Welcome To Seattle, Carolina Panthers
It sure looked like it was going to be the Detroit Lions for a while there. One controversial call later, the Dallas Cowboys had pulled off an unlikely comeback and the Carolina Panthers were readying themselves for a trip to CenturyLink Field.
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After a wild weekend that was equal parts fun and sloppy, four teams have been trimmed from the NFL playoff picture and four more have advanced a round. The Seattle Seahawks, by way of their number one seed, didn’t have to fight for their lives this weekend. But next weekend will be different. Next weekend it’s Seahawks/Panthers.
The Seahawks should be plenty familiar with Carolina, who they beat 13-9 in week eight. Remember week eight? The Seahawks were 3-3 and the sky was falling. Seattle snuck away from that Panthers game with a win, and they’ve only lost once since then. The last time these teams faced, it could be argued that one of them turned a corner and saved their season.
Carolina’s position here is also plenty familiar to Seahawks fans, who not too long ago watched their 7-9 division champs somewhat unexpectedly win a playoff game. The Panthers were 7-8-1 division champs this season, then handled the Arizona Cardinals in the playoffs. I could talk about their postseason-record defensive effort, but I’m not sure that was anything more than Ryan Lindley being Ryan Lindley. Still, it’s worth a mention that Carolina looked superb on defense over the weekend.
But that’s nothing new. The Panthers closed out their season with a four-game winning streak, during which no team scored more than 17 points on them. And while the Cardinals were well short of full strength on offense against the Panthers, they weren’t as depleted defensively. The Cardinals are one of the best defensive teams in the league, and Carolina put up 27 points on them.
There’s a lot of talent on the Panthers’ roster, and even if that didn’t translate to an exceptional win total in the regular season, it makes them a threat in the playoffs. We all know how the Seahawks have performed at home in recent years, and so it’s hard not to look forward to this latest challenge with some kind of giddiness. It’s going down on Saturday the 10th at 5:15pm in Seattle.