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The Big Plays: Seahawks pull away late to beat Panthers 37-27

Sep 24, 2023, 4:41 PM | Updated: 6:37 pm

Seattle Seahawks Jarran Reed...

Jarran Reed of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates a sack on fourth down in the fourth quarter. (Christopher Mast/Getty Images)

(Christopher Mast/Getty Images)

BY BRENT STECKER


Editor of SeattleSports.com

The Seattle Seahawks are riding high, as they picked up their second straight win, a 37-20 victory Sunday over the Carolina Panthers.

Feels a lot better around here than after their disappointing season opener, doesn’t it?

Seattle Seahawks 37, Carolina Panthers 27: Instant Reaction | Recap | Stats

That’s not to say this win was easy for the Seahawks, though.

Carolina led at halftime, and it wasn’t until late in the third quarter when Seattle scored its first touchdown of the day.

Let’s take a look at the big plays from the Seahawks’ Week 3 win, which pushes them to 2-1 on the young season.

Seahawks beat Panthers: Carroll on what’s good, still needs work

Big Plays: Seahawks vs. Panthers

FIRST QUARTER

• The Seahawks picked up two big sacks of Carolina quarterback Andy Dalton as the two teams played to a 3-3 tie in the opening frame.

SECOND QUARTER

• The Seahawks opened the quarter with a big 34-yard pass from Geno Smith to DK Metcalf to get into the red zone.

• Seattle had to settle for a field goal on that drive, however, after Brian Burns sent them back 11 yards with a sack on second-and-11 at the 16.

• The Seahawks tacked on another three points on a Jason Myers field goal after this 36-yard run by Kenneth Walker III took them into Carolina territory.

• Carolina had an answer, taking advantage of a coverage breakdown for a 47-yard TD pass from Dalton to DJ Chark Jr. to take a 10-9 lead just inside the final five minutes of the first half.

• Momentum stayed on the Panthers’ side, with Deion Jones picking off Smith’s target of Jaxon Smith-Njigba on third-and-16 from Seattle’s own 19. Carolina turned that takeaway into three points, pushing its lead to 13-9.

• Metcalf and Smith connected again, this time on a 22-yarder, to set up yet another field goal. That made it a 13-12 game in the Panthers’ advantage, where it stuck into halftime.

HALFTIME

• The Seahawks honored their Super Bowl XLVIII-winning 2013 team at Lumen Field during the break. Watch some of K.J. Wright’s speech below. We’ll hear his thoughts on this moment on this week’s K.J. Wright Show, which airs from 8-9 a.m. each Wednesday during Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports.

THIRD QUARTER

• After Seattle’s defense opened the second half with its second three-and-out of the day, Smith got the offense going by rolling out and finding Metcalf for a first down just inside Carolina territory.

• The very next play on that same drive saw Walker take a short pass from Smith, then spin his way out of trouble for an 18-yard gain.

• How about a little trickeration? The Seahawks then busted out the wildcat, with Deejay Dallas gaining 8 yards on a direct snap to help set up yet another field goal. If you’re keeping count, this would be No. 5 on the day for Myers, making it a 15-13 Hawks lead.

• Finally, a Seahawks touchdown. Walker finished off an eight-play, 55-yard drive (which included his own 36-yard reception) with a 1-run plunge into the end zone, pushing Seattle’s lead to 22-13.

• The Panthers weren’t ready to go away. Adam Thielen caught passes of 23 and 25 yards, setting up a 1-yard TD run by Miles Sanders to cut the Seattle lead to 22-20.

FOURTH QUARTER

• Two touchdowns? The Seahawks got greedy, with Walker finishing off yet another strong drive with a 7-yard score to push their advantage to 29-20.

• How about some shine for the 12s? The Lumen Field crowd came up big as the Panthers committed eight – count ’em, eight – false starts on the day. While the highlight below is from the third quarter, we’re putting it here because Carolina false started on two plays in a row on third down, then again another play later on fourth down to take itself out of field goal territory. Instead, the Panthers had to turn to Bothell’s own Johnny Hekker to punt away on fourth-and-19 from their own 46 with 8 minutes to go.

• The Hawks offense went three-and-out after the Hekker punt, but the Panthers’ offense did that one better – OK, worse – with a turnover on downs. Credit belongs to the Seahawks’ D, though, especially Jarran Reed, who got to Dalton for a sack on fourth down for a huge stop.

• Starting to feel like it’s time for the Seahawks to put this one away, right? Yeah, they’re about to. But first, rookie running back Zach Charbonnet put some stank on it with this nasty run that he ended just before the end zone by viciously throwing a Carolina defender off of him.

• Another rookie took care of this one, with undrafted standout Jake Bobo showing the fancy footwork as he caught a 5-yard TD pass from Smith.

• Oh, did you think we were done? Not until we mention Tyler Lockett tacking on a 2-point conversion on another pass from Smith, who ran all over to field… and then all over it again to keep the play alive before chucking it in Lockett’s general direction, who made his customary ridiculous catch. This made it 37-20, turning what had mostly been a close game into a lopsided score (though Carolina did score again in garbage time on a 15-yard pass from Dalton to Thielen, making it a 37-27 final).

More on the Seattle Seahawks

• A weak spot last year, Seahawks’ run D much improved so far
• Pete Carroll reflects on Seahawks’ ‘marvelous’ Super Bowl 48 team
• Salk: 4 ways Wagner’s Seahawks return is an unmitigated success
• Bump’s Breakdown: How Fant and Lockett came up big
• Huard: ‘So curious’ to see where Seattle Seahawks play Jamal Adams

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The Big Plays: Seahawks pull away late to beat Panthers 37-27