Can Maryland Gov. Wes Moore keep up his hot streak picking football games?
In gambling parlance, when someone wins a lot, they are said to be on a heater. For Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, he’s been on an extended heater picking NFL and College Football Playoff games for WTOP the last several weeks.
Moore has missed only two games total, an achievement for anyone, much less a non-professional prognosticator.
So, is it luck or skill? For the governor, it’s a bit of both.
“Anyone who says it is all skill, is not telling the truth,” Moore told WTOP Friday. “Anyone who says it’s all luck is not telling the truth. It’s a combination of both.”
What’s the secret sauce?
“I study this stuff. I follow this stuff,” Moore said. “Who’s hot and who’s healthy and you always look at things like injury reports. …There are definitely analytics that I will put into it.”
“I always bet on gamers when it comes to playoff time and I think that’s worked pretty well,” he added.
Breaking down the big game
The attention this weekend turns to Sunday’s Super Bowl game, which pits the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots in Santa Clara, California.
Weighing into the last NFL game of the season, Moore said he found the Patriots to “maybe be the most interesting story” in the league, before noting the team hasn’t exactly “played the same level of competition during the year that Seattle has had to play.”
“I thought the Super Bowl champion was going to run through the NFC,” Moore said. “I just thought the NFC was producing better teams.”
The governor does believe the Seahawks defense team will be the difference in this game, explaining that the Patriots “are running into a buzz saw, and I think that buzz saw is the Seattle Seahawks.”
“This defense is so creative and so good,” Moore said. “Huge credit goes to their head coach.”
Mike Macdonald served as the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens between 2022 and 2023 after serving several season on the team’s defense staff. He was announced as the new head coach for the Seattle Seahawks in January 2024.
“We got a chance to see him up close, just how good he is,” Moore said of Macdonald’s time with the Ravens. “And if you watched how Baltimore’s defense fell off when he went to Seattle, that wasn’t because of a talent issue. That was because of a defensive coordinator issue.”
Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold, who is playing for his fifth team in the last six years, is also quieting his doubters with his second-straight stellar season. “Darnold is doing his job and Darnold, you know, has a real chip on his shoulder,” Moore said.
Seattle is favored by oddsmakers by around four and a half points. But, the governor said, “I think it’s probably going to be closer to 10 … I don’t think this game is going to be close.”
Moore’s Super Bowl spread
With his big prediction out of the way, the governor addressed more important matters, like the menu for his Super Bowl party.
“We’re Marylanders,” he said. “We’re going to be traditionalists.”
“So we’re going to have some crab cakes. We’ll have the chicken wings and all that kind of stuff for everybody else, but, make no mistake … the real MVP is going to be some crab cakes.”
And, yes, the Old Line State’s favorite seasoning will be involved. “Old Bay everything,” Moore said.