Glamour becomes glummer
KIRKLAND, Wash. _ Oh, what a battle this could have been.
In one corner, a returning Super Bowl team with one of the best defenses in the NFL. In the other, a popular NFC favorite with a powerful offense and a quick first step.
It was supposed to be the kind of heavyweight matchup that begs for a few Don King hyperboles.
Well, now it’s here, and there’s not enough electricity to hold up King’s hair.
When the Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers square off Sunday at Qwest Field, the stakes won’t be nearly what they could have been.
Seattle (3-3) is suffering through a three-game losing streak and finds itself in need of a win to keep pace in the NFC West race. Carolina (1-5) is sinking like a stone in the NFC South.
High expectations have been replaced by a lot of long faces in both locker rooms.
“It’s rough,” said Seahawks defensive tackle Rashad Moore. “Everybody has their down points, and we’re in one right now. Hopefully we can dig ourselves out of it. I can’t speak for Carolina, but I’m pretty sure they feel the same way.
Nobody likes to lose.”
The Seahawks’ problems center around their can’t-miss offense. After piling up 1,668 yards and committing three turnovers through the first three games of this season, Seattle has put up totals of 785 yards and six turnovers in the past two games. Since halftime of the Oct. 10 game against to St. Louis, Seattle’s offense has gone into a serious funk.
The same fans who were talking Super Bowl 17 days ago are wondering what it will take for the Seahawks to get a single win.
“We kind of look at (the Seahawks) like a wounded bear right now,” said Carolina linebacker Mark Fields, the Washington State University product. “And wounded bears are going to fight.”
The Panthers are another in a long line of NFC champions to fall off in recent years. Not since the 2000 St. Louis Rams has an NFC Super Bowl representative gone on to make the postseason the following year. It has been seven years, since Mike Holmgren’s 1997 Green Bay Packers, that a Super Bowl team from the NFC has followed up with a division title.
The main reason for Carolina’s decline has been injuries, as Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, wide receiver Steve Smith and running back Stephen Davis have been among those lost. Even Davis’s backup, DeShaun Foster, got knocked out for the season.
“But we don’t use that as an excuse for us,” Fields said. “We know we’ve got some of our playmakers down, and anytime that happens it’s going to affect your ball club. That’s just common sense.”
Carolina’s woes aren’t just about injuries. The Panthers have struggled to find the right combination at offensive line, the new starting cornerbacks have struggled, and quarterback Jake Delhomme has yet to find his rhythm.
That leaves Carolina, once considered a 10-to-1 pick to win the Super Bowl, as a 70-to-1 long shot.
“I still feel like we can win,” said Panthers coach John Fox, whose team has lost four in a row. “We’ve been in every game we’ve played so far.
“We’ve had our moments. We just need to keep getting better.”
The Seahawks, however, hold one distinct advantage over Carolina. Seattle is still in the thick of the race for a division title.