The 7-5 Seahawks play a feisty 4-8 Panthers team in Week 14. For Seattle to have any real chance at the postseason this season, they need to beat Carolina. Not that the Panthers will be a pushover because they won’t. But Seattle is the more talented team.
But Seattle needs to play as a team where it matters most: ON defense. An offense, of course, needs cohesion along the offensive line but a great running back or quarterback can help make up the difference when the blocking breaks down. If a defensive line breaks down, a defense can get gashed for explosive plays and get beat. This happened to Seattle in Week 13 against the Raiders.
And the Panthers are a funny team. They have changed their coach, and their quarterback, and traded away the best player all this season, and yet they are somehow even better now than they were earlier in the year. In the Panthers’ last six games, they are 3-3 with one of those losses coming in overtime.
Three Seahawks that need to perform versus the Panthers in Week 14
Tyler Lockett could have a huge game against Carolina
Carolina’s pass defense isn’t atrocious. In fact, though the Panthers generate little as far as pressuring opposing quarterbacks – the Panthers are 22nd in sacks with 25 and are 23rd in sack percentage at 5.7 percent of pass attempts – the secondary has mostly held up. But Carolina doesn’t have a lot of depth in the secondary.
Cornerback Jaycee Horn is a potential star and will likely be matched up against DK Metcalf a bunch. But this should leave Tyler Lockett quite a bit of room on lots of different kinds of routes to do a lot of damage. While Metcalf is more physically imposing, Lockett is more versatile and simply is nearly impossible to cover one on one.
In Lockett’s last two games against Carolina, albeit they were in 2018 and 2019, he has had at least 107 yards receiving and scored twice. This current Panthers team is no better than those versions of Carolina’s team but Lockett is even better. And Lockett should be great on Sunday.
Seahawks need Poona Ford to be great in Week 14
Ford is in a contract year and will probably be re-signed by the Seahawks. Seattle seems to really like him and they should. Ford is capable of greatness. The problem this year is while he has been great at times, he has been consistently good. For instance, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Ford in the last four weeks has had the following overall grades: 74.0 (good!), 40.8 (terrible!), 59.4 (average), and 61.0 (slightly better than average).
But Ford has also set or likely will set career highs in sacks, tackles for loss, and quarterback hits in 2022. But he is also a key part of the defensive line that has struggled mightily against the run the past several weeks and if the Panthers are going to try to do anything, it is run the ball.
Carolina will start Sam Darnold at quarterback. He was solid against a good Broncos defense in Week 12 but Darnold has always struggled with being decent one week followed by many weeks of being dismal. Let’s hope he is dismal in Week 14.
But even if Darnold is bad, Carolina could still steal this game by running the ball. Seattle has allowed 155.3 rushing yards on average a game this season, 31st in the NFL. The Panthers average 4.4 yards a carry, 16th in the league. They are 17th in the league in rushing yards per game at 116.8. While those numbers might not jump out at you, Seattle has made lesser teams (like the Buccaneers) look brilliant running the ball lately. And for Seattle to stop Carolina on Sunday, Poona Ford needs to be a force.
Seahawks need Cody Barton to be tremendous
There seems to be a lot of dislike about Cody Barton and most of it is incorrect and expected. While he isn’t truly replacing Bobby Wagner this year (Jordyn Brooks is doing that more directly), he is still a new long-term starter. We already knew what Brooks would do. We also knew how great Bobby Wagner was. Barton, however, we weren’t so sure how good he would be.
To be fair, Barton has gotten better as the season has worn on. This might be because even though he’s been in the league for four years he has never come close to having the kind of responsibility or playing time that he has this season. Let me point out some good things he has done.
He has only missed one tackle all year, per Pro Football Reference. His quarterback rating against is 85.2 which isn’t too bad for a linebacker. He allows only 7.8 yards when targeted. Barton isn’t terrible, he just isn’t Bobby Wagner.
Barton has also had two interceptions combined in the last three games. And he might need to pick one off against the Panthers on Sunday, too. Carolina isn’t likely going to try to stretch the field against the likes of Tariq Woolen but eating up yards with the running of D’Onta Foreman and the short passing of Darnold would be a key to victory for them. If Barton can take away some of the intermediate passing, the Seahawks defense will probably look a lot better.