Seattle Seahawks Versus Carolina Panthers Preview: Why the Hawks Should Bounce Back
The Seattle Seahawks come back home to CenturyLink Field to play against the Carolina Panthers in the National Football League Sunday night game of the week. The Seahawks remain first in the NFC West with a 7-3-1 record. The Panthers are surprisingly in last place in the NFC South with a 4-7 record. While Carolina has extremely dim hopes of making the playoffs, they are still a formidable foe for Seattle as the Seahawks look to bounce back from last week’s loss on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Key Matchups
The Seahawks offensive line against any other defensive line in the world
To call the offensive line’s performance against the Buccaneers awful is really doing a disservice to the world “awful.” The Seahawks allowed Tampa Bay to pressure quarterback Russell Wilson on 51 percent of Wilson’s drop backs. Wilson was sacked six times. In fact, Wilson has been sacked 14 times in the last four weeks. This is not a good late season trend for a team that wants to make a deep run in the playoffs. Wilson being under constant siege may have also been one reason he had his worst passing game, with a quarterback rating of just 38.8 percent, since week seven of his rookie year in 2012.
Seattle’s running game did not fare much better, although in the second half the Seahawks did not keep consistently running the ball when that part of the offense appeared to be more effective than throwing the ball. Head coach Pete Carroll said after the game that the coaching staff should have stuck with the run more.
The good from the all the bad that happened in Tampa is that the Seahawks failed in a way they have not done since Russell Wilson came into the league as the Seahawks snapped a stretch of 98 consecutive games, including the postseason, that Seattle did not have a lead or were within one score in the fourth quarter. This happening twice in a row? Unlikely.
The Panthers come into the game with the 29th-ranked pass defense in the league, but are ranked third in sacks. However, the Panthers will be without defensive end Mario Addison, who has 6.5 sacks this season, and All-Pro linebacker Luke Kuechly. Not that Carolina is without talent; they still have quite a few high end players in their front seven, but if the Seahawks can give Wilson more time to throw this week, there should be openings downfield.
That all starts, of course, with the offensive line who must make a huge improvement over last week. Plus, Seahawks center Justin Britt is expected to return this week, and he has been Seattle’s most reliable and consistent lineman this year.
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The Seahawks defensive line versus the Panthers offensive line
Carolina has had a miserable time with injuries this season. Their 4-7 record belies the fact of how good Carolina truly is when healthy. Many of those key injuries have come along the offensive line where the Panthers have been mixing and matching lineups more out of necessity than production. Out this week are five-time Pro Bowl center Ryan Kalil and his reliable replacement Gino Gradkowski. The rest of the line is also more pieces than a unit. Still, Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart ran for over 100 yards last week against a good Oakland Raiders defense, so there is potential for Carolina to get a push with this unit.
Seattle will most likely get defensive lineman Michael Bennett back, even though he might be playing with a limit to his number of snaps. With the return of Bennett, Seattle’s most versatile and talented lineman, the Seahawks should get more pressure against Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, especially with Newton’s line so banged up. Last week Seattle had no sacks against the Buccaneers, the second time that has happened this season.
Seattle has the opportunity to dominate the line of scrimmage from start to finish in this game defensively, something they failed to do in Tampa. If the Seahawks can do this, the game should be won by Seattle relatively comfortably.
That said, the Panthers have played seven games this year that finished with a difference of three points, but have lost five of those. The point being, the Panthers can and should keep this game close so getting to Newton is extremely important, especially early in the game to set the tone that Seattle is focused.
Prediction
Obviously the Seahawks do not lose very often. Last week’s game in Tampa can easily lead to overreaction that the Seahawks are regressing. Seattle played without safety Earl Thomas, corner DeShawn Shead, Bennett and Britt. After the game it was learned that running back Thomas Rawls was not completely healthy either. Seattle is much healthier for this week’s game. The Panthers are trending in the opposite direction, both in terms of health and won-loss record. The Seahawks should be the more motivated of the two teams, just as the Buccaneers appeared to be the more inspired team last week against the Seahawks.
Plus, there is the memory for Seattle that they lost twice to the Panthers last season, once at home in the regular season and the other game in Charlotte in the NFC Championship Game. For a team that uses motivation to the point the Seahawks do, fans of Seattle may see the most inspired performance from their favorite team in some time.
Seahawks 27 Panthers 17
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