Carolina Panthers vs. Seattle Seahawks: NFC Divisional Re-Watch
By Reece Helms
3rd quarter:
The first half was all about the Carolina Panthers.
But that changed in the third quarter as Seattle took back control of the NFC Divisional playoff game.
Carolina won the time of possession battle 18:44 to 11:16 in the first half but Seattle did a much better job of possessing the football in the second half.
On their first drive, they marched right down the field to make it 31-7, finally getting on the scoreboard:
The drive only lasted four plays due to great field position set up by a 50-yard kickoff return from Tyler Lockett.
Carolina was stopped for the first time on their next possession after Newton was sacked on a 3rd-and-5.
While the momentum was in Seattle’s favor, the Panthers caught a huge break when Wilson badly overthrew Doug Baldwin for what would’ve been an easy touchdown:
It ended up not being a huge deal because the Seahawks eventually went on to score a TD on the drive.
Carolina went seven plays before having to punt on their next possession. And when Seattle got the ball back, the Panthers defense stopped them on third down after an incomplete pass to Baldwin.
But Pete Carroll made a bold move, faking the punt on 4th-and-2:
The fake punt conversion ended up not killing the Panthers, as three plays later Josh Norman came up with a huge sack to kill the drive. Norman’s sack made it a long 3rd-and-24 for Seattle:
A play later, the Seahawks punted the ball back to the Panthers and that would take them to the final 15 minutes of action with the score 31-14 in favor of Carolina.
Next: 4th Quarter Finish