Seahawks-Panthers: As I See It

A recap of what happened in Week 3 between the Seahawks and Panthers, as I saw it: Seaside Joe 1667

Entering Week 3, there was an argument to be made that the Carolina Panthers will be the worst team on the schedule for the Seattle Seahawks in 2023. Take that statement for exactly what it is meant to imply: There’s an argument.

It doesn’t mean that any of us know for sure at this point who the worst team is on Seattle’s schedule is, that list of possible answers may not be “short” until November at the earliest. However, we know of some teams that definitely aren’t going to be on it, right?

The 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys, Bengals, Browns, and Ravens aren’t going to be on it. And you never know who will work their way off of it: Not only have the Cardinals played their asses off so far this season, but Arizona beat the Cowboys on Sunday to prove that you don’t know until you know.

What I know for sure about the Panthers is that they entered Week 3 with the worst passing offense in the NFL, they were having an extraordinarily hard time scoring points, they haven’t been able to stop the run, the head coach has a reputation that far exceeds his resume, and winless Carolina had already lost two of their best players on defense (Jaycee Horn, Shaq Thompson) prior to the game.

When we get to January, will the Carolina Panthers have the highest 2024 draft pick of any team on their schedule? No, but maybe only because they traded it to the Chicago Bears for Bryce Young, who was scratched from playing in Sunday’s game, a 37-27 Seahawks win in a home game that figuratively and literally invoked memories of what it was like to play in Seattle during Pete Carroll’s best seasons as head coach.

The Seahawks accomplished a lot of things that I wanted to see against a team that could be as bad as the 0-3 Panthers appear to be through three games. The Seahawks also, for me, reinforced some of the concerns that I already had going into the game, problems that will need to be addressed before they play those teams that won’t be on that short list for “worst teams” by the end of the year.

I think we can all agree on that point without dampening the opportunity to celebrate being 2-1: The Seahawks have won two games that they needed to win!

AND, in addition to that, because we all watched the same game and experienced the same reality, Seattle will need to finish more drives with touchdowns instead of field goals, will need to play better against the pass, and will need Geno Smith to do a better job of protecting the football.

These are facts and they don’t disappear from history just because the Seahawks ended up with the most points at the end of the game.

Hopefully what happens is that the Seahawks get back players who have been injured, develop chemistry between new teammates while not losing football games, and are the best version of themselves late in the season, which is perfectly plausible and similar to many season’s past.

The Seattle Seahawks are 2-1 and they’ve scored 74 points over the past two games despite being down to as little as 20% of their starting offensive line and losing something like half of their secondary. There is plenty to be happy about so far this season, and a lot from Sunday, so here’s what I learned from the Seahawks 37-27 win over the Panthers, as I see it.

Why did the Seahawks beat the Panthers?

As I see it, the main reason that the Seahawks won—and won relatively easy—is that Pete Carroll’s staff out-coached Frank Reich’s staff.

If you didn’t catch my drift earlier, let me wave it over more bluntly: What’s so “good” about Frank Reich? This staff was hyped up as the “best new coaching team” in the NFL going into the year but so far getting acclaim on Twitter is the only thing that they’ve accomplished. Reich won a single playoff game with the Colts (WC over the Texans), he has a first-time OC (who doesn’t call plays), a DC who had a single year with the Broncos, and then I think people got very excited about the prospect of Josh McCown as the QBs coach.

Case in point, how many QB coaches get as much broadcast attention as McCown got on Sunday?

The Panthers look ill-prepared to play in Seattle, drawing eight false start penalties and 13 flags overall. We knew that the 2013 Super Bowl team was having a reunion this week, but nobody told us that 2005 would be there too.

Starting the game without Charles Cross, Abe Lucas, or Phil Haynes, then losing Damien Lewis midway through, the Seahawks didn’t seem to play any worse for the wear on offense and Shane Waldron dialed up probably his second great plan in as many weeks.

Geno Smith was sacked two times, giving him totals of 2, 1, and 2 this season. Compare that to last season: Geno was sacked at least three times in 11 of Seattle’s final 14 contests.

Pete Carroll wasted another challenge flag (seriously, couldn’t this be solved by hiring a minimum wage “Watch the broadcast and let us know if we should” job?) and some of the issues that I had coming into the week were not addressed, which I’ll get to shortly, but if I had to pin this win on a single advantage, I’d choose the Seahawks coaching staff vs. the Panthers coaching staff.

Maybe Carolina assumed that because of Seattle’s mediocre home record over the last two seasons that this was no longer a tough road game, because Reich didn’t seem to have any answers for their issues even well after it was too late to adjust.

Seahawks Players of the Game

As I see it, Jarran Reed was Seattle’s most valuable player on defense. There’s a lot of competition on offense, but I’ll edge DK Metcalf over Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet. Jason Myers is an easy pick on special teams.

Oftentimes, a player can get a first half sack prior to disappearing for the rest of the game and then we put him on a list of “winners” because he made one play. That’s not the case with Reed, who was dominant against Carolina’s offensive line throughout the contest.

Reed had eight tackles—a ridiculous amount for a defensive tackle and it ties his career-high—to go with 1.5 sacks, a batted pass, and a sum of pressures that I do not know yet but it’s a lot.

Outside of the second half against the Rams, Metcalf has been dominant this season. He looks like Shaquille O’Neal on a football field. Metcalf caught six passes for 112 yards and that gives him 12 catches on 14 targets with 187 yards over the past two games. Seattle needs a receiver like that more than ever, because though Tyler Lockett doesn’t seem to be playing worse this season by any means, he hasn’t been productive: Lockett had 34 yards on seven targets, giving him a total of 103 yards on 21 targets through three games.

He also caught a crazy two-point conversion and had two touchdowns last week. Lockett did have a stretch of games similar to this one in 2021 (around the time Russell Wilson was injured) and he finished that year with a hot second half to the season.

I mentioned in the Vision Board that I have been waiting for Ken Walker to emerge based on how he seemed to only be “a cut away” from breaking off big runs against the Lions. We saw almost the best version of Walker against the Panthers, carrying the ball 18 times for 97 yards and two touchdowns, while catching three passes for 59 yards. It was Walker’s first career-game having over 50 rushing yards and over 50 receiving yards. The 156 total yards is the second-best of his career.

Charbonnet had nine carries for 46 yards and both players had over 5.0 YPC; 40 of Charbonnet’s rushing yards came in the fourth quarter.

Myers brings up his season average considerably by going 5-of-5.

I’m also pretty sure I heard chants of “More Joe-Joe! More Joe-Joe! More Joe-Joe!” after Jake Bobo scored his first career touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. What else could they have been screaming?

What changes vs. Giants?

As I see it, Seattle is going to be a little healthier, depending on how bad the injuries suffered on Sunday turn out to be. Pete has already confirmed that Jamal Adams and Riq Woolen will play in Week 4 against the Giants on Monday Night Football. He also thinks that Charles Cross could return.

How does that change Seattle’s secondary math? Well, Woolen should help shore up two of the Seahawks’ most obvious weaknesses against the Panthers: Mike Jackson and Artie Burns. Having Woolen and Devon Witherspoon on the boundaries is the dream.

Tre Brown is in concussion protocol following a hit on Sunday. The Seahawks also had injuries to Dre’Mont Jones, Darrell Taylor, and Lewis.

What NEEDS to change vs. the Giants?

As I see it, I still put Geno’s first two weeks in perspective based on the ongoing offensive issues that the Seahawks had in the first half and if you’re still mad at me for my review of Smith’s season so far, you have to be angry at Pete Carroll too:

As I said last week, the number one cause of amnesia isn’t frying pans, it’s winning.

I didn’t see a single defense of Geno Smith in the first half, as he threw an interception and needed Lockett to break up two others from being caught by the defender.

Seattle’s first half drives went:

• 0 yards, punt

• 50 yards, FG

• 64 yards, FG

• 46 yards, FG

• -6 yards, INT

• 54 yards, FG

There’s GOOD in there, which is that the Seahawks had four of six drives reach opponent territory. There is also the reality that suggests, “If you play this way against a better team, they’ll make you pay for it.” Seattle was only down 13-12 to the Panthers at halftime, do you expect that to be the score against the 49ers if they play poorly on third downs and don’t protect the football and settle for field goals?

The Seahawks went 3-of-13 on third downs, which makes them 10-of-33 on the season.

Yes, he was working behind a backup offensive line. But you can’t praise the job that they did and then blame them for Geno’s poor first half performance. There weren’t any unusual issues I saw caused by the offensive line. Seattle also has a top tier supporting cast and Carolina’s defense hasn’t proven anything until they play the Vikings, Lions, Dolphins (next three games) instead of the Falcons and Saints.

I didn’t have to call the Seahawks offense “lousy”. That was Pete.

Not the rebound that the defense was hoping to have

As I see it, the Seahawks had to demand to do better against Andy Dalton, Adam Thielen, D.J. Chark, and Carolina’s offensive line.

The Seahawks went 3-of-13 on third down, the Panthers went 10-of-19 on third down.

That’s now a season total of 27-of-49 on third down defense. That’s almost three times as many third down conversions allowed as converted.

You wouldn’t think it possible because the Seahawks dominated the second half and held a 17-point lead late in the game, but I mentioned last week that Seattle has given up a lot more 75-yard drives than they’ve allowed.

Well, the Seahawks come out of Week 3’s win giving up three more 75-yard touchdown drives to the Panthers (that makes nine on the year already) and Seattle’s longest of the day went for one yard less than 70. (I can’t take another “nice” joke, that’s a TWITTER joke.)

“Oh who cares, 70-yard drives, shmeventy yard drives.”

It matters. It matters when you leave four points on the board on all four of your drives in the first half that ended in a field goal instead of a touchdown.

It matter when you can’t stop anyone on third down and allow three 75-yard touchdown drives per game when you haven’t had three yourself all season.

Defensively, as I said, the Rams and Lions have not had those long drives in their other games this year, they’ve only had that success against Seattle. The Panthers came into Week 3 with two 75-yard touchdown drives (out of 23 total drives) in their first two games, so they more than doubled their season total this week.

Outside of the second half of the Giants’ Week 2 game against the Cardinals (in which they scoured 31 of their 43 points on the entire season), New York’s had the worst offense in the NFL. The Giants longest drive against the 49ers on Thursday went for 49 yards and they only had two other drives that went for more than 25 yards (both 37), so what kind of defense do you want the Seahawks to have?

One that plays great against Daniel Jones or one that plays good enough against Daniel Jones?

Referral of the Week

As I see it, let me refer you to fifth overall pick Devon Witherspoon: Through his first two career games, Witherspoon has been everything he was advertised to be. Interestingly, teams have attacked Witherspoon so far this season and he had 11 tackles with two pass breakups against the Panthers.

It seems he’s consistently on the verge of his first career pick. Does it come next week against the Giants?

I could see it.

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