Keys to Victory - Seahawks at Panthers

[Zod]

After a much improved game against the Falcons, fans are wondering which Panthers team will show up on Sunday. I am not ready to give up on this 1-3 team But lets face it, Seattle is also 1-3 team. Lets not count their win against Greenbay and the worst officiating call in years.

This is a very winnable game, here is how.

The Seahawks have a fantastic running back in Marshawn Lynch. Lynch is leading the league in rushing yards per game at 105. Throw in the fact that the Panthers run defense ranks 25th in the league will be trying to stop him and you can pretty much assume Marshawn will run for over 100 yards on Sunday..... but that's ok!

Lynch ran for 118 yards against St Louis, and lost the game 19-13. However, he only ran 20 times.

The Seahawks trailed the entire second half of the game. Once the Seahawks are playing from behind and forced to throw the ball, they put the game in the hands of their 5'10 rookie QB. (He is listed at 5'11 but that's being generous). That QB threw 3 picks last Sunday.

So this week the Panthers job is to make the Seahawks play from behind.

Seattle allows the second fewest points and yards in the NFL. YIkes,

Taking a closer look, their weakness appears to be stopping third down conversions, where they rank 24th in the league.

To win this game, the Panthers must put themselves in manageable 3rd down situations and do what they have not been good at so far this season, convert them. Firstly, this means play a perfect game in terms of penalties. Holding calls and false starts will definitely lose this game for us. Secondly, you are not going to go sideline to sideline on this group rushing the ball. They have the speed to shut down the option. Oh, and the wildcat? Tear it out of the playbook and burn it.

Play them straight up and win the battle in the trenches. A healthy Jonathan Stewart should be able to pick up some yards in this game. I don't expect Deangelo to do much against them unfortunately.

In short, the offense must take a slow methodical approach in this game. Field goals can beat this offensively inept Seahawks team, a big change from playing the Saints, Giants, and Falcons. There won't be many home run 20+ yard plays. Run the ball and complete underneath passes that the defense gives you. Yes, I know this goes completely against Chudzinski's philosophy, but I for one am hoping he will make this one game exception.

[Rubi]

Having Kuechly on the field every play will improve our defense as a whole. You stack the box and take away the run. Make them a passing team and I think we come out on top.

I know their defense is good. But we have Cam Newton. Falcons had been playing great defense and we let them off the hook.

If we don't win this game the season is lost and we can start looking towards April IMO

[Zod]

I'm not ready to call this a must win, but its close.

[beastson]

Quick question, why are we playing a 4 o clock game and we're on the East?

[Zod]

Quick question, why are we playing a 4 o clock game and we're on the East?

TV ratings in the Seattle viewing area would be really low at 10am. .

[jtnc]

I don't wanna get too cocky, everytime we "think" we have a better chance of winning-- we don't. Just like the Titans game last year.

[beastson]

TV ratings in the Seattle viewing area would be really low at 10am. .

The last time we played 4....

That's not really an advantage to us now is it

[jtnc]

The last time we played 4....

That's not really an advantage to us now is it

We weren't at home.

[beastson]

You know what really scares me about this game?

The read option will work and it probably will against Dallas, which means it'll continue to be the base point of our offense

[JoCoLoco]

They have the better coaching staff, we have the better team in terms of talented players. We'll see which trumps which.

[mwright350]

You know what really scares me about this game?

The read option will work and it probably will against Dallas, which means it'll continue to be the base point of our offense

I'm not sure it's going to work as well as you think. Their defense is pretty quick, they'll be able to make up ground fast and it'll make their job stopping the option easier.

[SOJA]

Agree with everything Zod, If we stop: Marshawn Lynch and get an early lead, I think we can pull this one out.

I don't expect Cam to have a big day passing, but he could have a huge day rushing, seeing that every pass play everyone will be blanketed (great secondary) and he will already be on the move (great pass rush)

[rayzor]

cam makes the wildcat completely unnecessary.

we have never been good at it. i really don't understand why now we insist on running it.

[Jase]

I keep thinking they're trying to set up a pass play to Cam to get him on the edge against much smaller DBs, but they never do it.