The truth is in the play, On Sunday, the Seahawks arrived firmly in the playoff mix with a 30-27 defeat of the Carolina Panthers that was their second straight victory conjured from an apparent defeat.
“We have come a long way,” an ebullient Pete Carroll said. “We have a lot of young guys playing. We don’t feel like we have young guys playing anymore.” The victory makes the Seahawks 6-5 and catapults them over the Panthers, who are also 6-5, in the wild-card racefor now. And the Seahawks have a critical edge going into December — they play four of their final five games at home, and have two games against the punchless 49ers and one against the Cardinals. The Panthers, who have now lost three in a row, still have to face New Orleans twice in the final three weeks of the season, with the Saints unlikely to be able to rest players to stay ahead of the Los Angeles Rams for home-field advantage in the NFC.
“I take it personally,” a disgusted Cam Newton said after Sunday’s loss. “If somebody had said three weeks ago this would have happened, I would have slapped them.”
“We’re already in the playoffs as far as we’re concerned,” Carroll said.
The Seahawks’ rushing attack, which entered the game ranked first in the league, quarterback Russell Wilson enjoyed the kind of time and his receivers the sort of space that lend themselves to big plays. When Panthers cornerback Donte Jackson was injured and left the game on the first drive, Wilson went to work on the backups. The results: He was 22-of-31 for 339 passing yards and two touchdowns — and he hit two of the gutsiest throws you’ll ever see with the game on the line late in the fourth quarter.
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