Keith Allison-Flickr
Welcome to the Divisional Round folks!
“What a wild weekend of playoffs games” is what someone would normally say about wildcard weekend. I mean, I will give props to the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cincinnati Bengals as well as the Seattle Seahawks vs. Minnesota Vikings games but that was only for the last 10 minutes of each game. I was pretty board with the other 2 games considering they were over before the fourth quarter began. With that said lets look ahead to one of the upcoming games in the Divisional Round. We’ll take a look at the Carolina Panthers who will invite the “lucky ducks” I mean the Seattle Seahawks into Bank of America Stadium next week.
Will Ted Ginn play?
Ted Ginn was inactive week 17 due to a knee issue that had him miss multiple practices prior to the game. The real questions are, was it because of the knee or was it because of the drops? Are the Panthers finally fed up with Ted, the high risk, high reward Ohio State product? Ted has 10 drops on the season and has been targeted at least 90 times. Some of those drops were easy homeruns. He has the speed and yet he just can’t seem to coral a simple over the shoulder basket TD. “Oh no coach, it’s to round for me!” is more than likely his mentality. Yet Cam Newton is still faithful to his deep threat, or is he now? Now that his chemistry with Devin Funchess has stepped up will “Mr. Dropsies” be benched for the rookie? Relax folks, I am simply throwing scenarios out there. The Panthers will still use their deep threat but there may be more packages that may be all about the Funchess.
What of the Panthers’ secondary now with Peanut out for the season?
According to rotoworld.com’s Jonathon Jones on twitter:
“Tillman missed four games with a partially torn ACL before returning to start in Weeks 15-17. Along with Bene Benwikere, the Panthers have now lost two of their top three corners in the past four weeks. Going on 35, this could be the end for Tillman, who missed 22 combined games between 2013-14 with triceps issues. The Panthers need Robert McClain to step up alongside Josh Norman and Cortland Finnegan. It’s a major concern for the postseason.”
Sound the alarms! Hit the panic button! Charles “Peanut” Tillman is out for the season with a torn ACL. He brought a lot of “punch” to this stout Panthers’ D. And we have seen how QB’s tend to pick on backup CBs. You have to wonder will it be McClain or Courtland Finnegan who step up to the occasion in this Divisional Round battle? Josh Norman may have one side of the field on lock but if he is Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett may be in for a career day.
Will there be a “Beast Mode” sighting
With Marshawn Lynch still recovering from abdominal surgery, Christine Michael had to shoulder the load for the Seattle Seahawks this past Sunday. They will need as many healthy backs as they can get against Carolina if they plan to walk into the NFC Championship.
How will the Refs deal with such a physical matchup?
We saw this past weekend the refs blew some calls on catches and let coaches walk onto the field to provoke other players which made a difference in the final result of one particular game. On top of just bad judgment calls that teams have to deal with from the officials will there be additional laundry being handed out to police these two cocky swagtastic teams, or will they let these boys play ball?
There are other deciding factor to this game such as Jonathan Stewart’s health and most importantly the weather. Weather.com is predicting a 24% chance of rain in the Charlotte area. We saw how well Seattle performed in freezing rain Sunday. No team has the advantage and will look to the ground should their be any drizzle. With that said, look for this NFC Divisional Round matchup to be a low scoring defensive slobber knocker just like the Vikings’ game.
Jermaine Lockett is a Writer and CEO for Couch Rider Report. Follow us on Facebook or twitter.
