SEATTLE — OK, so maybe this game wasn’t quite a perfect homage to the 2013 Super Bowl team in style.
But it certainly was in substance, as the Seahawks wore down and out-physicaled — and ultimately simply outplayed — the Carolina Panthers on Sunday at Lumen Field, taking a 37-27 win on a day the team honored the only Super Bowl winning team in its history.
After a frustrating first half in which the Seahawks had to settle for four Jason Myers field goals, the Seahawks outscored the Panthers 25-14 in the second half and put up 218 yards in the half and 425 overall.
The win improved Seattle’s record to 2-1 and was the second week in a row they scored 37 points.
But nods to the past seemed to be everywhere.
The Seahawks defense and a raucous Lumen Field crowd helped force the Panthers into eight false starts — just shy of the record of 11 by the Giants during Seattle’s first Super Bowl year of 2005 — while Jarran Reed celebrated a fourth-down sack that helped sew up the game with the swivel-hip celebration made famous in 2013 by Michael Bennett.
To top if off, Geno Smith ran around and around and around on a two-point play in the fourth quarter and lofted a pass from the right side of the field into the end zone to the left where Tyler Lockett caught it between two defenders — almost a carbon-copy of Russell Wilson’s famous two-point pass to Luke Willson in the 2015 NFC title game.
That followed a Smith TD pass to rookie Jake Bobo, who perfectly toe-tapped in the back of the end zone, a scoring drive that put Seattle up 37-20 with 4:17 left and turned the rest of the day into a celebration.
But while Smith was a solid 23-of-36 for 293 yards and a TD, with the lone mistake a second-quarter interception, what Pete Carroll may most like about this one is 146 yards on 33 carries, most coming from the young duo of Kenneth Walker III (97 on 18) and rookie Zach Charbonnet (46 on nine), the kind of running game the Seahawks also exhibited commonly in the golden days, while holding the Panthers to 44 rushing yards on 14 attempts.
The Panthers led 13-12 at the half even though the Seahawks punted just once on just six drives.
But the Seahawks couldn’t move it when it really mattered and were forced to settle for field goals on drives to the Carolina 25, 17, 15 and 19, going just 1-of-8 on third downs in the first half.
Myers made all four kicks — from 43, 35, 33 and 37 — to provide the Seahawks all of their points.
Carolina drove for a field goal on its first possession and, then after punting twice, turned in the big play of the half when Dalton connected with D.J. Chark for a 47-yard touchdown on a third-and-10 play.
Chark broke wide open when safety Quandre Diggs let him run by, apparently thinking he had help behind him.
But Julian Love was on the other side of the field and couldn’t race over to the right side in time to stop Chark.
That the play was a mishap of some sort seemed apparent in the reaction of defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt, who a TV replay showed slamming his hands in frustration on the table in the coach’s box.
Smith threw for 153 yards in the first half but completed just 11 of 23 attempts and threw his first interception of the season, which led to a Carolina field goal.
But the Seahawks forced a three-and-out to start the second half and then used an 18-yard pass from Smith to Walker — who spun to break a tackle and down the sidelines — to get into field goal range.
Myers then made his fifth field goal of the game from 39 yards out — which tied a team record — to put Seattle ahead 15-13 with 9:45 to play in the third quarter.
And the Seahawks never trailed again.
Seattle scored again the next time it had the ball with the key play a 36-yard pass from Smith to Walker, who broke wide open after being split wide left. Walker capped the drive with a one-yard run to make it 22-13.
Carolina responded with a TD drive sparked by a controversial pass interference penalty on rookie Devon Witherspoon that wiped out a third-down stop, scoring on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 22-20.
The Seahawks vehemently protested the call on Witherspoon, with Carroll throwing his gum in frustration.
That propelled the Panthers on a march down the field that included Dalton passes of 23 to Adam Thielen, 16 to Tommy Tremble and then 24 to Thielen to take it to the 1-yard line as the third quarter ended.
Sanders rumbled in for the TD on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 22-20.
But the offense came right back, with Smith hitting his first two passes of 17 to Colby Parkinson and 13 to Noah Fant, and with Zach Charbonnet running three straight times for 25 yards — the last a 10-yarder that drew a personal foul for unnecessary roughness on Deion Jones, which Carroll seemed to help sell the refs on by racing down the field in protest, with the flag coming in late.
Walker ran it in from 7 yards for a TD and a 29-20 lead with 11:40 to play.
Carolina’s next possession stalled when the Panthers drew two straight false starts to turn a third-and-4 into a third-and-14.
After a Seattle three-and-out, Carolina’s next drive was stopped when a penalty wiped out a fourth-down conversion, and then on the retry Reed sacked Dalton.
A few plays later Smith hit Bobo and Seattle had a comfortable lead, and a nice two-week bounce back after the stunning home loss to the Rams to open the season.
