SEATTLE — As Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor sprinted down the left sideline for a 90-yard touchdown that capped an avalanche of Seattle fourth-quarter points, defensive end Michael Bennett noticed something about the quarterback who had just thrown the interception.
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, Bennett said, looked “like a child that lost his puppy.”
Or as cornerback Richard Sherman put it, Chancellor “damages people’s souls.”
This is what the Seahawks do to teams; it’s why they’re one home victory away from a return trip to the Super Bowl, why they again look like the best team in the NFL.
Saturday night’s 31-17 victory over Carolina might not have been Seattle’s most impressive or complete performance of the season, but it was another example of what they do best. The Seahawks don’t just outplay opponents in the fourth quarter, they suffocate them. Over and over during their now seven-game winning streak, the Seahawks find themselves in close games at halftime, and over and over again, they bury the opposition in the second half. If they can’t out-execute an opponent for four quarters — and they usually can — then the Seahawks can definitely outlast them, as was evident in the 17 fourth-quarter points that turned a four-point game into a blowout.
“We just keep grinding,” Sherman said. “We keep fighting. We don’t look at the clock. … If we went 10 quarters, we probably wouldn’t notice until our legs went out.”
Usually Seattle’s formula calls for a bludgeoning running game that complements its historically great defense, but on this night, with Carolina committing numbers to stopping the run, the Seahawks had just 100 rushing yards, including 59 from Marshawn Lynch. But these Seahawks, who look as Super Bowl ready as last year’s team ever did, are versatile as well as dominant.
The Panthers want to pack eight and nine defenders in the box to stop the run? That’s fine with Russell Wilson, who turned in one of the best performances of his career, completing 15 of 22 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 149.2. Even more impressive, Wilson was 8-for-8 for 199 yards on third down, connecting all on three touchdowns on plays of third-and-seven or longer. His unheralded receivers were just as good, with Jermaine Kearse leading the way with three catches for 129 yards, including a 68-yard score.
“Our pedestrian wide receivers, no-name, nobody wants to give them credit, they played fantastic today,” Sherman said.
Seattle’s defense, as dominant as it has been, actually had a few moments of looking mortal, most notably on Carolina’s 14-play, 79-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter. But the Seahawks also forced three turnovers, two of them resulting in touchdowns. Just as importantly, they punished the Panthers for four quarters, delivering thumping blow after thumping blow, with Chancellor even stopping Carolina’s 5-foot-9, 245-pound bowling ball Mike Tolbert dead in his tracks.
Performances like this are why the Seahawks won the NFC West and earned the No. 1 seed, why they are the first team since the 2003-2004 New England Patriots to win a playoff game the year after winning the Super Bowl. And it’s why there’s a very good chance they’ll be back.
Once again, the Seahawks were in a tight game through three quarters, and once again they were dominant in the fourth.
“I think it’s in our DNA, in how we’re made,” linebacker K.J. Wright said. “We preach finishing, every play. … We just finish. We’re good at it.
“We’re rolling, we’re hot right now, we’ve got guys healthy. It’s going to be hard to beat us here.”
The Seahawks are still two victories away from their ultimate goal, but thanks to another dominant finish, they look like a team poised to repeat.
“It’s just the way it has always been,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said of his team’s ability to finish strong. “It’s been that way for a lot of years. It’s not unusual or uncommon for us. We figure out the plan, do the things that we’re doing in the first half to get the information, and then respond with that information, and we usually do better. Our guys know that. They know that the second half is something that we can really count on to make something happen on both sides of the ball. It’s really, really fun to finish well.”
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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