Beating Seattle makes it sweeter, but Panthers still have work to do

The Carolina Panthers are in the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the 2005 season, and that in itself is sweet.

But to get there by beating Seattle?

“A little sweeter,” defensive tackle Kawann Short said. “Those guys had our number. We knew we were the better team, we just had to come out and play better.”

That was the sentiment throughout the locker room all week. The Panthers had no doubt they were better than the two-time defending NFC champion Seahawks.

They proved it with a 31-24 victory Sunday in the divisional round of the playoffs in what would have been convincing fashion had the home team not, for the fourth time this season, let a big lead slip away.

Sure it was nice to beat the Colts in overtime, to withstand a Packers’ comeback and survive against Odell Beckham Jr. and the Giants. But this was win-or-go-home, and the Seahawks were on the other side.

This is the team the Panthers have been built to defeat. General manager Dave Gettleman told me two years ago at the Senior Bowl that he wanted to build his team to beat the best team they’d play.

That was two weeks before Seattle won its first Super Bowl. Then the Seahawks went to a second one the following year after beating the Panthers 31-17 in this same divisional round.

Since Gettleman took over, he drafted two defensive tackles to clog up the middle, stop the run and rush the passer. Those defensive tackles – Short and Star Lotulelei – were part of a defense that held the Seahawks to 78 rushing yards, including only 20 from Marshawn Lynch.

Gettleman then drafted a big receiver in Kelvin Benjamin, who tore his ACL in August, to go up against long, athletic cornerbacks such as Richard Sherman.

And in this past draft, the Panthers drafted linebacker Shaq Thompson in the first round despite many (myself included) believing he was a second-round talent.

But the Panthers needed an athletic linebacker who could play in their base defense, stop the run, pressure the quarterback and cover a tight end or receiver.

With those pieces now inserted, Carolina is 2-0 against Seattle after going 0-4 in close games the previous three seasons.

And then there are the pieces that were already there, such as Olsen and Cam Newton. Their second-quarter touchdown pass was as pretty as it gets. Newton threw the 19-yard touchdown to Olsen, who didn’t sell the pass to the defender until the last moment.

It wasn’t unlike the game-winning touchdown pass in Week 6 in Seattle, except, you know, this time Seattle actually covered Olsen.

“They’re a good team. They’re not winning by accident,” tight end Greg Olsen said. “They have a lot of good players, good system. For us, we’ve said all along, the path to being relevant here is to knock off some of these teams that have haunted us and kind of ruled the NFC for a while. This was a good start.”

The Panthers don’t have the crown yet, of course, and uneasy lies the head that wears it.

The Arizona Cardinals come to town next week boasting three very good receivers, a quarterback who had an MVP-caliber season and a defense that blitzes relentlessly.

Getting to this point is nice for the Panthers. Doing so by beating the Seahawks makes it even nicer.

There’s still work to do.

“It feels good. It really does. I’m not going to lie about that. It’s awesome,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. “It’s everything you strive for, you work for. It’s part of our vision. We haven’t accomplished what we want yet but we played some very good football teams along the way – Seattle being one of them.

“In all honesty, they have been the watermark here in the NFC, and we have an opportunity that we want.”

This story was originally published January 17, 2016 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Beating Seattle makes it sweeter, but Panthers still have work to do."