It’s been said before and it has to be said once again.
Champions until dethroned.
The Seattle Seahawks pulled away from the Carolina Panthers in the second half of Saturday night’s NFC Divisional Playoff clash. Pete Carroll’s club managed a 31-17 victory over Cam Newton and company and will host next week’s conference title game.
But what about the NFC South champions? In a game in which they would outgain the host ‘Hawks in total yards (362-348), outrush Carroll’s team (132-100) and actually run 16 more plays (68-52), it’s fairly easy to say that the team’s mistakes on offense proved to be extremely costly. And unfortunately for Ron Rivera’s club, his team picked up where they left off last week against the Arizona Cardinals.
Come again? Didn’t the Panthers defeat Bruce Arians’ club last week and set an NFL postseason record by holding the Cards to a paltry 78 yards of total offense.
That is correct. But Carolina also committed three turnovers in that win, keeping Arizona in that game despite their shortcomings.
We saw those mistakes once again at Seattle on Saturday. Three more Panthers’ turnovers (all by Newton) were key factors in the 14-point loss, with two of those miscues resulting in scores. A lost fumble late in the first quarter set up Seattle’s first touchdown of the game. Carroll’s team only had to drive 28 yards for the score. Down 24-10 in the fourth quarter, Cam was picked off by Kam…as in Chancellor, who returned the prize 90 yards for Seattle’s final touchdown of the contest.
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And while the Carolina defense had played better during the team’s recent winning streak, the Panthers were carved up by Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. While the third-year signal-caller only threw 22 times, his 15 completions covered 268 yards—a hefty 17.9 yards per strike. Wilson’s three touchdown passes covered 16 (Doug Baldwin), 63 (Jermaine Kearse) and 25 yards (Luke Willson). And while Rivera’s defenders did sack Wilson twice, Carolina failed to record a takeaway in the game.
While the Panthers did become the first NFC South team ever to win consecutive division titles, the team’s showing in the playoffs showed that there’s plenty of work still to be done. It’s also worth mentioning that Newton committed five of the team’s six turnovers in the two playoff games.
As usual, there’s plenty of blame to go around whenever a team falls short. However, when it comes to this setback, the Panthers simply shot themselves in the paw too many times.