Pete Carroll was named the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks on January 11, 2010.
A year to the day later, Ron Rivera took the same position with the Carolina Panthers.
Little did they know, playing almost 2,800 miles away from each other, that they’d establish a quasi-rivalry, despite playing each other only once a season – and sometimes not even that.
The Panthers and Seahawks have a surprisingly storied history for two teams that play in different divisions on opposite sides of the country; ask different Panthers players about the rivalry and they’ll tell you specific memories from the Ron Rivera/Cam Newton vs. Pete Carroll/Russell Wilson Era – most want to talk about the 2015 playoff win in Charlotte that saw Newton pulling down a ’12’ flag from the stands and few bring up the 31-17 drubbing the Panthers took in Seattle the season prior that ended with a streaking Kam Chancellor hurtling 90 yards for a pick-six to salt away the game.
Nobody brings up the last matchup – the Sunday Night Football game where Cam Newton was benched for a ‘dress code violation’ and Derek Anderson threw an interception that bounced off of Mike Tolbert’s hands and directly into the hands of Seahawks linebacker on the first offensive snap of the game; that led to a field goal and a Seahawks lead they would never relinquish.
Rivera relishes the opportunity to play against a team like the Seahawks, he thinks of games against top opponent as measuring sticks for how well his team is playing – while he enjoys it, there’s a word he won’t use.
“I wouldn’t call it fun,” Rivera said, drawing a laugh from the media. “When you play teams like that, you really do see what it takes – I thought in the 2015 season, they were the measuring stick because they were the defending NFC champions and I told our guys that to be the champs, you’ve got to beat the champs and that was the thing that happened for us. They were our nemesis and a group that really gave us a hard time – you always want to do that.”
“There is a certain challenge to it I really enjoy. Coach Carroll has been a staple on the west coast and has had a lot of success – and the challenge is competing against his football team. You want to be successful against teams that pose those types of challenges.”
This week’s game will present just as big of a challenge for the Panthers as the Seahawks will travel to Bank of America Stadium with the #1 rushing game in tow – offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer uses a three-headed monster of Chris Carson, Mike Davis and first-round pick Rashaad Penny to average 154.3 yards on the ground per game – that’s a full 16 yards more then the Los Angeles Rams, the team with the second-highest average.
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For two teams that are battling for a playoff spot and are one game apart in the standings, the game takes on even more significance – and the Panthers like their chances.
“We’ve definitely got our hands full, but at the same time, I like my group,” said cornerback Captain Munnerlyn. “I like our guys in the locker room – we haven’t been playing well the last couple of weeks, but we know what time it is – it’s crunch time for us. It’s almost going to be like a playoff atmosphere in here; it’s definitely going to be like a playoff game, so we’ve got to come out ready to roll.”
“It’s been a rivalry since I’ve been in the NFL. They always said they had the best defense – I think it was 2013 when they finished ahead of us, we were #2, they were #1. Those guys, they won a Super Bowl, they’ve been in the NFC conversation each and every year since I’ve been in the NFL. We know those guys very well, they know us very well.”
The respect goes both ways.
“It seems familiar, that’s for sure,” says Seattle Head Coach Pete Carroll. “A lot of [the] same faces, two on defense in particular.”
The two in particular that Carroll brings up are likely Luke Kuechly – who has averaged 10 tackles per game against Seattle and returned an interception for a score in the win over the Seahawks in the 2015 playoff game – and Thomas Davis, who’s averaged eight. It’s the continuity of not only players and coaches, but a culture of excellence that makes these two teams among the best in the NFC – since 2011, they’re two of the top three rushing yardage leaders in the league. They have a combined record of 147-95-2 and have represented the NFC in the Super Bowl for three of those seven seasons.
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If they both make the playoffs, they’ll be two of only five teams in the league that have made the playoffs in five of the past six seasons; both know that a win on Sunday will go a long way towards achieving that goal, with Carroll calling this game a “championship matchup” and Rivera saying that this week was the most important game of the season – of course, he followed that up by saying that as soon as they were done with Seattle, they’d be on to their next opponent – and that would become the most important game of the season.
“It’s almost like a playoff like atmosphere or approach to this game – obviously, they’re trying to chase us down in the wild card and we’re trying to stay ahead,” said defensive end Wes Horton.
“It’s going to be a huge game for us.”
