The Seattle Seahawks are double-digit favorites entering Saturday’s home playoff game against the Carolina Panthers, a team that reached the playoffs with a losing record.
Many people see this as a game the defending Super Bowl champs should win easily. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has been around too long to fall into that trap.
“The only place we’re favorites is outside of here,’’ Carroll said at the team’s practice facility. That’s somebody else’s concern. We know we are up against a really difficult opponent that challenges us in many ways. We have great respect for the players, their coach [Ron Rivera] and the way they do things.
“We’ve had nothing but tough games with these guys. We don’t need any more understanding than that, whatever the talk is on the outside. It’s doesn’t matter at all.”
The Seahawks have beaten the Panthers in each of the past three seasons, with all three of those games in Charlotte. But all three games were decided by five points or less, and the Panthers had the lead in the second half in each game.
“The way I look at it is that was the past,” said Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor. “Their team was in the past and our team was in the past. It’s a whole different ball game, a whole different team, and we’re looking to take a step forward and keep pushing.”
The Seahawks also go into this game hoping to break a long trend of post-Super Bowl failures. It’s been nine years since a defending Super Bowl champion won a playoff game in the following season, and 10 years since a team won back-to-back Super Bowls.
Ten games into this season, it looked like the Seahawks were heading down the same path at 6-4. But they found their swagger with six consecutive wins to close out the regular season.
“As you go through the journey of the season, you’re going to have some great plays and you’re going to have some plays that you wish you had back,’’ said Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. “But you respect the process of it all. I think our growth as a team and the plays that we’ve had to make when the game’s on the line, when our season’s on the line, we’ve always come up with those.
“We’ve always continued to find ways and be clutch in those moments. That’s what you want. That’s what championship teams do. They make clutch plays when they have to. We’ve been able to do that, and now it’s time to make those plays again. They’re definitely going to come up in the playoffs.”
