The Seahawks recalled their \u201cLegion of Boom\u201d days Sunday, setting themselves up for a first-round playoff bye if they beat the 49ers in the season finale.<\/p>\n
Allowing just 2.7 yards per play in the 27-10 win over the Panthers, the Seahawks did a fair imitation of their famed defense that led a pair of Super Bowl runs.<\/p>\n
No one outshone the Seahawks (13-3) in an NFL week that also saw the Browns keep the Ravens\u2019 playoff bid alive, the Raiders take a big step toward the top slot in the next draft and the Jaguars overcome Philip Rivers.<\/p>\n
The Seahawks gave up just 40 yards passing and 139 yards overall to overwhelm a Panthers team whose upset four weeks ago of the heavily favored Rams \u2013 one of the few clubs that can solve the Seahawks\u2019 defense \u2013 looms bigger now.<\/p>\n
So dominant was Seattle\u2019s D, the Panthers (8-8) kneeled out their final three snaps rather than take more punishment.<\/p>\n
Mike Macdonald had never been a head coach before he took over the Seahawks at age 36 after coordinating Ravens defenses that finished eighth and first in fewest points allowed.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now 23-10 (.696) on the job.<\/p>\n
Macdonald said his defenses strive to create the illusion of complexity, boosting his defenders ability to anticipate where the ball is going and deliver hard hits.<\/p>\n
The experience can be overwhelming for a QB who\u2019s low on NFL experience.<\/p>\n
Sunday, Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, 24, and teammates often looked uncertain.<\/p>\n
Led by end DeMarcus Lawrence, safety Julian Love and tackle Leonard Williams, the Seahawks had a tackle for loss by five different players and numerous other key stops. None of Young\u2019s 14 completions went for more than 8 yards.<\/p>\n
Beware the Ravens<\/p>\n
The Ravens will go to the playoffs if they beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh this Sunday.<\/p>\n
Expect the Ravens to make that happen, earning the AFC\u2019s fourth seed.<\/p>\n
Though it\u2019s not clear that quarterback Lamar Jackson will return from his back injury to start the AFC North decider, his stand-in, sixth-year player Tyler Huntley, knows the offense well and offers an adequate pass-run dimension.<\/p>\n
The Ravens have won both of Huntley\u2019s starts this year \u2013 a 30-16 decision over the Bears in October and a 41-24 rout of the Packers on Saturday night in Green Bay.<\/p>\n
If the Steelers had beaten the Browns, who won 13-6, they could\u2019ve used the season\u2019s final week to rest several veterans and welcome back No. 1 receiver DK Metcalf for the first-round playoff game.<\/p>\n
Instead, against a good Browns D, they sorely missed Metcalf, who was suspended for the season\u2019s final two games due to an altercation with a fan in the previous game.<\/p>\n
Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers had almost no success throwing the ball downfield near the sidelines. Rodgers\u2019 three incompletions in the final series to Metcalf\u2019s replacement, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, sealed the defeat.<\/p>\n
The Browns have won their past four home games against the Steelers.<\/p>\n
Not there yet<\/p>\n
The Raiders (2-14) tend to goof up most activities that have anything to do with acquiring a franchise quarterback.<\/p>\n
Sunday may prove an exception.<\/p>\n
After shutting down two banged-up stars this week and also a safety who\u2019d started every game, they lost 34-10 to the Giants (3-13) in a contest between two teams riding nine-game losing streaks.<\/p>\n
For now, the Raiders hold the top draft pick.<\/p>\n
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza isn\u2019t one of the great QB prospects of recent years. But Mendoza, who led Indiana to a 13-0 season and the top seed in the college football national playoffs, is a better candidate to become a good NFL starter than many other young QBs the Raiders have acquired in the past few decades.<\/p>\n
The Raiders aren\u2019t there yet.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs will come to Las Vegas in the season final. K.C. is down to its third QB and has shut down several good players.<\/p>\n
Sweet and bitter<\/p>\n
In his third NFL start since returning to the league earlier this month, Rivers seemed to enjoy himself Sunday, despite a few rough moments and a 24-17 loss to the Jaguars that dropped the Colts to 0-3 since Rivers, 44, rejoined them after not playing in the NFL for almost five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d do it all again,\u201d Rivers said.<\/p>\n
Rivers\u2019 football-chess skills paid off in all three games. He matched wits well with Macdonald\u2019s defense, likely sparing Colts rookie QB Riley Leonard a perilous outing.<\/p>\n
But the contrast Sunday with Jags QB Trevor Lawrence in arm strength, power and sprint speed was stark.<\/p>\n
Lawrence, 26, stretched the Colts\u2019 D with his fastballs.<\/p>\n
At 6-foot-51\/2 and listed at 220 pounds, Lawrence rushed for two TDs.<\/p>\n
Lawrence\u2019s career-best total of nine rushing TDs in 16 games this season is three times Rivers\u2019 career total of three rushing TDs in 247 career games.<\/p>\n
All but clinching the win, Lawrence powered a fourth-and-1 sneak off left tackle for 3 yards. Rivers went five-plus consecutive NFL seasons without attempting a sneak, in large part because head coaches Norv Turner and Mike McCoy were against it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seahawks recalled their \u201cLegion of Boom\u201d days Sunday, setting themselves up for a first-round playoff bye if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,752,74,76,75,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-112002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}