710 ESPN Seattle’s instant reaction to Seahawks’ win over Panthers

As we do after every Seahawks game, we’ve polled the voices of 710 ESPN Seattle for their instant reactions to Seattle’s 40-7 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday night. Here’s what they have to say:

Dave “The Groz” Grosby of “Bob, Groz and Tom”

A good win and all for the Seahawks, but the specter of Earl Thomas’s season – and perhaps career – being ended by inadvertent hit by Kam Chancellor puts a pall on everything. Earl is an emotional guy and you hope his hint at retirement is simply an emotional reaction.

Bob Stelton of “Bob, Groz and Tom”

That was about as complete of an effort as you could possibly ask for from the Seahawks. They dominated every aspect of the game – offense, defense and special teams. The Hawks actually had a very effective running game against the league’s second-best run defense. Huge nights for Tyler Lockett and Thomas Rawls, and I thought K.J. Wright had another spectacular game. The one negative is obviously the injury to Earl Thomas. He has a broken bone in his leg and tweeted that thoughts of retirement are running through his head. Hopefully that was just emotion talking.

Mike Salk of “Brock and Salk”

Dominant win in every way. Play like that (and especially run like that), and the Seahawks are as good as anyone. I think we can safely say that last week’s loss to Tampa Bay was a blip or an aberration. With a healthy Russell Wilson, Thomas Rawls and Justin Britt, the Seahawks are just a different team. I thought this was their best game plan, their best commitment to the running game, and the best they have blocked. This is the team I expect to see and the reason I couldn’t flip out last week. It was a stinker, but this should pretty much alleviate the concerns that what we saw in Tampa was indicative of the 2016 Seahawks.

Brady Henderson, Editor in Chief of 710Sports.com

This was some bounce-back performance by the Seahawks’ offense after the egg it laid last week in Tampa Bay. It’s hard to say anything definitive about the state of Seattle’s offense given how up and down it’s been this season, but this blowout win over Carolina should lend some credence to the belief that what happened against the Buccaneers was a one-week misstep as opposed to a sign that Seattle hadn’t really turned the corner on that side of the ball like it appeared. The Seahawks produced 534 yards of offense, their most in two seasons. The running game that has been absent for large stretches of the season produced a whopping 240 yards against a good run defense. Seattle’s pass protection was by no means perfect – has it ever been? – but allowing “only” three sacks after six last week is a step in the right direction.

Jim Moore of “Danny, Dave and Moore”

Impressive return to form for Seahawks, but hard to say if they’re all the way back or whether it had something to do with the sorry state of the Panthers. Either way, nice to see the running game in high gear with Thomas Rawls looking like he did last year, churning through would-be tacklers. Maybe he was inspired by a surprise sideline visit from Marshawn Lynch. Surprised to not see much of a consistent pass rush given the disheveled condition of the Panthers’ offensive line, yet it amounts to a quibble when you allow only seven points all night long. Dallas might not be catchable for the No. 1 playoff seed, but the Seahawks should be able to hang on to the No. 2 spot and get a valuable first-round bye. The closest pursuers, Detroit and Atlanta, don’t look as strong as the Seahawks, who should be favored in all four of their remaining games, including this Sunday at Green Bay.

Tom Wassell of “Bob, Groz and Tom”

The Seahawks had a dominant effort in every phase of the game over Carolina. Cam Newton has checked out of 2016, and Seattle took advantage. A lot of things went right, but the biggest thing was Thomas Rawls establishing himself as a lead back once again. If the running game can even come close to what we saw last night, Seattle should be in good shape going forward. The loss of Earl Thomas could end up being something we look back upon as the undoing of the Seahawks’ season, but there’s no point in declaring that the case right now. Onward.