Seahawks beat Panthers 30-24

CHARLOTTE — UPDATE: The Seahawks beat the Panthers 30-24 Sunday.

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In what seems to be an annual event, the Seahawks will play the Panthers Sunday in Charlotte. They have faced Carolina 10 times since 2010 -- eight regular seasons and twice in the playoffs-- and the Panthers appear on the Seahawks schedule so frequently they sometimes feel like a divisional opponent. If they beat the Panthers, the Seahawks will finish the regular season with a 7-1 record on the road, that's a franchise record.

Both the Seahawks and the Panthers are coming off ugly losses last week. The Seahawks played their worst game of the season and lost to the Rams 28-12 and failed to score an offensive touchdown while the Panthers lost to the Falcons 40-20 and dropped to 5-8 on the season.

This is a game the Seahawks are favored to win by six and a half points. And it's a game the Seahawks cannot lose if they are going to keep pace with the 49ers in the NFC West. Only three games remain. They need to win the next two and then set themselves up for what would essentially be a game for playoff seeding against the 49ers December 29 at home. But first things first, beat the Panthers this weekend.

Here are four things to watch as the Seahawks take on the Panthers Sunday:

Russell Wilson

Russell Wilson had a game to forget last week against the Rams. Wilson finished 22 of 36 for 245 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. Wilson also was a frequent visitor to the ground as he was sacked five times by a Rams defense that was relentless.

The Seahawks didn't score an offensive TD against the Rams. The last time the Seahawks offense failed to score a touchdown was week one of the 2017 season against the Green Bay Packers. After the week they had against the Rams, why not reset the offense and let the passes fly against the Panthers defense?

Russell Wilson has yet to hit Josh Gordon on anything but a slant route and Tyler Lockett hasn't been feeling 100%. This week, after a frustrating week against the Rams Wilson should let it fly and see what can happen. They need to get their pass offense back and this is as good a week as any to do it.

Wilson said this week he needs to launch the ball and not hold on to the ball as long, “I think we could get the ball out a couple seconds earlier, a second or two earlier. I think that they did a good job of rushing and they had such great pass rushers. I think just finding our plays throughout the game, where we can do that. I think sometimes, there’s always this happy medium. A lot of people want us to throw the ball deep. Then they want us to throw it short. I think at the end of the day, with that game in particular, each game has it’s own history. I think the reality of that game is we just didn’t make the plays that we wanted to. If we can do that, I think we got to give ourselves a great chance to win.”

On the Offensive

The offensive line didn't have their best night against the Rams, actually they had a really bad night against the Rams. The Rams gave the Seahawks everything they could handle and more as LA sacked Russell Wilson five times and had 11 quarterback hits on Wilson.

Duane Brown said Sunday night in LA that the offensive line absolutely needs to be better. They clearly did a lot of things wrong against the Rams, and this week against the Panthers is time to get it right. This week, though Brian Schottenheimer pointed out that while Wilson may have been sacked five times, it's not only the fault of the offensive line, "everybody is involved, whether it’s the quarterback with his drop." He continued, "There are certainly times that Russ could’ve gotten the ball out of his hands. Receivers not being open sometimes, that affects sacks sometimes. It’s hard to put, okay, you’ve been sacked ‘X’ amount of times last game. You don’t want to play the Rams the way we had to play them. They were really good up front. They were able to T-off on us. We use all those things. We chip people. We use cadence variations. Use different formations and stuff. When you get in certain games against teams like the Rams where they’re getting after you, it can be difficult. Again, we’re always at our best when we’re able to play that balanced football and your sitting right there, and we can use our runs and our play passes. When the score gets the way it does against the Rams, it’s hard.”

The Rookie

Mychal Kendricks will miss this week's game against the Rams due to a hamstring injury that isn't getting any better. Rookie Cody Barton started last week and will get his second career start Sunday in Carolina.

Barton is learning from two of the best in KJ Wright and Bobby Wagner, but they can only teach him so much during games. Barton had several ah-ha moments last week against the Rams. "He played really hard," Pete Carroll said this week when asked about Barton's game against the Rams. "He had some kind of classic first-time shots where he misjudged a couple blocks being on the edge and a couple routes on the flat that he could’ve jumped a little bit better. It’s just getting to the game speed thing. He’ll be better this week. He’s going to pick up on every little tip that he can get to improve and help us out. I’m anxious to see him play again.”

Carroll will get his chance to see Barton plenty against the Panthers and likely more. Mychal Kendricks is clearly not healing as fast as the Seahawks would like, so Barton will have to keep learning and getting better week after week. The Seahawks are going to need him.

Prosise and Homer

Rashaad Penny's season is over. Just when the two headed runningback monster of Chris Carson and Penny got rolling, Penny is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in the Rams game. The Seahawks will now look to rookie Travis Homer and fourth year pro CJ Prosise to fill the role of Penny and help out Chris Carson in the running game.

Prosise had a solid preseason, made the team but has only been active for seven games this season. Prosise had a huge game against the Patriots as a rookie in 2016. That's the CJ Prosise the Seahawks would like to see contributing to the Seahawks offense. Prosise had 153 yards from scrimmage in that game, numbers that the Seahawks offense would welcome over these next three weeks and hopefully into the postseason.

Pete Carroll indicated that for Prosise to become a big part of the Seahawks offense they may end up throwing to him often: "Well, if you go back to C.J.’s background, he was a receiver in college. He’s a DB first, then he was a receiver. I think he caught 50 passes or something, or whatever it was, his sophomore year back there before he became the running back. Maybe it was his junior year before his last year. He was a regular and he caught the ball down the field, running all the routes and the whole stems and route trees and all that stuff. Did fine at it. That has always been just a factor for us that we look to him to add that to the offense. He’s got some stuff that’s a little unique in that regard.”

The other component of the Seahawks running game is rookie Travis Homer. Homer can take it at the tackles and dish out some punishment if called upon. Homer may not see as much action as Prosise but he is in the mix and ready to contribute in an area other than special teams. “We’re ready to go, really. He has been a fantastic contributor in special teams. He’s worked throughout the year with us. We don’t have any hesitation. He will have a chance to get the ball this weekend. C.J. is going to step right into the two role and work with and alternate with Chris. Homer is alive and ready to go, too."

The depth the Seahawks built through the draft is being called on this week and will likely be counted on even more as this season goes on.