Football Gameplan's Seahawks vs Panthers Playoff Preview

http://footballgameplan.com/football-gameplans-2015-nfl-playoff-preview-panthers-vs-seahawks/

Good evening Hawks fans! Good luck this week!

Em

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated. Go Hawks.

Seahawkfan80":4wt8l26b said:

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated. Go Hawks.

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Not a problem…should be a good game. Similar styles on both sides of the ball

Em, how good is Carolina? I'm not one to diss a team that whooped their division rivals, on the road, to get into the playoffs. But, the offenses and defenses they faced...meh...? Specifically how good is that Panthers defense?

It's odd, but for the Seahawks offense getting into the playoffs actually reduces the defense they face. They wont see a defense like the Niners, Cards or Rams. They actually play lessor defenses in the postseason. But, I don't know how to accurately judge Carolina.

pehawk":21jxgbgb said:

Em, how good is Carolina? I'm not one to diss a team that whooped their division rivals, on the road, to get into the playoffs. But, the offenses and defenses they faced...meh...? Specifically how good is that Panthers defense?

It's odd, but for the Seahawks offense getting into the playoffs actually reduces the defense they face. They wont see a defense like the Niners, Cards or Rams. They actually play lessor defenses in the postseason. But, I don't know how to accurately judge Carolina.

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I think fundamentally and stylistically they're the same team as you guys…the difference is that their passing game isn't where you guys' are at the moment. And if Philly Brown doesn't play, that limits them even more

pehawk":2p5rbfv5 said:

Em, how good is Carolina? I'm not one to diss a team that whooped their division rivals, on the road, to get into the playoffs. But, the offenses and defenses they faced...meh...? Specifically how good is that Panthers defense?

It's odd, but for the Seahawks offense getting into the playoffs actually reduces the defense they face. They wont see a defense like the Niners, Cards or Rams. They actually play lessor defenses in the postseason. But, I don't know how to accurately judge Carolina.

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Their D gave up a ton of points this year and they were blown out many times. They were 21st in scoring D and I remember thinking what happened to their D during the season. Their run D is good so that helps against the Hawks.

Who knows how good they are. Yeah they won 4 in a row, but before that they lost 6 in row. Weird team. Of course Carolina fans will say their team is different now!

We will see.

Yeah, they're a hard team to read. They've given up a lot of points, and I hang that on their secondary.

They have one of the best DL's in the league, which always matches up well against our run game. They also have two very good LBers. Their CBs are average at best and I wouldn't rate their Safeties as even average. Their strengths match up well against our strengths.

The problem you have is that I don't see their offense doing squat against our defense, at home, in the playoffs, in Prime Time. That leaves their defense on the field a lot, and I think that wears them down in the second half. Plus, one extra day isn't going to help their biological clocks at all, so the 2nd half is getting pretty late for their body clocks.

Also, Wilson is a lot better passer at home, so he's primed to take on their weakest part of that defense. Also, Richardson and Norwood are coming along a lot better and this is something (or someone) their defense hasn't seen yet.

It's really hard to tell what Carolina is going to do, but they're badly mismatched against our defense. The other issus is that even during their win streak they're giving up points on the road. We've only played them at their house, so it's hard to tell how much of a factor that will be.

If AZ. put up 14 on them with that crappy offense we are going to double that if not more.

I know that isn't fundamental, sound logic, but our offense is way better that AZ. and our defense at home is better than anyone's.

pehawk":uga2j3y7 said:

Em, how good is Carolina? I'm not one to diss a team that whooped their division rivals, on the road, to get into the playoffs. But, the offenses and defenses they faced...meh...? Specifically how good is that Panthers defense?

It's odd, but for the Seahawks offense getting into the playoffs actually reduces the defense they face. They wont see a defense like the Niners, Cards or Rams. They actually play lessor defenses in the postseason. But, I don't know how to accurately judge Carolina.

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IMO, I think Carolina's defense is better than statistics show, but they can be beaten. We had an uncharacteristic 2 turnovers (1 fumbled snap and 1 INT if I remember correctly) and Lynch only ran the ball 14 times that day. He did average 4.5 yards per carry though. You'll likely hear a lot of statistics about how the Panthers held Lynch to so few yards, but most analysts will skip over the part about him only getting 14 carries. If he gets 20+ he'll go for 100 yards this week.

You are correct in that the Panthers haven't faced many defenses that can do nearly what ours can do (most are our division rivals who come really close), and when they did face us, they couldn't muster a TD.

it's the NFL, and the Panthers have some talented guys, but I don't think they have nearly enough talented guys to match us across the board. Our offensive woes will likely make their defense look a little better than it really is early in the game, but by the second half, we should see us really separate from them.

As for our defense vs. their offense, Stewart had almost 5 yards per rush last time we faced them, but if I recall correctly, we were pretty banged up then. I don't expect to see the same this time around.


Thanks Em for the breakdown. Always love hearing your take on these games.

And now, their supposed "lynchpin" of the D-Line is out of the game.

2nd level here we come, and Mr. Lynch says hello.