The Seattle Seahawks have another chance to clinch a playoff spot in the NFC on Sunday, but they’ll need to defeat the Panthers on the road in North Carolina.
Carolina (5-8) has struggled as of late – losing five in a row – and they are without both franchise quarterback Cam Newton, who is on the injured reserve with a foot injury, and coach Ron Rivera, who was let go two weeks ago.
That doesn’t mean it will be an easy victory for the Seahawks however. Carolina still has Christian McCaffrey to deal with in the backfield, and the team will be without two key cogs on their defense – Mychal Kendricks and Jadeveon Clowney – which could make this one a high-scoring affair.
Here are three key things for fans to watch for in Seattle’s final regular season road game of the year.
How will the Seahawks defend Christian McCaffrey?
The Seahawks have struggled this season against running backs who are good pass catchers out of the backfield, giving up nearly 100 yards to Alvin Kamara early in the year and getting torched by Devonta Freeman of the Falcons a few weeks later.
McCaffrey is a different beast entirely, and Seattle will have to take him on without Jadeveon Clowney, one of their best run-stuffers up front, and Mychal Kendricks, who is often asked to cover running backs out of the backfield in Seattle’s 4-3 defense.
That means Seattle’s backup defensive linemen and rookie linebacker Cody Barton will be asked to help stop McCaffrey, who has nearly 1,200 all-purpose yards this season. Yikes.
How Seattle game plans to stop the MVP candidate will be a huge, huge factor in who earns a win on Sunday.
Will Seattle commit to the run game without Rashaad Penny?
The Seahawks are going into Week 15 with Chris Carson as their top dog in the backfield, which isn’t unlike every other week this season.
However, their number two back is C.J. Prosise, after they lost Rashaad Penny to a torn ACL early last week.
Prosise and rookie Travis Homer may each get a little run in this game, but overall it will likely be a heavy dose of Carson against Carolina’s 29th ranked run-defense.
Seattle could opt to open up the passing game a little more in this one, as a way to give Carson more of a breather while limiting Prosise and Homer, but as long as the run game is working I suspect coach Pete Carroll and company will stay on the ground as much as possible.
Can Seattle generate an effective pass rush?
Seattle’s pass rush has been an issue all season, save for a few solid weeks in a row earlier this month.
However, the last few games have once again seen the pass rush nearly vanish, and now Seattle heads into Week 15 without Jadeveon Clowney and potentially without Ziggy Ansah as well, who is listed as questionable.
The absence of Mychal Kendricks, Seattle’s best blitzer, doesn’t help either.
Carolina is without Cam Newton (replacing him with the less mobile Kyle Allen) and while that’s a bonus for the Seahawks, they still need to find a way to generate consistent pressure if they want to pull off a victory – especially since Allen will no doubt check to McCaffrey on quick routes, which will make getting to him all the more challenging.
