10 games, but that isn’t stopping the chatbot from putting its artificial faith into a wild-card option like Smith-Njigba.
Receivers Julian Edelman and Cooper Kupp were the two most recent non-quarterbacks to win the award, with Von Miller being the only defensive player to receive that honor in the last 10.
Of course, the Seahawks didn’t have a quarterback win the MVP when they won their only Super Bowl in franchise history. Linebacker Malcolm Smith was the MVP of Super Bowl 48, meaning there is some precedent for someone other than Darnold to get the most votes if Seattle wins.
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