Super Bowl XLVII prediction: Nate Silver sees Patriots and Seahawks in the big game

Nate Silver's predicting things again. This time the statistical savant has cast his gaze upon Super Bowl XLVII. During a Thursday appearance on ESPN's First Take, Silver told the world that he is predicting a Super Bowl matchup between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.

The Super Bowl prediction on ESPN @sportscenter by @fivethirtyeight: #Seahawks vs. #Patriots

— Josh Krulewitz (@jksports) January 10, 2013

Silver used the statistical measures at Football Outsiders as the basis of his Super Bowl prediction. He did note that the best game was a potential matchup between Denver and New England in the AFC Championship. Seattle was the best team in the NFC according to Silver's methodology.

"There's always uncertainty with any metric. I do think with a Seattle team that did come on so strongly in the second half, you worry, can other coaches readjust to them potentially? Talent-wise I'm not sure it's a team that has as much pure talent as certainly a New England or Denver might, and that's why the coaching could catch up to them eventually in the postseason, I think."

His election predictions at Five Thirty Eight proved to be remarkably accurate, despite insistence from some that his work was biased. That was nothing compared to explaining his predictions to the likes of Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, whose powers of denial far outstrip anything the John Birch Society could imagine.