Carolina Panthers

[blstoker]

In the fire storm that has followed the Wild Card round, it appears that many people are forgetting that there is football to be played this weekend. Our opponent, though having a losing record coming into the playoffs, is a professional football team, and we all know that once the playoffs start, the regular season no longer matters. Here's some things I think are of interest for the game.

Kelvin Benjamin. The media and fans aren't the only ones who think that Benjamin is Carolina's only WR, the Panthers appear to think so as well. Benjamin will be force fed the ball. Over a quarter of the season's targets went to Benjamin (about half to Benjamin and Olson), though only about half were completed. The rest of the team had a 64% completion rate.

Greg Olsen. He's been a solid receiving TE for years, though this season was his first with 1000 yards (1008, exactly the same as Benjamin), and he led the team in receptions. He's a very solid security blanket (56 first downs) who isn't flashy like Benjamin, but it just as dangerous (or more so). K.J. and Bobby will need to ensure that Olsen is limited in how often he can be used as a check down.

Cam Newton. He's never lived up to the hype of his rookie season, when he threw for 4000 yards and ran for another 700. Though people like to say he's improved as a passer, his numbers seem to be mostly stagnant the last 3 years, with this season being his lowest QB rating of his career. He still runs the ball - 7.4 attempts per game (same as Wilson), and put up over 500 yards rushing this season, despite missing 2 games (media has been saying he runs it less this year due to injury concerns, but he carries the ball 0.5 times more per game this year than last year).

Luke Kuechly. The other MLB from the draft in 2012, or at least as Seahawks fans see it. He's been a tackling machine since coming into the league (163 this year). He's got 27 tackles in 3 games against Seattle, including 7 in this year's matchup. He is the leader of their defense and will need to be accounted for.

5 Game Win Streak. There has been a lot of talk about Carolina's 5 game win streak, and how they are the hottest team in the NFL coming into the playoffs (with Dallas), but it's a sham. In their 5 games, only Arizona had a winning record, and they were so bad at the time that they had dropped 4 of their last 6 (losing to Carolina made it 5 of 7). The combined record of the teams they faced the final 4 weeks was 22-42. The last time Carolina beat a team that ended with a winning record and was near full strength was Detroit in week 2.

Defense. Carolina, despite comments to the contrary, has a weak defense. Though they ranked top 10 (10th) in yards allowed, they were just 21st in scoring. They were also very weak against the run (16th in yards, 27th in yards per carry) despite playing a pass heavy schedule.

Turnovers. Carolina was also a top 10 team in forcing turnovers (26) and were very good at recovering fumbles. Seattle turned the ball over only 14 times this season (3rd fewest), but were fortunate to only lose 7 of their 23 fumbles. Seattle also has a +10 turnover margin, Carolina +3.

CLink. The last time Carolina was in Seattle was a 31-14 shellacking in 2010 (28 unanswered second half points). Seattle is 6-2 all time against the Panthers, and both loses were in Charlotte. This game should look more like the one back in the 2005 playoffs (34-14), but they can't look past them or bad things happen.

 

[WizardHawk]

There is always a chance of bad shit happening and I really hate that we lost Hill after he just started to hit his stride, but this does feel like a mismatch.

The biggest dangers to me aren't the weapons you discussed above, but rather apathy/not taking them as seriously as they should, and coming out flat after their bye this week. Neither are likely and aren't enough alone to come up short in this game. But mix this with any other craziness and they could lose it.

Really does feel like a game they should dominate from wire to wire.

 

[blstoker]

There is always a chance of bad shit happening and I really hate that we lost Hill after he just started to hit his stride, but this does feel like a mismatch.

The biggest dangers to me aren't the weapons you discussed above, but rather apathy/not taking them as seriously as they should, and coming out flat after their bye this week. Neither are likely and aren't enough alone to come up short in this game. But mix this with any other craziness and they could lose it.

Really does feel like a game they should dominate from wire to wire.

Yeah, though players are different than fans, there seems to be a lot of people who are just handing this to Seattle and taking for granted that we'll be playing next week. Gotta look at the team at hand. They may have been 7-8-1 this year, but they were 12-4 last year with the same offensive output. They get their defense to step it up in Seattle and this game could be interesting.

 

[Anointed One]

I think this game will go down to the wire personally... I'm not that confident with our offense or special teams... It has the making of being another, low scoring game imo... 13-10 type of a game...

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Going to be a close game, I don't really think the Seahawks discount the Panthers as a opponent, because they always play the Seahawks tough, but at the same time, it isn't the type of game to get the Seahawks hyped. It will be a close game and Seahawks fans will have to listen to those that point out that the Seahawks struggled against a team with a losing record. That's OK, because we all know it's about matchups and the Seahawks will be fine as long as they log a win here.

 

[MrS]

The more I think about this game, the more I feel like we dominate them. their offense really is not impressive, newton will get eaten alive by our defense, and I think our offense will be fine as long as we dont have turnovers like we did against the rams.

I feel like our defense will put the offense in good position multiple times and they will make it count.

nobody is talking about the fact that our OL Will be in tact for the first time in quite a while, cant discount that. while we did not have great offensive output the last 6 games that we won handily, we also were playing quite a few backups on the OL.

 

[blstoker]

nobody is talking about the fact that our OL Will be in tact for the first time in quite a while, cant discount that. while we did not have great offensive output the last 6 games that we won handily, we also were playing quite a few backups on the OL.

It'll be nice to get Unger back, that's for sure, but the offense did just fine those last 6 games. They averaged 392 yards per game, and the two low performances were SF (290) and Arizona (293), two good defenses in their own right. In fact, the offense averaged over 400 yards a game over the last 8 games (7-1) while the defense gave up less than 230 (only 1 game over 300 yards allowed). If the offense had done that all season, they would have ended up 5th in yardage and 9th in scoring, to go along with 1st and 1st on defense.

If our offense gets 400 yards and 24 points on Saturday (the averages the last 8 games), I think it will easily be a win.

 

[SonnyCID]

This is the first prime time game at the Clink since week 1, theyre going to crush em.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

I think our O steps it up ... Rams D was a problem last week ... Matchup issues ... Russ takes it to another level come playoff time ....

 

[Anointed One]

FYI, they're playing the Panther's/Hawks game from earlier on this season on NFL Network...

 

[Anointed One]

Haushka drills a 58 yard field goal w/ 5 or 6 yards to spare...

 

[Anointed One]

BTW, isn't it awesome being the "BULLY" instead of being bullied?

 

[Uhsplit]

12's know it's playoff time. The house will be rockin`.
The team will feed off of that and the tone will be set early.

 

[Podunkparte]

I said 24-6 and I stand by it. I'm confident as a fan and have no qualms about the team feeling the same way.

Why? Pete Carroll. The only thing this team knows is to take the season week to week. Every week is a championship week. Look passed no one. Go 1-0 every week.

That all sounds familiar because it's been ingrained into these guys day after day. I don't think it's possible for this team to take a playoff game at home lightly. We will pound the Panthers Saturday.

 

[dude82]

It was just reported that Star Lotulelei has been ruled out for the game with a broken foot, which is a blow to the Panthers defensive line. That's good for the Hawks, of course.

Panthers DT Star Lotulelei (foot) out for playoffs - NFL.com

 

[octagondd]

I believe we hammer them as well. talking heads want to make it seem like good matchup to bring more eyeballs to the game, but it is a huge mismatch. Any time our defense can make a team one dimensional it is bad news for that team. Yes they have a couple receivers and an ok RB, but Stewart will go nowhere and then it will be on the hobbled Kam to make it happen. This will result in T/Os. Our offense will run on and over them.

We don't put up huge scores because we play ball control clock management, so I would say we score in the low 30's and they score 14 or less. Specifically I think 30-13.

 

[octagondd]

hobbled Cam, not Kam.

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

I think the game will be close early on but Seattle's D will force a couple of turnovers and the offense bangs them home for a couple of touchdowns and deflates Carolina's run for an upset.

 

[Wedgie]

I seem to definitely be in the minority here.

I think it is going to be a epic episode of prison sex for the Panthers at the clink.

Hawks are due for a 48-10 win, they had a few like that last year, and I think we are going to see one this week.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

I seem to definitely be in the minority here.

I think it is going to be a epic episode of prison sex for the Panthers at the clink.

Hawks are due for a 48-10 win, they had a few like that last year, and I think we are going to see one this week.

If they score 48 on that nasty Carolina D I'll probably ruin my underwear.