Seahawks’ defense dominates and the offense  gets the job done when called upon

If defense wins the championship, it’s safe to say the worst-kept secret in the NFL is out. The Seattle Seahawks have a championship defense. Entering the Carolina Panthers game the Seahawks defense was ranked 8^th overall and 3^rd against the run.  A dominant Seahawks defense led by DeMarcus Lawrence and Julian Love stifled the Panthers’ offense, holding them to just 139 total yards.

PROMISING START

The Seahawks defense forced two back-to-back punts by the Panthers offense, and Jason Myers booted a 43-yard field goal to give Seattle a 3-0 lead on its second offensive possession. It looked like it was going to be a walk in the park when the Seahawks stopped the Panthers on fourth-and-4 at its 41-yard line. Looks were deceiving when Sam Darnold gave the ball back to the Panthers on a fumble on 3^rd and five . Four plays later, the game was tied at 3-3 after a Panthers 35-yard field goal by Ryan Fitzgerald.

The Seahawks continued with the self-inflicted on its next possession.  Ken Walker fumbled the ball and recovered it on third and seven for no gain. Darnold was stopped on fourth and one and the ball went back to the Panthers with 17 seconds left in the half.

SECOND HALF OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION

Darnold and the offense started the second half and again, like the first quarter, looked to be on their way.  Once again looks were deceiving, and history repeated itself when Darnold was responsible for another turnover. Former Seahawks Mike  Jackson intercepted  Darnold’s pass intended for Jaxson Smith-Njigba in the endzone for a touchback.

The Seahawks defense came to the rescue. On the Panthers’ next possession. DeMarcus Lawrence forced and recovered a fumble. Darnold and the offense regrouped and took a 10-3 lead on Zach Charbonnet’s two-yard TD run.

 The defense bowed its neck and caused another turnover on the Panthers’ next possession. Julian Love intercepted Young at the Carolina 41-yard line, setting up another short field for the  Seahawks offense.  Gifted another short field, the Seahawks offense wasted no time.  On the fourth play of the drive  Darnold found a wide-open AJ Barner for  17 17-yard touchdown pass to take a 17-3 lead

PANTHERS GIVE IT ONE LAST  EFFORT

Bryce Young led the Panthers on their best drive of the day when he engineered a 13-play 69-yard drive in which he finished the drive with a 10-yard touchdown run to narrow the Seahawks’ lead to 17-10. A  massive 14-play 55-yard drive that ate up 8:09 of game clock ended with a 30-yard Myers field goal and a score, 20-10 lead by the Seahawks. Back-to-back sacks by Boye Mafe and Lawrence forced Young and the Panthers offense to surrender the ball back to the Seahawks offense after an incomplete pass on fourth and 17 and the Carolina 2-yard line.

“Yeah, we felt good defensively. You know, we thought we were doing good stuff. The first half was great,” said Juian Love .” They had that one drive, but we just knew we got the ball in the second half, and to 
get our offense a shorter field, opportunities to just put the ball in the end zone, and they did that.”

With the offense having more success on the ground thanks to the legs of Zach Charbonnet, Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak rode the hot hand.  Charbonett scored his second touchdown on a one-yard run to finish the day with 110 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 18 attempts. Ken Walker finished the game with 51 yards on 15 attempts. Overall, the Seahawks rushed for 163 yards on 36 attempts.

It’s right where we want to be at this point. And, um, we gotta keep going. 
San Francisco has a good run defense, and go put a great plane together, and let’s rock and roll,” said Mike Macdonald. “ Been saying, you know, going back to last year, you feel like you have two starting running backs,

BIG TAKE

Exceptional defensive teams are used to playing tight games and making adjustments as the game unfolds. The Seahawks have had three legitimate blowout wins this year: Minnesota 26-0 , the Falcons 37-9. The rest of the lopsided victories did not start out that way. This team knows how to be patient and win down the stretch. The Seahawks have a Super Bowl-caliber defense. What is needed is a consistent offense that can play turnover-free football. The emergence of a run game will give the Seahawks offense a balanced attack and take the pressure off Darnold to win games.

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