Week 5: Seattle Seahawks (2-2) @ Carolina Panthers (1-3)

[jWILL253]

The Seahawks are coming off of a confusing, yet terrible lost to the Rams in St. Louis. After starting out hot with an 80-yard TD drive, capped by NFL leading rusher Marshawn Lynch's 18-yard score, the Hawks fell flat on passing offense, special teams, and 3rd down defense, and ended up losing to the Rams 19-13. The Hawks have the worst passing attack in the NFL, only averaging 130.8 YPG, and rookie QB Russell Wilson has a QB rating of 45.4 on 3rd down, also worse in the league. However, their rushing attack and overall defense remain as strong as ever, with Lynch gaining over 100 yds twice this season. The Hawks want to avoid going under .500, and to do so, they will need a strong performance to not only keep the Panthers' defense from pinning their ears back, but to avoid any further controversy at the quarterback position.

The Panthers have been reeling, as of late. Other than a Week 2 win over the win-less Saints, the Panthers have had trouble maintaining any kind of consistency. Their defense has had trouble containing elite QB's, as Eli Manning, Drew Brees & Matt Ryan all had huge games against them. However, that same defense's pass rush is tied for 7th in the league with 12 sacks on the season. Sophomore QB Cam Newton is on pace to duplicate his Rookie of the Year numbers, although those same numbers haven't exactly paid off in the win column. It remains to be seen if the Panthers can put up stellar offensive numbers against teams with vaunted defenses, and this game against the 2nd-ranked Seahawks defense (the same Hawks defense that sacked Aaron Rodgers 8 times in the 1st half of the infamous Monday Night Football fiasco in Week 3) should provide a good test for this highly explosive, yet notably inconsistent offense. Specifically, their rushing attack has the potential to overwhelm opponents, as the Panthers' 11th-ranked rushing attack doesn't exactly speak well for the amount of talent in the backfield; Newton, DeAngelo Williams & Jonathan Stewart are all averaging over 4 yards per carry.

Will the Hawks finally get Wilson on track? Or will the Panthers finally prove that their offense is a nightmare for ANY defense?

Sound off!

[thaima1shu]

Always afraid of how the Seahawks will play on the road regardless of opponent. So hard to predict. All I know is no matter what happens, I'm sure there will be way more QB controversy talk after this game. Hurray....

[jWILL253]

Quote: Originally Posted by thaima1shu

Always afraid of how the Seahawks will play on the road regardless of opponent. So hard to predict. All I know is no matter what happens, I'm sure there will be way more QB controversy talk after this game. Hurray....

Yeah, according to ESPN, the Seahawks are 6-20 on the road since 2009. Hell, we've been terrible on the road before that, lol. I think for us to win, they gotta let Russell Wilson loose, and try to counter teams blitzing up the middle with more RB screens. Because even if Wilson is uber-efficient with the conservative gameplan, 25 attempts per game isn't gonna cut it in this league, especially when Wilson is facing the kind of pressure that Arizona put on him week-after-week. With that being said, we can't ignore our strength either: we have the NFL's leading rusher, and the Panthers have the 25th ranked rush defense.

[RoundingThird]

I'm liking the Panthers in this one. Seahawks don't have anyone to stop Newton. 24-14 Carolina.

[jWILL253]

Quote: Originally Posted by Po1soNNN

I'm liking the Panthers in this one. Seahawks don't have anyone to stop Newton. 24-14 Carolina.

Aaron Rodgers & Tony Romo say "Hi"...

[Jr.]

Marshawn Lynch is going to run wild on the Panthers. I can see him going for 120+ and multiple TDs.

The Panthers run game has been Jekyll and Hyde so far, but this will be the first time this season that Jonathan Stewart will play back to back games, and they have been exponentially better with him playing. I think the Panthers will run a bit, simply because their run game is not conventional. The pass game will struggle though. The defense and special teams will likely have to come up big and give the offense good field position for the Panthers to score in the 20s, which is what they'll need at minimum to win this one.

I think the Seahawks pull this one out 20-17

[thaima1shu]

So yeah, if Seattle wins, the entire NFC West will be over .500.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Again, I don't like to make score or win/loss predictions for individual games. Guess I'm superstitious that way.

However, I'm thinking that if our passing offense does not get on track (regardless of the run game) this weekend, I think it likely Flynn might get the nod for the Patriots game. The division is too tight right now.

Personally, I believe RW can handle a larger role in audibles and using more of the playbook, and passing on 1st and 2nd down. We are going to find out if Pete can allow some flexibility in what he likes to do (win with defense, and ball-control, grinding offense) to allow RW a chance to flourish.