Hawks at Panthers - Divisional Round

[WizardHawk]

Early opening line is Carolina -3. A line that is sure to get some action and move one way or another. Really no idea where the sharps are going to go on this one. Depends on how far it drifts toward the Panthers I'm thinking. And those may depend on what the prognosis is for Lynch and Willson this week.

 

[WizardHawk]

BTW, this is the lowest of the opening lines. Over/under is 44pts as well.
So they are expecting a 23-20 kind of game.

Other opening lines:
NE -5 O/U 43
Ari -7.5 O/U 50
Den -6.5 with no O/U listed yet.

 

[dude82]

BTW, this is the lowest of the opening lines. Over/under is 44pts as well.
So they are expecting a 23-20 kind of game.

Other opening lines:
NE -5 O/U 43
Ari -7.5 O/U 50
Den -6.5 with no O/U listed yet.

That's fair. Our games with Carolina in recent years have been fairly close games.

 

[RegentDenali]

Early opening line is Carolina -3. A line that is sure to get some action and move one way or another. Really no idea where the sharps are going to go on this one. Depends on how far it drifts toward the Panthers I'm thinking. And those may depend on what the prognosis is for Lynch and Willson this week.

Giving the home team, especially in the NFL, -3 is basically declaring it a pickum. The books are going to be nervous over the odds because the Beastmode or not Beastmode factor. But you got to like that opening spread because it's showing a lot of love for the Hawks chances.

 

[Wolvie]

I've been waiting for our opportunity to play Carolina again for some time now. I only wish that they would have been able to go 16-0 in the regular season.

 

[JMR]

Looking forward to this one. Prisoner of the moment syndrome is going to cool perception of our chances, but we have everything we need to beat these guys. Plus, it's gonna be about 50 degrees warmer for this game than it was in Minny.

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

Sunday needs to get here quickly. I'm pumped for this rematch!

 

[JMR]

Line started at CAR -2.5 and is holding there so far. I take that to mean either the money is waiting until we find out about Lynch or they got the spread nailed.

 

[blstoker]

Wednesday Practice Report: Seattle Seahawks Running Back Marshawn Lynch, Tight End Luke Willson Fully Participate

Appears Lynch was a full participant, Luke Willson expected to play.

 

[gohusk]

This is all I wanted to see. I can't stand Cam and I wanted a chance for revenge. Tough game for sure but we've beaten them more often than not and Carolina is going to seem like a beach in Hawaii after the last game.

 

[dude82]

Wednesday Practice Report: Seattle Seahawks Running Back Marshawn Lynch, Tight End Luke Willson Fully Participate

Appears Lynch was a full participant, Luke Willson expected to play.

I'm glad to hear that Willson is expected to play. It's hard to know what to expect with Lynch. Hopefully he plays, but I think we're okay if he doesn't.

 

[JMR]

For me with Lynch, it's all about the events or gates to go through to keep hope alive that he might play. Does he get on the bus Friday? If yes, maybe he'll play. Does he get on the plane to Charlotte? Does he DB Cooper or land in Charlotte? Does he show up to the stadium Sunday? Does he put a uniform on? Does he come out for our opening possession?

 

[dkmightyhammer]

For me with Lynch, it's all about the events or gates to go through to keep hope alive that he might play. Does he get on the bus Friday? If yes, maybe he'll play. Does he get on the plane to Charlotte? Does he DB Cooper or land in Charlotte? Does he show up to the stadium Sunday? Does he put a uniform on? Does he come out for our opening possession?

I'm pretty confident he'll play. He was a last minute scratch last weekend which gave him another week to heal so I'd bet he plays. Even if he's only 75% he still helps the offense. Just having him standing behind Wilson forces the Panthers to play defense differently. They'll have to respect the run potential with Beast back there. That could, in theory, open up some other areas of the field and having Marshawn back there also makes the read-option harder to defend since Wilson and Lynch perform it so well.

Getting Luke Willson back is huge too. He's made some big plays for us in the past. We'll need every good player we can going against a very, very good Panthers team.

 

[JMR]

I'm pretty confident he'll play. He was a last minute scratch last weekend which gave him another week to heal so I'd bet he plays. Even if he's only 75% he still helps the offense. Just having him standing behind Wilson forces the Panthers to play defense differently. They'll have to respect the run potential with Beast back there. That could, in theory, open up some other areas of the field and having Marshawn back there also makes the read-option harder to defend since Wilson and Lynch perform it so well.

Getting Luke Willson back is huge too. He's made some big plays for us in the past. We'll need every good player we can going against a very, very good Panthers team.

I'm not getting any hopes up before the plane leaves for Charlotte tomorrow. If he's on it, then I'll start believing he may likely play.

 

[blstoker]

I'm not concerned about Lynch. If he plays - then fine, but if not, no big deal. I know that people have soured on Michael last year, but in his 4 games since coming back, he's averaging 65.5 ypg rushing and 4.4 ypc, and I'm pretty confident in my thinking that those numbers would be even better had it not been -6 in Minnesota.

 

[dkmightyhammer]

I'm not getting any hopes up before the plane leaves for Charlotte tomorrow. If he's on it, then I'll start believing he may likely play.

I'm not overly concerned if Lynch doesn't play, I just think he'd make the Panthers play us differently if he was in. Even if he's not completely healthy he still scares Defensive Coordinators.

It reminds me of the Broncos superbowl game with Elway and Davis. Davis got creamed near the end of the game and was nearly knocked out. Elway told him to hurry up and get in the huddle, but Davis said something like "I can't, I can't even see". Elway said something along the lines of "You don't need to see for this play, it's a fake handoff but if you aren't in there they'll never believe it."

I just think that's the kind of thing having a top rated RB can do for an offense. They add that threat that the defense has to always worry about.

 

[JMR]

I'm not overly concerned if Lynch doesn't play, I just think he'd make the Panthers play us differently if he was in. Even if he's not completely healthy he still scares Defensive Coordinators.

It reminds me of the Broncos superbowl game with Elway and Davis. Davis got creamed near the end of the game and was nearly knocked out. Elway told him to hurry up and get in the huddle, but Davis said something like "I can't, I can't even see". Elway said something along the lines of "You don't need to see for this play, it's a fake handoff but if you aren't in there they'll never believe it."

I just think that's the kind of thing having a top rated RB can do for an offense. They add that threat that the defense has to always worry about.

I agree -- having him out there is one more thing for the defense to worry about. And I also agree we don't "need" him to win this game. It's possible that in his current state, Lynch's presence in the game is a lot more about symbolism than production. Hard to measure the effect of the mental impact he may have on both teams by being on the field.

 

[dkmightyhammer]

I agree -- having him out there is one more thing for the defense to worry about. And I also agree we don't "need" him to win this game. It's possible that in his current state, Lynch's presence in the game is a lot more about symbolism than production. Hard to measure the effect of the mental impact he may have on both teams by being on the field.

Ya, that's kind of my feeling on it too.

 

[flyerhawk]

I'm not worried about the offense. The conditions were brutal. What I am concerned about is Kam. He had the big turnover, but he gave up a big penalty and then had some pathetic coverage to basically seal the game for the Vikings if they didn't shit the bet for us. He's not playing well at all. Now we have Olsen to worry about. And Lynch has to play. If he can't then there's really no point having him on the roster because it doesn't get any tougher than Carolina.

The penalty call on Kam was really suspect. Carroll actually contacted the league for an explanation and they said the reason was because Kam's hand extended outside of his body at the point of collision. IOW, the collision itself was not OPI.

He went for the batted pass on that big play by Rudolph and lost. Other than that he played well. I don't think a single play defines a player's game.

 

[blstoker]