Seahawk Sailor":1bom6vn3 said:
HawkFan72":1bom6vn3 said:
Carolina won in Week 6 because the Seahawks Offense couldn't get a 1st down in the 4th quarter. If Seattle gets one or two first downs in the 4th, Carolina doesn't have enough time for their comeback. It's as simple as that.
This was also pretty much the case last week against the Vikings. Twice, late in the 4th quarter, we should have put together even a halfway-sustained drive and ended the game. We couldn't. Twice.
It was also the case against the Bengals, if I remember correctly, and against several other teams we lost to or almost lost to this year. It's a theme, and one that needs to be addressed. If the offense clicks in the 4th quarter, we win. If not, who knows?
It's amusing how opposing team posters neutrally point out descriptive facts and statistics from past performances, and some of the Seahawk posters get all chippy and huffy and emotional at them, agenda-driven, as if "winning an argument on the Internet" meant something for the outcome of the game.
Yeah, we had a douchebag Cardinal poster (AZ_fan) recently, but most Carolina posters I've noticed recently, like carolinablue, seem to make a positive contribution to the discussions.
I know I sure like having the "enemy" perspective, learning info on their teams that is glossed over in the media, etc.
To me the reality of this game is that we are in for a dogfight--er, catfight. This year's Carolina is as good a team as we have faced in the playoffs. (Last year's Green Bay was pretty solid, mostly because they were the least-injured team in the league) Both teams have a legit shot to win. The outcome will largely depend on which coach and coordinators do the better job of exploiting the matchups that are there. The matchup it looks like Seattle can exploit is the Seahawks WR's against the Carolina secondary. However, that will depend on the matchup of the Seattle OL against the Carolina DL giving Russell Wilson at least the 2.5-3 seconds, picking up blitzers, etc., and on Bevell+Cable having a scheme and game plan that exploits the WR matchup edge, and doesn't get smoked on the OL-DL matchup. My hunch is that also depends on Pete giving Bevell the green light to go with an attacking, score-early-and-often game plan, rather than a conservative defensive slugfest approach.
On the Carolina side, they had (in their win) some advantages in their run game matchups (with Cam's running being the advantage that tipped the scale) against our D without Wagner and Kam, and with Cary Williams (
ukeface: ) at corner. What I recall about the earlier game is that on their long drives, they wore down the Seattle defense with their power running game, including Cam's runs, and got some timely passing completions, especially to TE Greg Olson, who definitely was a matchup advantage for them. Will those matchup advantages be present this time? Will either side have key players injured that alter the matchups during the game? Will one side come up with a difference-making game plan they are able to execute?
I recall in SB48, most of us here knew that Seattle's passing offense had a huge matchup advantage over Denver's pass defense. As it turned out, that advantage was the key, and Lynch runs pretty well got stuffed most of the game. Our quick and speedy D was also Kryptonite for Denver's short passing game, with rubber-arm Manning mostly unable to threaten deep. In this game vs. Carolina, we *should* have a similar advantage with our passing game, +/- Carroll/Bevell unleashing Wilson, but (to me) the matchup of Carolina's run offense vs. our run defense is a toss-up, TBD. Cam's running and scrambling is the X factor that could keep drives alive. The Carolina passing game alone can't beat us, but opportunistic passing set up by effective running could cause a lot of problems. I don't see our running game setting playoff rushing records against Carolina's front 7; if we can run well enough to keep their D honest, that's about all we can ask. The wildcard will be our pass protection against Carolina's pass rush, protecting Wilson long enough to get throws off. If Wilson is doing his old "hold the ball, hold the ball" routine Sunday, it won't be pretty.
