Seahawks' come-from-behind wins in playoffs

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The resilience is encouraging but this could just as easily been titled "Seahawks struggle early in playoff games."

Fun stat, but I think if there's one team we can ill afford to do the slow start with.. its Carolina.

Hasselbeck":2isytsai said:

Fun stat, but I think if there's one team we can ill afford to do the slow start with.. its Carolina.

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I actually feel the opposite. I am more worried about Carolina playing from behind than with a lead. Newton is not a mentally tough QB and Carolina has blown some big leads this season. Their running game is not quite as good as their 142 yard average would suggest, and with Wagner back, I could see the Panthers having a lot of "run run pass punt" series if they are holding a lead.

Newton is pretty good at mounting comebacks though, so long as they aren't TOO big.

Wilson is a mentally strong QB, but the Seahawks are kind of in the same boat for different reasons: the defense doesn't like holding leads this year, and the running game, while good, has not been as good as past years at salting away games with clock killing drives in the 4th quarter.

Of course, you always want to have the lead, but whoever has the lead in this game is going to be nervous as hell.

kearly":1v4o60ve said:

Hasselbeck":1v4o60ve said:

Fun stat, but I think if there's one team we can ill afford to do the slow start with.. its Carolina.

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I actually feel the opposite. I am more worried about Carolina playing from behind than with a lead. Newton is not a mentally tough QB and Carolina has blown some big leads this season. Their running game is not quite as good as their 142 yard average would suggest, and with Wagner back, I could see the Panthers having a lot of "run run pass punt" series if they are holding a lead.

Newton is pretty good at mounting comebacks though, so long as they aren't TOO big.

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I disagree about Cam not being mentally tough. To do what he did in the 4th quarter against you guys this year after he pretty much stunk up the joint for the previous 3 tells me that much.

And we tend to sit on leads for whatever reason...see the Giants game. We simply cannot afford to play like that this week. We have to play well for 4 quarters or we lose this weekend. And I know our defense played well the first time considering the circumstances, but I don't have as much faith with our secondary right now.

carolinablue":rin3kk4o said:

I disagree about Cam not being mentally tough. To do what he did in the 4th quarter against you guys this year after he pretty much stunk up the joint for the previous 3 tells me that much.

And we tend to sit on leads for whatever reason...see the Giants game. We simply cannot afford to play like that this week. We have to play well for 4 quarters or we lose this weekend. And I know our defense played well the first time considering the circumstances, but I don't have as much faith with our secondary right now.

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Even before Seattle choked away the game late, Cam had two 80 yard TD drives to his name. So while his numbers looked really bad, it felt like he was competitive in the first three quarters. I do think Cam is a solid comeback QB when the game is close. It's when the game starts to get sideways that Cam implodes. Russell's been in some sideways games and never lost any of them by more than 10 points, and he won quite a few of them.

Russell has choked away some leads this year, but prior to 2015 Russell Wilson with a lead was about as automatic as it gets in the NFL.

I think the real measure of mental toughness is how a QB responds to a sideways game where a blowout is on the verge of happening to him, or how he responds to another team making a strong comeback attempt on him.

There are a lot of iffy QBs - Jay Cutler, Matt Ryan, Andy Dalton, and Matt Stafford - who are statistically very good at 4th quarter comebacks but are still thought to be mentally weak because they struggle in more emotionally difficult scenarios. Football strategy is often designed to create positive momentum for trailing teams (prevent defense, the leading team plays conservative offense, etc), so making modest comeback attempts isn't really as heroic as it seems because the situation is tailor made for the trailing team to seize momentum and for the leading team to play conservative and scared. Playing well as a comeback QB when you have momentum on your side doesn't necessarily make you mentally tough. It's when momentum is going against your team and you stand firm that mental toughness is shown best.

kearly":2tbyn3lf said:

carolinablue":2tbyn3lf said:

I disagree about Cam not being mentally tough. To do what he did in the 4th quarter against you guys this year after he pretty much stunk up the joint for the previous 3 tells me that much.

And we tend to sit on leads for whatever reason...see the Giants game. We simply cannot afford to play like that this week. We have to play well for 4 quarters or we lose this weekend. And I know our defense played well the first time considering the circumstances, but I don't have as much faith with our secondary right now.

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Even before Seattle choked away the game late, Cam had two 80 yard TD drives to his name. So while his numbers looked really bad, it felt like he was competitive in the first three quarters. I do think Cam is a solid comeback QB when the game is close. It's when the game starts to get sideways that Cam implodes. Russell's been in some sideways games and never lost any of them by more than 10 points, and he won quite a few of them.

Russell has choked away some leads this year, but prior to 2015 Russell Wilson with a lead was about as automatic as it gets in the NFL. I think the real measure of mental toughness is how a QB responds to a sideways game where a blowout is on the verge of happening to him, or how he responds to another team making a strong comeback attempt on him.

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I know all about Russell. Followed him while he was at NC State. I would say he has always been mentally tough.

As for Cam, early in his career I don't think he handled losses well. Even in situations in games we were winning when something was off with him he'd get upset at himself and maybe he would let it get to him. This year though I don't really see that. The Giants game was a good example of that. When the Giants stormed back in that game to tie it up the camera panned to Cam...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcMCvo_c7NY

carolinablue":1nsfn2wg said:

As for Cam, early in his career I don't think he handled losses well. Even in situations in games we were winning when something was off with him he'd get upset at himself and maybe he would let it get to him. This year though I don't really see that. The Giants game was a good example of that. When the Giants stormed back in that game to tie it up the camera panned to Cam...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcMCvo_c7NY

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I agree that this year Cam has been better. Really it was only the Atlanta and Giants games where he looked like he was lacking mental toughness to me, the rest of the games he battled all the way and never doubted himself.

I dunno, I agree that Cam's mental toughness has been there all year for the most part, but I think our best chance at forcing mistakes from him is developing a lead and perhaps taking away a bit of them leaning on the rush. I think he's dangerous on a comeback, but not as dangerous with the additions of Wagner, Kam, and Lane to take away the easy "throw at Cary Williams" option.